Flash and Spider-Man - Book 2 of the Spiderverse
by What If Universe
Summary: Peter Parker lost his parents and goes to live with his uncle, after a visit to Oscorp changed his life and Peter looses his uncle, he is sent to live with his aunt in Central City where he meets Ronnie Raymond and they become friends and Peter decides to use his powers to protect Central City as Spider-Man. But years later, a particle accelerator explodes and everything changed.
1. Start at the beginning

**_In the way of age, Peter's around his 20's and the costume is based off of the TASM2 suit for now._**

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To understand how this story started, let's start at the beginning one last time. You know the story of Peter Parker, Spider-Man. The kid who was bitten by a radioactive spider and lost his parents at a young age and went to live with his uncle in New York. But when his uncle was shot, he went to live with his aunt May in Central City and made friends with Ronnie Raymond and Cisco Ramon. Over the years, Peter has been using his powers to keep people safe. After all, with great power, comes great responsibility. But one day, his responsibility got a whole lot weirder.

-

2014

Peter is doing his normal patrol around the neighborhood while on his lunch break from his day job, Mercury labs, when he hears a report coming in.

_"Backup requested for the northwest Central City bank. Robbery in progress." _The radio tells him and Peter makes his way towards the crime. "I have a feeling I know who's behind this one." Peter states to himself, this being the second robbery of the week he wouldn't be able to stop. The Mardon brothers.

Peter comes swinging in fast enough to see a car driving off. "Ugh, not this time!" Peter states as he starts swinging after the car. The car starts going faster as the web head approaches so it must be theirs. Peter swings ahead of the car and tries stopping it when the brothers start shooting at him so he leaps to avoid them only to be run over by their car. "Looks like he's finally another stepped on bug!" Peter hears one of the brothers say as he's stuck underneath the car. "Leave the whips to me." Peter mumbles to himself as he webs onto a post and the bumper of the car and it gets him free, but they got away in the process.

"I hate Those brothers." Peter states as he hangs from the post and sees someone running in a hurry to get somewhere. "Running late. Been there." Peter states when he gets a text from his friend Ronnie.

**Hey confirming if you're gonna be here for the activation of the accelerator. And you know, you have no bug problems****.; R-man **The text reads and Peter realizes the particle accelerator is supposed to be turned on tonight and he almost completely forgot about it. He's just happy to have a friend like Ronnie to keep reminding him things he's sure to forget.

Ever since they were in college, Ronnie learnt about Peter's abilities, it was by accident that he learnt. They were out one day and there was someone who was going to be mugged, or worse. So Peter took quick action and decided it was time to let his friend in on the secret. Once he stopped the mugger and got back, he could see Ronnie and the victim (who he learnt later was named Caitlin Snow) talking and seemed to be getting along so he left them, but kept a safe distance to make sure nothing happened.

Back to current day, Ronnie and Caitlin have been dating ever since and he recently asked her to marry him during their trip to Niagra Falls and she agreed. On Peter's side, Ronnie has helped him create his newest suit since they had access to labs, but never went too far with the idea. Ronnie never told Caitlin about Peter's powers since that's Peter quickly shoots him a text saying he's going to be there. **I'll be there.-PP** he says and sees he better get going or he's going to be in trouble since his lunch break ends in one minute.

At the scene of the crime, Barry Allen is running late himself to get to said crime, after returning from Star City.

"What have we got?" Captain Singh asks detective Joe West and his partner. "Perps took the bank, shot out the cameras, and as a chaser, killed the security guard over there." Joe explains and hands him a picture of the Mardon brothers. "I've got units kicking in doors of known Mardon brothers associates. Apparently Spider-Man gave them a chance but they lost him."

"CSI been over it?" Singh asks him and sees he's not there. "Where's Allen?" He then asks.

Mercury Labs. Peter makes it back and starts going back to work and slides in trough the window and hide his costume under one of the lab coats in his lab. "Okay, Peter. Just get through the rest of the day and meet up with Ronnie at S.T.A.R. Labs. Simple." Peter tells himself as he straightens his hair that was standing after ripping his mask off.

-

What Peter didn't know was he left a strand of his webbing at the scene of the crime where Barry Allen discovered it and brought it with him to the CCPD, where he could learn more about it, even maybe learn who he really is. Don't get him wrong, he was full on team Spider-Man despite him getting two points of view around the police, most believed he's doing what he thinks is right.

That and he's been making their jobs easier and bringing down the crime rate in the neighborhoods. But he's been chasing anything that could explain what happened that night in his home. And maybe Spider-Man is the stepping stone he needs to get started. All he needs to do is learn how he got his abilities and maybe that could lead him to find out what really happened.

"Okay, I am ready to see this atom smasher smashing." The voice of Iris West says as Barry looks up to see his childhood friend/crush. "There was a shooting today." Barry tells her and he starts going over more over more evidence. "Your dad needs me to process some evidence, which means I don't know if we're going to make it to S.T.A.R. Labs." He explains to her since he knows Spider-Man's webbing dissolves quickly so he needs to get as much information about it as possible and to do that, he has to get all his work done.

"But seeing this thing turn on is like your dream. Your sad, little nerdy dream." Iris states when she sees the webbing on his desk. "Is that...Spider-Man's web?" She asks and picks up the container holding it.

"Yeah, it was at the crime scene when I was looking over everything there. He was trying to chase the robbers." Barry explains to her as she looks over the fluid. "I thought Singh decided to let Spider-Man do his thing since half of the officers think he's doing good." Iris questions and wonders why he would have his webbing. "I mean, he leave notes to the people he stops that say _your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man._ How bad can the guy be? Did you at least see what he looks like?" Iris asks Barry while chewing in a fry.

"No, I was late and he was nowhere to be found at the scene or anywhere. Why are you so obsessed with Spider-Man anyway?" Barry wonders, since ever since he showed up to Central City after a few years absences (Peter was in college and was out of the city and couldn't exactly keep showing up to fight crime until he had his future sorted) she doesn't stop talking about him.

"He wears a red and blue skintight costume, quips while fighting crime, has more muscle than you have actual arms." Iris starts listing as she grabs onto Barry's arm to prove her point. "Hands off my fries." Barry says, changing the subject off the Web Slinger. "I'm stress eating over my dissertation. We started selling cronuts at Jitters. I ate two today, if I don't graduate soon, I'm gonna be more muffin top than woman." Iris says and eats another one of his fries. "What is so important about this particle accelerator anyway?" She wonders, not understanding why everyone is excited about it.

"Harrison Wells' work in quantum theory is light years ahead of anything they're doing at CERN." Barry explains to her and see she doesn't understand anything he's saying. "You're doing that thing where you're not speaking English." Iris explains to him and Barry walks up to his white board and draws a dot.

"Imagine that that dot is everything the human race has ever learned until this moment." Barry explains and then drawls a big circle around the dot. "That is everything we could learn from the particle accelerator. It's a whole new way of looking at physics. It will literally change the way that we think about everything." Barry says enthusiastically with a huge smile on his face.

"You've gotta get yourself a girlfriend." Iris says while putting a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, leave him alone. He's working." Joe says as he walks into the labs and sees them when Barry's computers go off, revealing the results.

"Your test thingy is done." Iris states the obvious as Barry walks over to it and gets what he needs. "I think the Mardon brothers are hiding on a farm." Barry says while he pulls up a map to show where he's talking about. "The fecal matter I found on the street, it was cow manure, which contains traces of oxytetracycline. It's an antibiotic. There are four farms in the area that still use it in their feed." Barry then hands Joe the map to the locations. He puts away the web fluid information for him to look at at a later day.

"Dad, seeing as how Barry solved your poop problem, how about letting him go to S.T.A.R. Labs?" Iris asks her father and sees he's thinking about it for a second before deciding. "Fine. Go." Joe says and they run for the door.

Mercury labs, Peter gets off the clock and makes his way to S.T.A.R. Labs to meet up with his friends. "I'll see you tomorrow, dr. McPhee." Peter tells his boss on his way out. "Dr. Parker, have a good night." Christina, Peter's boss says as he leaves. "And have fun at the accelerator." She says as Peter leaves the building and runs down an alley and changes back into his suit to make it there faster. He puts his mask on and checks his webbing containers and shoots a web in the direction of S.T.A.R. Labs and makes his way.

-

Once he makes it to said location, he hears Harrison Wells finishing his speech and hear someone as he's changing out of the suit. _"Those protesting the accelerator believe it could open a black hole in Central City." _A woman's voice says and Peter doesn't recognize the voice so she's most likely one of the people there to see it turn on. _"But is it not more likely to cause a benevolent phenomenon like a Higgs boson bridge?" _She asks Wells and Peter also had that worry but trusts the people who invented it, since his best friend is one of those people.

"**The only phenomenon that will occur this evening is one that has been calculated to the tiniest detail, to the tiniest decimal point." **Wells says through a microphone, which is another reason Peter stayed back. His hyped senses are a blessing in some places, and a curse in others. _"So You've foreseen every possible outcome?" _The same woman asks Wells. "**Yes, I have, Miss..?**" "_Mrs. Marlize DeVoe." _The woman says and Peter could've sworn he heard that name before.

**"DeVoe. I expect that would make the gentleman to your right you husband? Clifford DeVoe.**" Harrison says and states how big of a fan of him he is and Peter learns he knows him from some of his scientific magazines he reads. As he makes his way through the protesters of the accelerator he overheard DeVoe talking about delaying a plan and he makes his way to the entrance where he meets up with Ronnie.

"Mr. Spectacular himself." Ronnie mocks his friends theme song and shakes his hand. "You're just jealous that I actually have theme songs to choose from." Peter mocks him as they make it through the halls and past gorilla Grodd.

"Hey there, buddy." Peter says calmly to the gorilla as he growls at them. "I See he still has a grumpy attitude." Peter states as they walk towards the cortex. "You're sure dr. Wells is okay with me being here?" Peter asks Ronnie. "Yeah, man. In fact he asked if I was inviting you here today." Ronnie states to Peter who's amazed that Wells actually asked about him.

"Dr. Wells, the accelerator is primed and ready for particle injection." Cisco says as Caitlin and Wells enter the room. "I feel like I should say something profound like, "one small steel for man." All I can think of to say is I feel like I've waited for this day for centuries." Wells says as he finally turns on the accelerator and it activates and they wait for something to happen.

"That's it?" Cisco asks thinking more would happen. "You'd think there'd be, like, a loud bang." He explains. "If there was a loud bang, we'd all be in big trouble." Ronnie replies to his friend. "Take it from the guy who helped build it." Caitlin says with a smile.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we did it." Wells tells everyone as they cheer and clap and Wells opens that bottle. "Look at that, big man." Peter states while giving his friend a pat on his back when suddenly he sees the hairs on his hand stand straight and he looks over to Wells and sees the Champagne rising out of the bottle and he starts getting worried.

"Senses are tingling, aren't they?" Ronnie asks Peter as the drink falls to the floor and the alarms start blaring. "That answer your question?" Peter asks as a loud bang goes off. "I hate it when Cisco does that." Peter states to Ronnie. "Does What?" Ronnie asks. "He predicts the future without trying. Sometimes I have to remind myself he doesn't have powers." Peter explains as they start to see what the problem is.

"There's an anomaly in the core chamber." Cisco tells them as they see the information on the computers. "The ring's structural integrity is holding." Caitlin says from her computer.

"But it's started a chain reaction. The system is starting to collapse." Peter replies to them as he sees it happening on the monitors.

"We need to shut it down." Wells tells them.

"We can't ramp down the accelerator from here." Cisco says. "We need to do it manually."

"Me and Peter will do it." Ronnie suggests and Caitlin stops him.

"Ronnie, no!" Caitlin states.

"I'm the lead engineer. I know how to operate the shutdown valve. Cait, I have to go." Ronnie tells her and quickly kisses her and he and Peter race to the core of the accelerator.

Once they've reached the core of the accelerator, Ronnie opens the doors and turns to Peter. "Okay, man, you gotta stay here. We've only got a few minutes before this thing blows, and if I'm not back in time, you need to initiate the lockdown." Ronnie explains to Peter and he's not okay with that plan.

"No, I'm not locking you in there. If it closes, there's no reopening." Peter protests to him. "Peter, if you don't seal off the blast, everyone in this city will die, including Cisco and Caitlin." Ronnie explains to him. "Then let me go, I'm faster." Peter states, knowing he could do it twice as fast as Ronnie could.

"And what if you don't make it back? The city looses Spider-Man." Ronnie informs Peter, knowing how much hope his friend gives the city and won't allow him to just die. "And what if you don't?" Peter asks, playing his game. "Spider-Man looses his friend, not to mention Caitlin looses you." Peter states since he's been his friend over all of the years.

"Peter, we don't have time to argue about this! Now, promise me." Ronnie tells him, knowing he will keep it if it's a promise and he agrees, knowing they're wasting time like he said. "Set your watch. Two minutes, if I'm not here, close it." Ronnie says and runs inside the accelerator.

Peter just stands there anxiously, hoping he makes it back. He wouldn't know what to tell the others if he did die, or got injured and was trapped inside. There's no way he was gonna risk the safety of the city by running in after him and breaking his promise. He must've really zoned out because in no time at all, his watch starts beeping and he sees his two minutes are up.

Peter watches and waits for a couple of more seconds and doesn't see him coming. He knows he's going to regret this, and reaches over and activates lockdown. The door starts to closes slowly and there's no sign of Ronnie. As the doors close, he wonders if he might've been hurt or trapped and was unconscious in there. As all of these _what if's_ enter his head, he gets angry at himself and slams his fist against the doors.

A minute or so passes when his senses pick someone approaching him and he sees Caitlin running in. "Where's Ronnie? Peter, where is he?" Caitlin asks him in complete panic and he doesn't know how to tell him.

"He's still inside." Peter decides to go with saying not beating the bush as she reaches him. "What? Open the door." Caitlin tells him. "I can't, he made me put it into lockdown." Peter explains to her. "We have to get him out of there or he'll die." Caitlin says when the radio on the wall goes off and Peter hears Ronnie. "_Peter, can you hear me?" _Ronnie asks from the other side. "Ronnie, it's me!" Caitlin shouts while tearing up.

-

Ronnie is against the other side of the door. "Caitlin." Ronnie says as he avoids the sparks flying. "Is Peter there?" Ronnie asked. _"Yeah, man, I'm here. Talk to me." _Peter pleads to his friend. "I adjusted the magnets to redirect the beam to try and vent the system so the blast goes up and not out." Ronnie tells him and Peter knows he has to get his side done.

-

Peter knows what he has to do to stop the explosion and runs off leaving Caitlin with the radio. "Peter's working on it." Caitlin informs Ronnie and starts to think. "There has to be another way out of there. You have to find it." She tells him. _"Cait, the chain reaction, I can't reverse it. The doors need to stay shut to protect you." _Ronnie tells her as a flash of energy starts flying through the accelerator towards him. "_Caitlin, whatever happens..."_

He goes silent and doesn't finish speaking and they know what that means. "Ronnie?" Caitlin asks and breaks down right there and Peter comes back and is stuck in shock at what his friend did. He sees Caitlin crying and does what he can to comfort her knowing there's nothing they could do now except be there for her.

-

Four weeks later...

The service for Ronnie was memorable, more than a few tears were shed for Ronnie at his funeral. After the explosion, everything changed. S.T.A.R. Labs was shut down, hundreds of others were either injured or killed in the explosion, and more. Cisco and Caitlin are watching over someone who was put into a coma after being struck by lightning. Peter himself hasn't been the same after his best friend died. Spider-Man hasn't made an appearance in a while and it seems the city no longer cares or dreadfully worried about what happened to him.

For Peter, who's visiting his friend's tombstone again, he doesn't know if he should dawn the mask again. But he knows he needs help to be the hero of this city and the new age and decides to call an old friend he made. (Friend being a little one sided in this case)

His phone rings when someone picks up on the other end. "Hey, it's Peter Parker. I know you're dealing with some things, but I could use some help dealing with something and you're kinda the only guy I know who can manage his emotions. Maybe a few weeks, you could teach me some skills." Peter responds to his questions. "Thanks. I owe you one, Oliver." Peter tells Oliver Queen, or as he knows him the Vigilante and hangs up his phone and heads off to get everything prepared for him to head to Starlight City.

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	2. One city, two heroes

—-

Peter was in Starlight City for a few months, and he can easily say it's completely different from Central City. In this city, Peter plays by Oliver's rules but still refuses to kill. Oliver honors his request and never forces him to make that call, and Peter doesn't stop Oliver from making the call himself. Peter even changed his old costume with help of Felicity Smoak, who helps Oliver.

Now the new suit now instead of a mostly red and blue suit has been changed into a full red and black suit with eyes that adjust with his senses that causes them to open and close with his actual eyes. The suit was also updated to withstand more force than his previous and is harder to damage so he doesn't need to constantly need to fix it. Even added a voice modulator to disguise his voice just slightly.

-

After finally returning to Central City, he got a report of a fire on western and 3rd in downtown Central City. As he makes his way inside, he starts evacuating the people inside and hears a mother yelling for her kid and gets her out of the building when suddenly a blur of lightning enters the same building and people are getting pulled out of the burning building out of thin air. "Okay...what the what, did I miss something?" Peter asks no one in particular being confused out of his mind about what he just saw.

In an alleyway on the other side of the city, Barry comes to a stop and pulls off his mask and is shocked to what he saw. "Oh my gosh, I just saw Spider-Man up close. And he has a new suit!" Barry states in shock and excitement to seeing him. "What else you got for me, Cisco?" Barry asks them back at S.T.A.R. Labs. _"Barry, it's Caitlin."_ Caitlin says back into the comm. "Hey, Caitlin. How's your day?" Barry asks the doctor who doesn't seem happy. _"Get back to S.T.A.R. Labs, now." _She commands him and Barry starts to do so, but is getting a headache while he tries running and shakes it off and runs.

-

Peter makes it to Jitters to get some coffee before returning to work and starts searching what he can on this new guy literally _running_ around. He finds out there's been recent sightings of someone running faster than the naked eye can see, leaving nothing but a red streak.

"Okay, who and or what are you?" Peter asks as he tries getting some answers when he sees his friend Caitlin Snow coming in and she seems to be having a bad day.

"Caitlin Snow." Peter says and Caitlin turns to see him and she smiles at him.

"Peter, where've you been?" Caitlin asks as she gives him a hug happy to see him after almost a year apart.

"I was coping with what happened." Peter explains to her and they start catching up when Caitlin notices his laptop. "What are you looking at?" Caitlin asks him and Peter closes it a little too quickly. "It's nothing. I've just...heard recent stuff about some blur around the city. Wondered what was happening while I was gone. Seems I missed some things even when Spider-Man was gone for a while." Peter explains.

"Yeah, things have been getting weird since the particle accelerator exploded." Caitlin says as Peter gets his coffee and Caitlin gets some sorta alert on her phone. "Oh, no. I've gotta go." Caitlin states and gets up to leave. "Well, it was nice seeing you. Maybe we can meet up again soon." Peter says as she starts leaving.

Peter wonders where she's going, but knows he has to get to his job before he's in trouble. He turns to the tv to see that there was an attempted robbery that was stopped by the blur.

-

"You lies to us." Caitlin tells Barry as she checks on him after he explains that he fainted while chasing a new metahuman. "How could you not tell us you're experiencing dizzy spells? We're you're doctors. God knows what's going inside your body. Your cells are in a constant state of flux. You could be experiencing cardiopulmonary failure or a transient ischemic attack." Caitlin states and Barry didn't understand a word of what she just said and turns to Wells in his wheelchair. "Mini stroke. Probably not." Wells explains and he looks back at Caitlin.

"You of all people know in science, we share. We don't keep secrets." Caitlin tells him and walks to check on his vitals. "Wow. I haven't seen anyone make her that angry since Ronnie." Cisco says and follows her.

"Ronnie was Caitlin's fiancé? The one that died the night of the explosion?" Barry asks Wells and he concurres. "He is...missed." Wells says.

The three of them are watching Barry run on Cisco's specialized treadmill and wait to see what's wrong and Wells sees something. "Look at the glucose levels." Wells tells Caitlin and she realizes what's wrong. "It was so obvious." Caitlin states. "Barry, I think we know why you keep-" Wells starts off saying as Barry passes out and falls into the boxes Cisco patted up for him.

-

Peter swings around Central City to keep an eye for more crimes and anything to do with that blur. Once he sees his work is done for the night, he makes his way to his aunt's house since he hasn't seen her for a long time and promised he'd stop by that night.

He makes it to her door and hides his costume under his clothes and knocks.

A few seconds later, May opens the door and sees her nephew. "Oh my god, Peter!" She shouts and quickly hugs him. "Oh, it's good to see you too, aunt May, but I need to breathe." Peter tells her as she is using a death hug he's all too familiar with and she lets him go.

"It's been so long, how was Starlight City?" May asks him. "It was nice, I picked up a few things." Peter tells her. "Well, come in. I've got dinner ready, so you're on time." May says and leads him in and Peter really missed his friends and family while in Starlight.

-

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry wakes back up and they help him stand. "I passed out again?" Barry asked them. "Total metabolic failure brought on by acute hypoglycemia." Caitlin explains why he fainted and he understood. "I'm not eating enough." Barry recaps what she said. "So an I.V. bag and I'm good to go?" He asks them and Cisco chuckled at that.

"Try 40." Wells states and Barry sees the billions of I.V. bags he needed to keep him alive. "Guess you were thirsty." Wells tells him. "We're gonna need to fashion you a new diet based on your metabolic changes." Caitlin tells him. "I've done a few calculations. You need to consume an amount equal to roughly 850 tacos." Cisco explains and starts rethinking. "Unless we talking cheese and guac, which is like a whole other set of equations." He states and starts rethinking his calculations.

"For Mexican, I recommend Tito's." A new voice says and they look to the doorway to see Joe. "On brucker Avenue? Best burrito in the city." Joe tells them.

"Detective West." Wells says looking to him happy. "What brings you to S.T.A.R. Labs?" Wells asks him wondering why the man would be here of all places. "When I couldn't find you at your lab, I started doing a little research. Turns out there's been reports of a red streak around the city that isn't anything to do with Spider-Man. He's been stopping muggers, rescuing people in burning buildings." Joe explains to them and Wells looks to Barry confused.

"You didn't tell him we were working together?" Wells asks Barry. "Joe, I can explain." Barry tells him. "You already have a job in law enforcement, Barry. I suggest you get back to it." Joe tells him and Caitlin gets an text on her phone and looks to see what it is. **You know, you missed out. I told a chemistry joke at Jitters, I got**** no reaction.-Peter. **It reads And Caitlin let's out a small chuckle at the bad joke, without a doubt being from Peter and she sees everyone looking her way.

"Sorry, bad timing." She apologizes to them and sends a quick text back saying it was terrible, but still funny. "Detective. We all want what's best for Barry." Wells explains to Joe.

"If you wanted what was best for Barry, you'd try to talk him out of this lunacy instead of encouraging him going out there risking his life." Joe states to Wells.

"You saw a man control the weather." Barry interjected to Joe. "What are the police gonna do against someone like that?" He asks Joe. "I mean, since the accelerator explosion we suspect there may be more like him."

"And you're gonna do what? Catch them? You think because you can run real fast you're invincible? You're not!" Joe tells Barry getting sick of this argument.

"Spider-Man does the exact same thing as I do, I don't see you trying to stop him from jumping in the front of a bus." Barry replies to Joe. "Spider-Man isn't my kid." Joe justifies to him.

"I'm not your kid, Joe. And you're not my father." Barry states getting a get shocked reaction from Joe. "My father is sitting in Iron Heights, wrongfully convicted. You were wrong about him. And you're wrong about this. I can't help him, but if I can save someone from a burning building or stop some armed thieves, I'm gonna do it! And you can't stop me. So don't try." Barry tells him and Joe sees he isn't changing his mind.

"You think you're so smart. All of you. But you don't know what you don't know. And I hope you're clever enough to figure it out before somebody gets killed." Joe tells Wells and the others and leaves.

Barry takes a minute to realize what he said and Wells turns to Caitlin. "So, Dr. Snow, who were you talking to?" He asks her and she looks up from from the computer to see them qll looking at her wondering who could make her laugh like that.

"It was a message from Peter Parker." Caitlin explains and Cisco lights up to hearing his friends name after almost a year.

"Mr. Parker's back in Central City?" Wells asks her, as a smile appears on his face.

"Yeah, we ran into each other at Jitters and talked for a while before I was called back." Caitlin tells them. "He just sent a bad science joke, thinking I needed a pick up." She explains , happy to have her friend back.

-

Peter is doing his normal Spider-Man routine after his dinner with May and runs into some deal going on in a dark corner. "Where's the rest of your crew?" The man asks the second masked man. "Just me." The hooded man says as he removes the hood.

"What do you want, Black?" The other man asks and Peter assumes that's his name. "The only thing I still want in life...your boss dead." Black says and Peter remembers the attack that occurred earlier that day. Multiple men attacked and stole some things, nothing too big, but was mad at himself for not being there.

"It's not my fault you and your team moved too slow. I told you where Stagg would be, not how long he'd be there." He explains to Black. "I need his full itinerary." Black states. "And security access to his office and home." Peter then realizes he's planning to assassinate this Stagg person. "I've got a reputation in the security business. It's one thing if my employer gets iced. It's another if it happens in his bed."

"You'll do what I ask, Mr. Java." Black states to him and Java just punches him. Peter doesn't know if he should intervene or not since it doesn't seem to be anything he can accuse him for yet. "What the hell are you gonna do to me without your army?" Java asks Black and starts walking off.

Peter then watches in shock as he watches Black doing something and starts separating from himself copying himself multiple times. Now Peter decides it's time to intervene.

"I am an army." Black tells Java and all of him begin to beat him to death. Peter webs one of them and pulls him out of the way. "Hey! Hasn't anyone told you copying is bad for you?" Peter quips as they all turn their attention to him. "Okay, this was a bad idea, wasn't it?" Peter asks as they all began to gang up on him and they keep duplicating him and Peter just fights his way free and runs. He knows he's gonna need backup in order to stop this guy. He just shoots a web to get away when a gunshot goes off and Peter feels a sting in the side of him. He looks to see a bullet went straight through him and he's going to need to need to patch himself up when he gets back home.

-

Next day at the CCPD, Joe enters Barry's labs to give him the evidence. "Come to yell at me again?" Barry asks Joe. "Simon Stagg's Head of security was beaten almost to death last night." Joe explains to him. "It would seem Spider-Man was there or something, stoped him from dying. He was put in a coma, not waking up any time soon. They found this blood and some skin samples. Hopefully their of the killer. See if you can find a match." Joe says and starts to leave.

"Can't be a coincidence that Stagg's benefit was attacked last night." Barry states and he agree. "I'm going to interview Stagg now." Joe explains where he's headed. "I'll come with you." Barry offers. "Your job is here, stay in here and do it." Joe tells him and he leaves and Iris comes in confused on what's going on and Barry's test is done and he gets the information on the blood.

"Okay, that's weird." Barry says as he sees the information he's getting is coming from a human and a spider. "This blood that was taken from the crime scene where an attack took place last night, this has traces of steatoda nobilis in it." Barry tells Iris and she's confused.

"Okay, and what does that mean?" Iris asks him not following him.

"Well, It has traces of spider and human DNA. Spider-Man was sited at the crime scene, I think this is a trace of his blood." Barry explains to her as he sees nothing matching in the database. "So, What does that mean?" Iris asks him, not understanding.

"It just means we can't find the criminal with the blood sample." Barry says and looks into the skin samples and gets something just as strange. "Okay, that's impossible. These skin cells must belong to the murderer, but these cells are naive. Stem cells that they can replicate and become any cell the body needs. They only come from babies." Barry states, confused on the data he's getting today, from spider DNA, to baby DNA. "This means your killer is what, a newborn?" Iris asks him.

-

At his apartment, Peter finishes up patching himself back up after checking his wounds for infection and he's going to be okay. He finally drops onto his bed ready to sleep when his phone goes off. Peter moans in anger and decides to see what it is and he sees he needs to get to work. "Note to self-_get a__ doctor._" He tells himself as he could get someone else to help him, better than doing it himself and wasting all night.

"You honestly think that someone wants to kill me?" Stagg asks Joe and Eddie as they walk through his facility. "Were not sure, mr. Stagg, but an event you were being hinders at was robbed at gunpoint." Eddie explains to Stagg.

"And your head of security was found beaten near dead this morning." Joe also says, explaining. "I am a scientist and a philanthropist. We're not often the targets of assasains." Stagg tells them.

"Well, what about lawsuits?" Joe asks and holds a file in his hand. "You've got about 20 of those pending against you."

"It is a sad fact of life, that when you earn a lot of money, people who haven't think they can take it." Stagg says.

"People like this Danton Black?" Joe asks and holds a photo of said man to him. "You fired him and now he's suing you."

"Unfortunately, our working relationship wasn't successful, but I can assure you both of one thing. Danton Black is not a killer. He's a clinical researcher, not a criminal mastermind." Stagg explains when suddenly men with masks and guns start shooting at them and they run for cover.

At the precinct, things are going crazy and Barry wonders what's wrong and he sees Singh. "Captain, what's going on?" He asks Singh.

"An armed gunman is shouting up Stagg Industries." He explains to Barry and keeps walking. "Joe's there." Barry says and runs into his lab and grabs his suit.

Stagg Industries, Joe is working a plan as he tries shooting the men and it's not working. "Get him out of here. I'll cover you." Joe tells Eddie and they're ready and then Joe stands to shoot Black's men as Eddie runs with Stagg.

Joe shoots them and Black takes off his mask and begins to duplicate himself again. Joe watches it happen and they start advancing towards him. A web comes in and pulls the guns out of their hands and Joe looks to see Spider-Man who made his way inside himself.

"Run!" Peter tells Joe when a flash of lightning comes in and Joe ends up outside and Peter looks to see Flash. "Whoever you are, give yourself up." Barry tells them.

"Sorry, we're not going anywhere." One Black says and they all say at the same time, "not until Simon Stagg is dead." And Peter looks a little creeped out.

"You guys all practice that, like in a mirror or something?" Peter quips when Barry speeds and knocks some of them out, just for Black to keep duplicating and Peter shoots a web at his back and pulls him towards, causing Black to copy himself several more times. They all start fighting off Barry and Peter at once.

Peter dodges most of the punches, but there's too many of them and they eventually get the upper hand. Peter tries taking as much as he can as Barry is pinned down and can't get up. Peter quickly switches his webs to taser webs and shoots at the Black's causing them all to fall and Barry takes this moment run.

One of the Black's aren't affected, being the main one and Peter watches as he creates multiple him's again and knows he has to think of how to stop him. With that in mind, he makes his quick get away as they start shooting at him and Peter is quick to dodge them all and makes his way out.

Peter keeps swinging and finds an abandoned alleyway and drops to the ground and pulls off his mask in a quick motion and starts heavily breathing and feels his wounds. He's got something broken, but knows his powers will deal with that themselves. Peter then looks to a reflective surface and sees the bruises left from the fight. "Where do these guys keep coming from?" Peter asks and starts walking to find out what he can on this attack of the clones. But first, he needs to pay a visit to the only doctor he knows. _Caitlin Snow._

"Mr. Stagg, I wish you would reconsider our offer for protective custody." Joe tells Stagg at the CCPD. "Danton Black has proven he is willing to kill, and he's got...friends. And they're all dangerous."

-

"I've increased my security, detective. I hope Black comes looking for trouble. Because he'll find plenty." Stagg states when they hear slow clapping and turn to see Wells down the hall. "Spoken like a true philanthropist." Wells says as he moves closer to them. "Or is it humanitarian? I'm sorry, I can never remember which one you're pretending to be, Simon." He tells Stagg.

"Harrison, don't get up." Stagg mocks Wells and his wheelchair and Wells mockingly laughs as he gets into the elevator and leaves.

"Another fan of yours, Doctor?" Joe asks Wells.

"Can we talk, detective?" Wells asks.

-

At her apartment, Caitlin is looking at the blood samples from Black that Barry got on his suit and it's not enough to work off of when a knock comes on her window. She gets confused when she turns to see Spider-Man leaning against her window.

Caitlin looks in shock and opens her window to help him. "What are you doing?" Caitlin asks the masked hero. "How do you know where I live?" She keeps throwing questions at him and sees he's holding his ribs. "Oh my god, you're injured." She realizes and helps him inside her apartment.

"Yeah, some whack-ado was copying himself over and over. I took a big beating from him." Peter states and she helps him to the couch and looks over his injuries. "Is this your blood or his?" Caitlin asks him as Peter pushes his emblem on his suit and it releases part of the suit for her to inspect him.

"It's his." Peter tells her as she starts cleaning his bruises.

"I kinda miss your old suit, I have to say." Caitlin says, trying to start a conversation with him, not knowing it's her friend under the mask.

"I just thought it was time for a change after the accelerator." Peter informs her. "You know, I never got to thank you back then. When you saved my life." Caitlin explains and Peter knows she's talking about that day back when they were in college. "And you'll never have to." Peter replies to her.

"Back to my question, how do you know where I live?" Caitlin asks him. "Tell you the truth, I saw you walking into the front door of the building, spent the past few minutes looking for the right place. One guy thought I was some drunk in a mask." Peter says and she chuckles at that.

"So, you happen to know who it was who was beaten me?" Peter asks her and she bites her lip and Peter and Ronnie are the only ones who know what that means. "His names Danton Black. He was affected when the particle accelerator exploded, him and others were given abilities like yours." Caitlin explains to him. "His power is being able to replicate spontaneously."

"Got it. He can make clones of himself as much as he wants." Peter recaps what she just told him. "And there's something else. When I was fighting him, I saw a guy in some red skintight suit. You know anything about that?" Peter asks her and she freezes up for a second.

"He's...someone who was also effected. He can run fast, decided to throw in the towel earlier today. How do you do it?" Caitlin asks Spider-Man.

Peter looks at her confused on what she means. "What?" Peter asks her as she finished bandaging him.

"How do you always go out there and keep fighting, even after everything? Half the time, the city hates you and wants you gone." Caitlin explains to him and Peter now understands what she's talking about.

"I lost someone close to me once because I decided not to use my powers. It was at that moment I realized I was given powers for a purpose." Peter says and starts breaking down remembering his uncle. "It's just...I used to look out to the city and see nothing changing. Crime was every other day, death was the next. So when you can do the things that I can, and you decide not to do anything with what you're given...when things happen and you could've stopped it, it's on you. I didn't ask for these powers, but i choose to be Spider-Man." Peter explains and sees her looking surprised. "That's why I dawned the mask, why Spider-Man exists. Why _heroes_ exist. We hate to stand by and watch people get hurt and can't get up, when we can take the hit and keep going." Peter finishes to her.

"So you're doing this to honor the people you lost?" Caitlin asks him and he nods his head left to right. "I'm doing this to protect the people I love." Peter corrects her and she's finished with his wounds.

"Well, you're patched up and good to go, I would suggest you take it easy on the swinging though." Caitlin says and Peter gets up and heads towards the window.

"See you later, dr. Snow." Peter says as he runs and leaps out the window and swings home.

-

Later on, she goes back to S.T.A.R. Labs to look at the blood samples more closely when she did something to cause an entire clone of Black to grow. Caitlin then calls Barry to come back and he speeds in and sees him.

"Barry, it's okay." Caitlin tells him as Barry goes up to Black. "It's not okay! Black is here, and he's just...standing there. That's not him, is it?" Barry asks them.

"It's one of his replicates." Wells explains to Barry as he looks over the duplicate. "How did you get it?" Barry asks them.

"I grew him." Caitlin says with pride. "I isolated a sample of Black's blood from..." She stops and wonders if she should say it was from Spider-Man and he's against it, "your suit to see if I could trigger the in vitro cultivation process and learn how Black multiplied. So I exposed the target cells to a protein gel, and they began replicating." She explains and Barry is trying to get a reaction from Black's duplicate and he's not budging.

"Why isn't he...it doing anything?" Barry questions her as he waves his hands in Black's face.

"We did a brain scan. Involuntary motor functions are active, little else." Wells explains from across the room. "We think it's acting as a receiver." Cisco also explains.

"The clones are an empty shell without Black. We were reviewing the footage from Stagg industries and saw when Spider-Man shot him with some sorta taser, they all fell. Shut down the real Black, they all go down." Caitlin tells him.

"How can we tell who's the real Black?" Barry asks her. "That occurred to me giving your own passing out. Black has limits, consoling all of those clones must require a tremendous amount of physical strength. So, look for the one showing signs of weakness or fatigue." Caitlin suggests to him when Black suddenly comes to life. Caitlin screams as gunshots come in and they look to see Joe with his gun raised as Black falls.

"Any more of them?" Joe asks them and Caitlin answers for them. "Nope."

"Why did it start moving?" Barry asks Wells. "The prime. My guess Black's on the move now. This one heard the summon to battle." He explains.

"And I know where he was summoned to. Stagg industries." Joe tells them as he puts his gun away.

Back at Peter's apartment, he is watching the interaction after hacking into the security cameras to see what they learned. He knew Caitlin knew more than she was letting on about this red blur. He didn't expect him to actually know enough other. But after hearing where he's heading and what to look for, he bets into his suit and makes his way to Stagg industries.

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry gets into his outfit and gets ready to fight Black as he also makes his way to Stagg industries.

At said industries, Black has a dozen copies of himself and they're making their way through Stagg's new security and their way to him. Stagg exists his office to check on what happened and sees Black.

"Hello, Black." Stagg says calmly.

"Goodbye, Simon." Black says and all of them raise their guns and Peter pulls them of their hands and Barry speeds in and takes Stagg out of the building and comes back. Peter looks to Barry as they stand back to back and see the army of Black's around the building. "I know what we have to do. We just have to sniff him out." Peter tells Barry and he nods in agreement.

"I know Stagg stole your research, but that doesn't give you the right to murder." Barry yells to Black. One of the duplicates shoot at them and they both use their reflexes to dodge the bullet.

"You go high, I hit low." Peter tells Barry and he nods to run off to stop the Black's from above and Peter takes them down from the ground level. Peter sees one and webs him and grabs another and throws them at each other, taking them both down.

"You think this is about my job?" One of the Black's ask them as Barry speeds around and grabs another one. "This is about Elizabeth." Another Black explains.

"She was my wife." A new Black states and tries shooting Peter and he webs him to the wall.

"She had a degenerative coronary disease." Another Black states. "She'd been on the transplant list for years, but...Time was running out."

"So if I couldn't get her a new heart..."

"You were gonna grow her one." Peter realizes while sneaking up on one of them and takes him down. More see him and start shooting at him and he runs for over as Barry speeds in and takes them down for Peter.

"I was so close. Until Stagg stole my research. So he could reap the glory. And I got to bury my best friend." Black tells them. "Now...I'm alone." He states sadly.

Peter starts to feel bad for him. Since he lost his best friend in the explosion. "I understand how that feels." Peter shouts while hiding from the clones. "I lost people close to me, also. But I never used it as an excuse to hurt others." He tries reasoning with him when they watch the prime creating more duplicates. They all start beating up Barry and Peter leaps up and gets him out of there, fast.

_"Remember, Barry. Find the prime." _Caitlin says to Barry.

"There's too many of them to fight." Barry says as Peter stands back up. "We don't need to fight them all. We just need to find the prime like they said." Peter says and Barry looks confused. "You heard them?" Barry asks.

"Super hearing. But that's not the point right now, we need to take him down. We can do this together." Peter says and helps him stand up.

"Together." Barry agrees as an army of Black's come running at them. "I'll take them, you locate the original." Peter says and starts shooting taser webs and everything he can as Barry speeds through them all and finds the prime and hits him against the wall. He looks to see all of the duplicates fall and some land on Peter.

"Sadly, not the most uncomfortable position I've been put in." Peter quips and Barry laughs. "It's done." Barry tells them as Black stands back up ready for another go when Peter webs him to the wall, stopping him from duplicating again.

"Don't want him going anywhere." Peter jokes and walks up to Barry. "I don't think we were properly introduced. I'm Spider-Man." Peter introduces himself holding his hand out to him.

"I'm...a work in progress." Barry jokes and shakes his hand. "Yeah, I can see that. Look, your heart is in the right place. You just need to learn to swim before you jump into the deep end. With the right training, you could do the impossible." Peter tells him and starts walking towards the doors.

"I'll see you out there, Lightning Strike." He tells Barry, saying the first name that came to him as he continued his way out.

"See you around, Spider-Man." Barry says feeling on top of the world with that compliment. "By the way, I'm loving the new suit!" He yells to the web swinger as he exits the doors and swings off.

_"Central City police officials are now confirming former employee Danton Black was behind the attack."_ The news report is telling them while at S.T.A.R. Labs they're watching it.

"If it weren't for Spider-Man there's no telling what could've happened to him." Barry says to them. "He even told me that collar hes wearing will prevent him from duplicating himself again."

"Spider-Man. The city's great hero. The man who lost everything and used it as strength." Wells says as he watches the footage someone took of Spider-Man swinging away.

"You ever wonder who he is?" Cisco asks as he takes a drink from a slushee. "Why would anyone care? He's a hero, that's all we need to know." Caitlin replies to Cisco, but to tell the truth she also was curious.

"Okay, Well, at least Multiplex won't be able to hurt anyone else." Cisco states naming him. "Told you I'd come up with a cool name." He tells them and they agree it's a cool name.

* * *

Barry is back to working in his lab when Joe comes in with multiple boxes of pizzas. "Pepperoni, olives, and jalapeños." He tells Barry and he digs into the pizza.

"You were wrong." He tells Barry and Barry looks to him.

"I have been wrong a lot this week. You're gonna have to narrow it down." Barry explains to Joe. "You said one of the reasons you're helping people is because you couldn't help your dad." Joe then shows Barry's information he left on finding out who killed his mother he dug up himself.

"You can help him. _We_ can." Joe states since he's now on board with Barry being a hero. "We're gonna catch who or what killed your mother that night. And we're gonna get your dad out of prison. Together." Joe clarifies to Barry.

"Joe, what I said about you not being my dad...I was wrong." Barry tells Joe and he smiles at him. Joe starts tearing up when suddenly Barry's computer goes off.

"What's that?" Joe asks Barry as he moves to the computer and he's shocked.

"Oh, my god." Barry says as he looks at the information. "When you brought that blood sample earlier, it wasn't Black's it was Spider-Man's." Barry tells Joe as he moves up to the computer and sees what it shows.

"And apparently when I left, I must've started running a search because it's been running blood samples from everywhere. And it came up with a match." Barry says as he pulls up the file and it gives them information.

_Peter Parker-age 25_.

"We know who Spider-Man actually is without the mask?" Joe asks Barry as he seems to be in thought. "Joe, earlier today Caitlin said she had a friend named Peter Parker. He left the city for a while and just came back recently." Barry tells Joe in shock.

"You think they know he's Spider-Man and just didn't tell you they knew another powered person?" Joe asks Barry.

"I mean, there is only one Peter Parker in the database, it must be their guy. We can actually find him if we need to figure out." Barry says in amazement.

-

Back at Stagg industries, Wells pays a surprise visit to Simon.

"Wells? Who the hell let you in?" Stagg asks Wells as he shows up out of nowhere. "You been having a party out there?" Wells asks, regarding the bodies. "Well, I'm sure you saw on tv, a for,we employee tried to kill me." Stagg tells him as he takes a drink.

"Former employee with the ability to replicate. Facing off a man with spider abilities and a man who could move at super speed." Wells states smiling.

"You've seen them too, haven't you?" Stagg asks Wells. "Indeed, I have." Wells tells Stagg.

"Extraordinary. You know, I honestly thought Spider-Man was some hoax. Something someone made up to get attention. I never imagined seeing something like that up close. And the second one. The power he possesses, it's like the...like the gods of old. It's like mercury on earth. Can you imagine if you could control his power?" Stagg asks Wells as he approaches him. "If you could..if you could harness it, you could change what it means to be human. Spider-Man and the man in the red mask are keys, keys to changing everything we know. And I'm gonna get them."

Wells then proceeds to take off his glasses, ready to respond. "The man in the red mask. He's called _the Flash_. Or at least he will be." Wells tells Stagg as he stands up and towers him.

"What the hell?" Stagg asks as Wells stabs him with a knife. "Forgive me, Simon. I'm worried you will think this is personal, it's not. It's just that the man in the mask...the fastest man alive...he must be kept safe." Wells says and sliced his throat.

"And I'm gonna need Spider-Man for what is yet to come."

—-


	3. MISTaking identity

————————————————————————————————————————-——————————————————————————

Peter and Cisco got back into contact and grabbed coffee to catch up on lost time. "So, Peter, where were you when you left Central City?" Cisco asks him and Peter doesn't know how to answer that since he can't talk about Oliver or the Arrow.

"I went to Starlight City. I know someone who was willing to help me cope with Ronnie's death. Guess it was harder on me than I expected." Peter says and they look at him sad. "I'm sorry to hear that, Pete." Cisco says and puts a hand on his friends shoulder. "So, what have you guys been up to? How's your patient, the guy that was struck by lightning." Peter asks them, even though he already knows.

"Well, Barry already woke up." Caitlin tells him, trying not to give anything to do with his abilities. "He comes to talk every now and then." She explains to him and Peter sees her biting her lower lip and immediately knows she's hiding or not telling him something.

"You know, maybe we should make a get together. Have you and him meet?" Cisco offers the,. "Sure, call me with a time and place." Peter replies and takes a drink of his coffee and has to get to work fast.

-

Back at the CCPD, Barry and Joe are looking into the evidence from the night Nora Allen was killed. "I had it brought up from storage." Joe tells Barry.

"I've been through this box 1,000 times." Barry tells him. "Before, you story about what really happened that night. The lightning storm, the man in the middle of it, I thought that was a kid trying to protect his father from prison." Joe explains and looks back at Barry's case.

"Now I see it's true, we're gonna go through everything that could help until we find something." Joe tells him when Eddie comes in.

"Barry, Joe, we got multiple homicide." Eddie tells them. "Do you kno the Darbinyan crime family?" He asks them.

-

At the crime scene, there are bodies everywhere around the room and Barry can't find anything. "Signs of histotoxide hypoxia. The cells in their bodies were unable to utilize oxygen." Barry tells Joe what he found. "Basically, it's poison gas."

"What kind of poison?" Joe asks him. "I'm gonna need to take a lung sample, see if I can narrow it down." Barry explains to him and Eddie comes back to say what he found.

"The only other exit was bolted from the inside. They were trapped. I was thinking someone pumped gas in from the outside, but witnesses say the street was empty." Eddie tells them. "So it was from the inside." Joe asks confused as he looks around. "That would mean there should be a canister or container somewhere."

"Unless it had a mind of its own." Barry says and Joe sends Eddie off and looks back to Barry. "The boss collapsed by the table. This guy made it 10 feet away. That guy had a chance to move off and fire three shots into the window trying to break the glass. But they all started in the same spot, which means they should've all been affected by the gas at the same time, but instead, it's as if...they were attacked off one by one." Barry explains to Joe.

"My gut feeling, if we're gonna solve this one, you and me are gonna need...backup. And I don't mean S.T.A.R. Labs." Joe tells him. "Wait, you mean...you wanna get Spider-Man?" Barry asks, trying to control his excitement.

"Doesn't he have like some signal we can shine to summon him?" Joe asks Barry. "No, but we have the next best thing." Barry says and shows his phone and it has information on Peter Parker up already. Where he lives, where he works, everything.

-

"Fascinating, a metahuman that can manipulate poison gas." Wells says while using the computers. "Is it just poisonous gas, or can he control all arrayed substances?" Cisco asks them. "And How is he able to formulate the connection? Is it physiological or psychological?" Caitlin asks.

"This individual can create a mental nexus using gaseous substances." Wells replies.

"You mean connect with gases on a molecular level?" Cisco asks him. "That is ridiculously cool." He states.

"Yeah, and Joe thought we might need a hand with this, so he's going to look for help from a certain hero." Barry tells them and they all look up at him shocked to hearing this for the first time.

"Wait...You don't mean Spider-Man, do you?" Cisco asks as a giant smile spears on his face and it immediately goes into shock. "You didn't say to bring him here, did you?" He asks Barry worried to how Spider-Man will think their place is not even comparable to Spider-Man's hideout. But what he doesn't know is his _hideout _is really just a average apartment in the city.

"How did you even know where to find him?" Wells asks Barry. "We found a sample of his blood, ran it though the system. Do you guys know who he is?" Barry asks them wondering if they know it's Peter. "Why would we know?" Cisco asks and Barry realizes they don't know their friend is Spider-Man.

-

Peter is just getting off for his break and is on his way to Jitters for coffee when he sees a dark man has been following him for the past few blocks and he decides to use his senses to see what he's saying. _"If you're wrong about who he is, you're gonna explain all of this to him, not me, Barry." _The man says and Peter decides to pick up his pace and sees Joe is also speeding up to stay with him.

Peter speed walks into an alley and leaps on to the wall and climbs up. Joe runs into the alley and sees he's gone. "Either he's Spider-Man or a magician." Joe states when he looks up to see Peter dropping down and grabs him from behind to stop him from reaching his gun. Move curtesy of the Arrow. "Why are you looking for me?" Peter asks Joe.

"We...need your help." Joe struggle to say through his hold. "And we don't have any way of contacting you, Spider-Man." Joe says and Peter releases his grip. "So, you know." Peter states to him.

"Yeah, we found your blood and accidentally found your identity." Joe explains to him and Peter decides to believe him. "You're with Streak, aren't you?" Peter asks him.

"Yeah, he asked me to find you." Joe explains to him. "Okay, where does he want to meet up?" Peter asks when his senses go off and he looks at the Central City mall and sees someone inside who's driving his senses crazy.

"Change of plans." Peter turns back to Joe and tosses him a phone. "Call me with the location." Peter tells him as he runs down the alley and quickly changes into his outfit and swings into the mall.

-

Inside the mall, a man wearing a tall trench coat enters an elevator with a woman. "Jorge Howard." The man says to her as she looks shocked. "You died." She tells him.

"You say that like it was an accident." He says to her. "Remember what the last thing you said in the courtroom?" He asks her.

"May god have mercy on your soul." He says and starts turning into gas and enters her lungs.

Outside th elevator, Peter sees it happening and picks up the pace and smashes into the glass walls. He looks to see he was too late as the gas is gone and she's dead.

A security guard comes up to the elevator and sees the body. "I need everyone to back up." The man tells the people surrounding them as time comes to a standstill when Barry runs in and sees Spider-Man over the body and looks around and sees the gas flowing down a hall and chases after it.

"Why did you kill that woman?!" Barry asks him as the gas turns into a man. "She deserves to die." He answers Barry's question. "Now go run off. I still have one more name on my list." He tells Barry when a web comes in and goes straight through him.

The man then turns around to see Spider-Man. "Look at that, Spider-Man. In the flesh." He says to Peter. While he's distracted, Barry speeds in and tries punching him and he turns into gas. He them punches Barry and Peter and he turns into complete gas and tries entering Peter's mask, but he made it airtight, so he enters Barry. Barry then falls to the floor gasping for air. Peter tries helping him when he suddenly rushes off, rendering his help useless.

-

Peter quickly makes his way back to Joe and sees he hasn't moved. "What was the point of handing me your phone if you were coming back?" Joe asks him, confused as he takes off his mask. "Spur of the moment thing, I guess." Peter explains and takes a breather.

"So, I now know what you need help with. Barry went to S.T.A.R. Labs, I couldn't see if he was okay or not." Peter explains to Joe and he looks confused. "Wait, you know who he is?" Joe asks him.

"You guys should really check where you talk and for cameras." Peter explains to him.

"Don't the people in S.T.A.R. Labs know about you?" Joe asks Peter. "You really think anyone knows about this?" Peter asks him as he gestures to himself. "I'm living a secret life from them. If they found out, they would freak out. Then I'd freak out, I can't do that to them. Especially ever since..." Peter doesn't really talk about his friend's death. "Caitlin's fiancé?" Joe asks and he looks to him.

"Yeah, I was told about him. You knew him?" Joe asks Peter.

"He was my best friend for most of my life." Peter explains to him. "I can't tell them. At least not yet. Because everyone who learns about it, they always die." Peter says sadly, hating to keep his life a secret from his friends.

"We just need your help stopping these guys, even a better way of communicating you." Joe explains to Peter and he stands up.

"Then let's get to S.T.A.R. Labs." Peter says and starts swinging towards S.T.A.R. Labs and Joe has somewhere to be.

-

"This is a 3-D molecular model of the gas we retrieved from your lungs." Cisco says as he shows the gas on the computers. "We have also identified the toxin. Hydrogen cyanide." Wells tells Barry. "What's really interesting is what's mixed in with the cyanide. A sedative."

"Of course. The night of the explosion, find out f anyone was executed. That sedative is given to criminals on death row before they go to the gas chamber and breath in hydrogen cyanide." Barry explains when a new voice fills the air. "You mean gas chambers are still a thing?" The voice asks all turn to the entrance to see Spider-Man in the doorway.

"Because in all honesty, that seems worse than just like drowning me or something. Which has happened before." Peter states and they all just stare at him and Cisco drops his drink.

"You're...Spider-Man." Cisco states the obvious and Peter just waves at his friends. "Yeah, a detective Joe West told me you were looking for me to get help." Peter explains to them trying to keep his identity.

"Welcome to S.T.A.R. Labs, Spider-Man." Wells says as he moves closer to the man. "I gotta say, you've gotten a more advanced suit than the previous one." Wells states looking at the new red and black suit. "It's slimming." He comments.

"Yeah, thought it was time for a change." Peter explains to him. "Either way, I'm here to help anyway I can." He tells them and Caitlin gets something. "There was someone executed that night. Kyle Nimbus." She tells them while trying to take her eyes off of Spider-Man, and pulls up his file for them to see.

"That's the guy I was sensing." Peter says and moves closer inward to look at his picture. "He was a hitman for the Darbinyan crime family." Caitlin tells them.

"Oh, trust me. Me and them go back a while." Peter states to them. "The family turned on him and testified to throw him in prison." Peter says to them. "The woman from the elevator was the judge for his trial, sentenced him to death." Peter explains and wonders why he didn't see it before.

"He must've been affected by the explosion while he was being gassed." Wells finished Peter's train of thought. "Records show that the execution was completed. That's why there was no match in the system, the DNA database only has records of the living." Barry replies.

"Didn't he say there was someone else on his list?" Peter asks Barry and he looks to Caitlin. "Check the arrest record. Who caught him?" Barry asks her and Peter looks and sees who to was.

"The lead detective...it was Joe." She tells him and they know they have to find him fast. Barry gets on the phone to figure out where he went and talks to Eddie, his partner and gets a location.

"I reverse-engineered an antidote to the toxin." Caitlin says and hands a syringe to Peter. "I'm hoping you won't need it." She tells him.

"I'll keep Speedy Gonzales safe, dr. Snow." Peter tells her and she laughs at that.

"Nice to see you're okay after the whole showing up at my window thing." Caitlin tells him.

"You and me both. Where is Detective West?" Peter asks barry. "He went to Iron Heights." Barry tells him.

"Okay, then let's get there, fast. I'd go by web, but there's minimum to none buildings to swing from near the prison." Peter tells him and Barry suits up and speeds off with Peter in his hands.

-

Barry is going as fast has he can with Peter attached to him to save Joe. _"Barry, I pulled up the specs on Iron Heights prison. It's maximum security but I think I can talk you through breaking in there."_ Cisco says into the comms as they make it to outside the prison.

"Whoo! I'm going by web next time." Peter tells Barry. "Don't bother, I've been figuring out how to break into that place since I was 11." Barry tells the team, ignoring Peter.

"Really?" Peter asks him and realizes why. "Oh." He leaves it alone after that and they make their way inside.

-

Inside Iron Heights, Joe is talking to Barry's father when gas attacks the guard watching them and reforms back onto a person. "Nimbus." Joe realizes. "You're supposed to be dead." Joe tells him, seems like everyone wants to make sure he knows that.

"Same to you." Nimbus says and enters Joe and starts killing him and escaping. Henry starts calling out for help when Spider-Man comes crashing in through the door and a blur of lightning comes in and Barry looks up to see his dad. Peter takes the antidote Caitlin gave him and uses it on Joe to save him.

"I hope this works." Peter says and Joe starts gasping for air and looks to them. "Go get him, you two." Joe tells them and they go to find him.

-

Outside, they find him walking around and Barry and Peter stop in front of him. "So you've come to finish what the gas chamber couldn't?" Nimbus asks them, believing that he can win this fight. "You're going somewhere you can't hurt anyone ever again." Barry tells him as they're ready to fight and he just turns into gas again and grows into a giant cloud.

"Okay, we can't breath him in, we can't touch him." Peter recaps then decides to use his scientific mind to help him stop living gas. "Gas is the most unstable of the elements, isn't it?" Peter asks Barry and he nods in agreement. "So that means he can't stay in mist form for long." Peter states to Barry.

"That means his particles will need to reform." Barry finishes his thoughts. "We just gotta out run him." Peter says and they use Barry's speed to keep him distracted and as they keep running, Nimbus turns back into his human form and charges at Barry again. Barry speeds away as he changes back into human form again.

Peter then takes that his moment to shoot him in the back with a taser web and he drops to the floor.

"Looks like you're the one who made the Mist-ake here." Peter quips to the unconscious man.

"We won." Barry tells the team at S.T.A.R. Labs. It actually took him a second to get Peter's joke then he suddenly burst out laughing understanding it.

-

Later, Peter brought Mist into the prison in the particle accelerator and he's not happy and tries to escape. "It's gonna hold, right?" Peter asks them.

"The barrier is powered by an 8.3 Tesla superconducting electromagnet, which is about 100,000 Times the strength of earths magnetic field."Cisco reassures the masked man.

"In other words, yes." Wells says. "Yeah, I understood what he meant, but I like hearing it straight up." Peter explains to them and see him trying to escape. "Well, Good night." Wells says as he closes the doors into the accelerator blocking them from seeing Nimbus.

"So were just supposed to get used to working above a makeshift prison housing evil people with powers?" Caitlin asks them. "My question exactly." Peter states, agreeing with Caitlin.

"You'd be surprised what you can get used to, Caitlin." Wells says and turns to Spider-Man. "So to point out the elephant in the room, why do you insist on wearing the mask with us?" Wells asks the masked man.

Peter thinks of a good excuse that doesn't out him out. "I'll let you guys know who I am eventually. But I can't today. I've got people I need to protect, people who need to stay away from my secret." Peter explains to them and they decide to leave it at that.

"I've got to get going, but this is for you." Peter says and passes Cisco a phone with a Spider-Man casing on it. "I call it the Spider-Phone. Need me, my number is on speed dial." Peter says and starts walking off. "Just don't expect me to keep doing this every time. This is _so_ not my pay grade." He jokes and leaves with Wells beside him.

"Well, if you wouldn't mind, I would like to ask some quick questions about your powers." Wells asks Peter hoping to get some ideas to how his powers work. "Sure, as long as it's nothing personal." Peter agrees to the questioning as they leave.

"After today, I really need a ice cream or a drink. Let's see what we hit first." Caitlin tells Cisco and they start leaving. "Should we invite Peter? He wanted to keep hanging out like old times." Cisco asks her as they leave the labs. "Of course we're inviting Peter." Caitlin replies as they leave thinking how it's like old times.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-


	4. Cold in summer

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Today at S.T.A.R. Labs, they were testing Barry's multitasking skills by making him do different tasks at once.

"This isn't even remotely anatomically correct." Caitlin states as she's looking at _Operation_. "That's not the point, dr. Snow." Barry says as he takes his turn and speeds back to Cisco who's playing ping pong.

"Then what is the point?" Caitlin asks Barry. "To have fun." Barry answers.

"And to continue your ongoing training by testing the speed of your mind by pushing your ability to multitask." Wells says while playing a chess game.

Barry speeds over and takes his turn on chess. "I'm waiting on you, dr. Wells." Barry says as he goes back to ping pong.

-

Outside, Peter is keeping his eyes on the movement of a pricelsss gem being transferred, since it's going to likely be attacked. He also has a quick way of contacting the S.T.A.R. Labs team if he needs a quick save.

He watches the transport and watches a pickup truck pull up and several motorcyclists surrounding it and lifting the truck into the air.

"Well, this has got to be the most creative robbery." Peter says as he sees someone who must be the leader. "Hey, cool it!" He tells the men before they could kill the driver and guard. "158 seconds to go." He tells them and Peter sees he needs to step in now, but knows he's going to need Barry.

-

S.T.A.R. Labs, Caitlin is getting more frustrated at _Operation _and Wells beats him at chess. "Checkmate." Wells says and Barry is surprised to see he did loose. "I guess we still have a few things left to learn, don't we, mr. Allen?" Wells asks him when yeh computers go off.

"Spider-Man's communicators sending a signal for us at 4th and Collins." Cisco tells him and Barry gets in his suit.

"For the record, I crushed _Operation _and ping pong." He states and speeds off.

-

At the robbery, the boss just breaks the door open as Peter sneaks around and webs the armed man down against the car when bullets start raining down on him. Peter swiftly dodged the bullets as his senses pick up something coming at him fast and he knows exactly what it is.

Barry comes speeding in and punches the man shooting at Peter and takes the rest down. One of the men shoot one of the guards and Barry rushes to his side.

"He needs a hospital, go, I'll take care of them." Peter tells Barry and he agrees.

"Where's the nearest hospital?" Barry asks the team and speeds off. Peter quickly turns to see that two motorcyclists escaped. "I hate downtown." Peter states since he can't run or swing after the, With their being nothing to swing from.

"Now thinking about it, how am I getting back?" He questions and just starts walking. "I need like a Spider-Bike or something." Peter mumbles to himself as he keeps walking.

-

Later on the CCPD show up and takes a look at everything.

"Well, everyth8jg is still here. Including what I think they were after, the Kahndaq Dynasty diamond." Joe tells Eddie as they exit the truck. "It was on its way to Central City museum for exhibition." He explaisn.

"Right, iris is trying to talk me into going." Eddie says and realizes it's still a sensitive subject around Joe and walks away.

-

"You said our biggest threat would be the police or even Spider-Man. We counted for the bug, but there's been some rumors the last few weeks." One of the remaining robbers tell the headman, Leonard Snart. "People seen a red blur tearing through the streets. What the hell is it, man?" He asks Snart.

Snart looks at the footage from the attack and comes to a conclusion. "When I was a kid, my grandfather used to take my sister and me to this diner, the Motorcar. Food was crap, but the view was great, right across from the Central City prescient. I still go there, listen to their radios. I leaned their response times." Leonard tells them.

"There are 40 banks in Central City, each of them within 60 seconds of police response. That's the advantage of hitting a moving target. Once the armored car called 911, we had 182 seconds before any cop could be on the scene. It would've taken Spider-Man 124 seconds to get close enough for a takedown, unless he was tailing, which we accounted for. No one could've been fast enough to stop us. But something did, and you lost your cool. You know the rules. We don't shoot guards or cops unless it's the only option." Snart tells his man.

"What the hell do you think the blue is, Snart?" He asks. "Screw this. I'm out." He states and Snart shoots him.

"Well, if your out, let it be so." Snart states. "This blur is a man. We're gonna have to up our game." Snart states.

-

Peter and Caitlin are getting coffee while making her way to S.T.A.R. Labs and Peter making his way to Mercury labs. "Barry has been asking to meet you, you know." Caitlin tells Peter as he takes a drink from his coffee.

"Is that so?" Peter asks her. "Yeah, I was thinking you might wanna come by for a minute?" Caitlin asks while fake pouting.

"That only worked on Ronnie, Caitlin. It doesn't work on me." Peter states to her and as she continues he gets worn down and decides to spend the rest of his break with his friends.

-

"As I can see, you guys didn't redecorate anything. I mean, even the white walls." Peter says as he enters the cortex and Cisco and Wells see him.

"Dr. Parker. What a pleasure to see you again." Wells says and goes over to shake his hand and Peter does so without hesitation. "Dr. Wells, I heard what happened to you, I'm sorry to hear what happened." Peter tells him sympathetically.

"It was my arrogance that brought this onto me, Peter. I'm just happy to see you are back in our city." Wells says and leaves to do whatever it is he does.

"He actually kinda missed you when you left." Cisco says and hi-5s his friend. "Yeah, I don't know what it is he likes about me so much though." Peter states honestly. Why is _the_ Harrison Wells so interested in him since he's showed up to the labs?

"And this is where my team monitors the police bands for criminal activity. We can track anything that's happening in the city. We've even got our own satellite." Barry says as he and Felicity Smoak walk into the cortex and Peter looks surprised. "I know. I've hacked into it from time to time." Felicity responds to him.

"Rude." Cisco states in shock and Peter smiles. "Felicity Smoak." Peter says and Felicity turns to see him.

"Peter!" Felicity asks him and walk over to hug him. "Oh, it's been so long." She tells them as they break off. "It's been almost a month, Felicity." Peter states to her.

"You guys know each other?" Caitlin asks Peter and Felicity.

"Yeah, we met during my time in Starlight City." Peter explains and looks at his watch. "Speaking of time, I've gotta get to work." Peter says and shakes hands with Barry before leaving. "Nice to finally meet you, Barry, see you guys around." He tells them and leaves.

"So that's Peter." Barry says as he leaves. "It is nice to see you again, Felicity. I'm just wondering how much of our operation she needs to know about." Caitlin replies to them.

"I'm really good at keeping secrets." Felicity tells them since she's been keeping Peter's Spider-Man a secret along with Oliver is the Arrow.

"Yeah, Felicity works with the Arrow." Barry tells them and she can't believe he did that. "And you apparently are not." She tells Barry.

"Now it's all making sense. You know who the Arrow is." Cisco said when a thought came in his head. "Wait, do you know who Spider-Man is?" He asks her.

"Let's just say that my team has a similar set up, but with...more pointy objects." Felicity says, trying not to give away Peter's secret. "Welcome, ms. Smoak." A new voice and they look to see Wells is back from wherever.

"Dr. Wells?" Felicity asks in shock. "Please, call me Harrison, Felicity." Wells tells her.

"You know who I am?" Felicity asks him.

"Range second in the national informative technology competition at age 19, graduated M.I.T. with masters degree in cyber security and computer sciences. I know who you are." Wells says as he moves into the room from the doorway. "I keep an eye out for promising talent in scientific fields." He explains to them.

"It's what brought me Cisco, Caitlin, even been keeping an eye on Peter. And I foresaw great things from you." Wells tells Felicity while removing his glasses.

-

"You wanted state of the art, Snart. I bring you state of the art, my good man." Eddie Brock says to Snart while looking over stuff stolen from all the labs. "What's this?" Snart asks while looking at a heat-gun.

"It might not look like much, but never judge a book by its cover, you know? Fires highly concentrated, combustible liquid fuel that ignites on contact with the air." Eddie explains to Snart.

"I don't need to heat things up." Snart states and keeps looking around. "I need to slow things down." He explains and looks at another case and sees a black substance that is moving around like a lava lamp.

"Where's you find this?" Snart asks him. "We found it in some secure vault in Mercury labs. The scientist marked it as a highly dangerous substance with the characteristics of a Symbiote." Eddie

He opens another to see a cold-gun and a pair of goggles.

"That's the one then, you were drawn right to it. Stolen from S.T.A.R. Labs after the incident, with nothing but a skeleton security crew to guard the tech inside."

Snart then powers up the gun and it starts humming. "Emits some sort of substance, I'm not sure what it is. It's like a white flame, but it's cold." He explains to Snart.

"Glasses Look like they're made of the same tech. What are they for?" Snart asks while putting the glasses on. "The glare. You'll see." His henchmen states to him.

"Who else knows you took this?" Snart asks him. "Just us." He tells Snart.

"No, just me. Sorry, Brock." Snart says and then uses the cold-gun on his own man, using it on him and blasting him into the containers and leaves. But the container that was holding the black ooze breaks out and attached itself to Brock.

-

At Mercury labs, Peter is being told that his most dangerous substance has been stolen. "How long has it been missing?" Peter asks Tina McPhee as he looks into the vault it was stolen from.

"Security cameras show it happened quite recently. We don't have an ID on him yet, but we're doing everything we can to find it. Just how dangerous is this substance?" Tina asks Peter as he looks like he's about to blow a fuse.

"What's worse than an apocalypse?" Peter asks her and knows he needs to find it. _Fast_. Before someone's curiosity got the best of them.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco finds his inventions also missing. "How long has it been missing?" Wells asks Cisco. "I don't know." Cisco says.

"I'm gonna ask you again, Cisco. But when I do, I expect a more specific answer than _I don't know_. Now, how long has this weapon been gone?" Wells asks Cisco.

"A day, maybe two. One of the janitors didn't show up for work this morning. He was probably the one who took it. I didn't think-" Wells interrupts him by slamming the door shut.

"You didn't think, because if you had, you would have discussed with me first your desire to build something that could, in theory, hurt anyone, and in particular, Barry Allen and even more likely, Spider-Man." Wells shouts to Cisco in anger. "I'm sorry." Cisco tries apologizing and knows he messed up.

"You know how I feel about weapons, Cisco. They do not belong in S.T.A.R. Labs. Now, you are gonna figure out a way to locate this gun, and you are gonna do it right now." Wells states to him and leaves.

"This thingyou built, what can it do?" Caitlin asks Cisco, since she never heard about this before.

"Bad stuff." Cisco states.

-

At the museum, Joe was called in to check on something. "You said to call if there was anything suspicious." The caretaker of the museum tells Joe and they make their way to the diamond exhibit, "this guy went through the tour twice." He states and points to someone below them and Joe looks to see Snart and he notices them and leaves.

"This is detective Joe West, I have a visual on Leonard Snart at the museum. Requesting immediate back up." Joe says into his radio and runs off to stop him.

-

Peter was doing anything he can to locate the Symbiote before something extremely bad happens, when his police radio goes off and they've spotted Leonard Snart. He takes quick action and changes into his suit and leaps out the window to stop him.

-

Snart is walking down the street with Joe on his tail when a police car comes to help and Snart freezes the road with the cold-gun. Joe follows him as he enters the theater.

Peter comes swinging in and sees everyone running from the theater and enters. As he looks for Snart, his senses go off and he turns to see Snart and the gun goes off while a blast of ice comes at him. He was about the dodge the blast when Barry speeds in and pushes him out of the way and gets hit by the blast.

"You okay, man?" Peter asks his partner in crime fighting. "Ah! It burns." Barry says and Peter sees an entire side of his body is frozen.

"Well, that's new." Peter says when Snart starts shooting at their direction and they run to dodge it.

"Time for a test run." Snart says and sees people around the room. "Let's see how fast you are." He says and starts shooting at the people around the room.

Peter uses his webs to pull them down and away from Snart's aim and Barry speeds around saving others, a little slow because of the ice on his side. Snart aims at one more man and Barry rushes to save him, just before the blast could hit him, Peter shot a web grenade that once it exploded, it absorbed the ice, saving him.

"Thank god." Barry says as the man just passes out from shock. "Yeah, I can see that." Peter states and helps move the man out.

-

They goes back to S.T.A.R. Labs and Caitlin gives him a checkup. "It's still numb." Barry says, regarding the place where Snart shot him.

"It's presenting itself like third degree frostbite." Caitlin explains to them after patching him up as good as she could.

"I thought all super people could hyper heal." Felicity says and points to Spider-Man. "Not hyper healing, fast metabolism." Peter corrects her.

"It's been slowed down." Caitlin tells them and looks at the data. "If your cells weren't regenerating at the rate they are, your boood vessels would have frozen solid and the nerve damage would've been permanent."

"Snart wasn't another metahuman though, he has a weapon that could apparently reach absolute zero." Peter says, confused to where someone gets a weapon like that.

"It also slowed me dow, if it weren't for you a man would've died." Barry replies to Peter. "According to the records, Snart didn't even bother to finish high school, so how did he build a handheld high tech snow machine?" Felicity asks and Peter doesn't see how you could.

"S.T.A.R. Labs built the cold-gun." Wells says to them and they look towards them. "Dr. Wells and Caitlin had nothing to do with this." Cisco explains and they then look at him. "I built the gun."

Peter's eyes go as far as they can open in shock. "Way the fu..?" Peter whispers, knowing Cisco couldn't hurt a fly if he tried. So why would he build a gun that could easily kill someone?

"You built it?" Barry asks Cisco. "Speed and cold are opposites. Temperature is measured by how quickly the atoms of something are oscillating." Cisco explains and Peter knows where he's going. "The faster they are, the hotter they get, and when things get cold, they're slower on the atomic level. When there's no movement it's-"

"Absolute zero." Peter cuts him off. "You designed a compact cryogenic engin to achieve absolute zero?" Peter asks the engineer.

Cisco slowly nods his head and looks towards Barry. "I built it to stop you." Cisco states to Barry. "I didn't know who you were then, Barry. I mean, what if you turned out to be some psycho, like. Mardon or Nimbus?"

"But I didn't, did I?" Barry asks him, as anger rises up. "We built the entire structure you're standing in to do good, and it blew up." Caitlin says, trying to help Cisco. "In the wake of that, you can understand why Cisco would want to be prepared for the worst."

"I can understand that, but what I can understand is why you didn't tell me what you did. I mean, after all we've been through, I thought you trusted me. I thought we were friends." Barry shouts at Cisco.

"They did what they thought was in the right for everyone, man." Peter says and they look at him surprised to see him get involved. "Everything changed when this place blew sky high. People don't know who to trust, nobody knows who can do what. When I first started, everyone was trying to figure out ways to kill me because they were afraid of me." He explains to Barry referring to the Spider Slayers that were thankfully never put into production.

"I even changed my suit because I didn't know what to be prepared for returning to this city. They didn't know you had the responsibility to handle this power when you first got it, so they were getting prepared to fight someone who can bend the rules of physics. And the whole point of a weapon like this is so you can't be prepared for it so you can be stopped. So instead of blaming them for being scientists and thinking of every possible variable, I suggest you find Snart before anyone else gets attacked." Peter says and leaves to get out of the labs.

"He was not like that because he was in Starlight City." Felicity states, never hearing something like that from Peter.

Peter went to a part of the labs to go back to searching for the Symbiote when Felicity comes into the lab. "Hey there, Peter. What are you up to?" She asks him and sees he's focused on his work.

"Peter?" She asks, trying to get his attention and taps his shoulder causing him to jump. "Woah! It's okay. It's just me, I'm sorry." Felicity apologized as e calms down. "Felicity! Don't do that. You know I can't stand being creeped on." Peter states to her.

"Sorry! You just weren't responsive when I was trying to talk to you." She says defending her actions and Peter calms back down. "I'm sorry. It's just something bad happened. You remember when I told you about that alien creature that attached itself to me?" Peter asks her.

"The one that turned you into an emo teenager?" Felicity asks, remembering the story. "Yeah, well, over the years, I've been trying to discover how to get rid of it. It's been kept in a locked safe all of these years and now someone stole it. If it were to get out and attach itself to someone, it could mean disaster. I need to find it before that happens."

"Why haven't you told them who you are?" Felicity asks him, since they're his best friends he shouldn't be keeping it a secret.

Peter thinks for a minute and has to face it himself. "I used to say it's because everyone who learns it dies, but now it's just because I've been keeping it for so long, it's just a second nature nowadays." He admits to her. "I just don't know how to tell them." Peter says as he goes back to locating the Symbiote and can't find anything.

"Unles something appears on the monitors, it's still trapped." Peter explains to her and leaves to go back to the others.

-

Snart breaks the door with his cold-gun. "Freeze!" A guard says and Snart doesn't flinch. "You wanna end up like that door?" He asks the guard and he just runs off, not wanting to die. Snart then moves to the case with the diamond.

-

"I found a way to locate Captain Cold." Cisco tells them as they comes back together. "The cold gun is powered by an engine control unit, a microcomputer that regulates air-to-fuel rations so the sub-cooled fluid in the chambers don't overflow and explode. This E.C.U. was receiving updates wirelessly from my tablet. If I boost the signal using Central City's network and send a false update, we'll get a ping back, and then a location." Cisco explains to them.

"How long will that take you?" Peter asks him.

"First I have to hack into the city's network, so maybe 30 minutes." Cisco tells him and Felicity offers her assistance. "I can do it in less than one. When it comes to hacking, I'm the fastest woman alive." She says and starts working. "Leave the quips for me to use." Peter states as she gets in.

"All right, I'm sending the signal." Cisco says.

"Network is signaling the device, and we got him. He's heading west on Nelson towards the train station." Caitlin tells them.

"If he's leaving, he's got what he wanted." Peter says and looks to Barry. "It's up to us now. Come on." Peter states and Barry gets in his suit.

"When we put our minds together, nothing can stop us." Cisco says looking to Peter and he starts feeling more guilty about not telling him who he is.

-

They then make it to the train station to look for Snart and see him board a train while it's moving. "Ah, memories." Peter says since the last time he had a fight on a train, he had to stop it with his body. "Come on." Barry says and speeds them into the train.

"Nowhere to run now, mr. Freeze!" Peter quips at him. "I didn't see you before." Snart says as he looks at Barry. "Your Mom know you're out past your bedtime?" He quips to Barry.

"Again with the quips." Peter complains since everyone is stealing the good ones from him. "If you wanted to get away, you should've taken something faster than a train." Barry tells Snart and Peter thinks he has another idea in mind. "That's If I wanted to eat away. I've seen your weakness at the armored car, then the theater. While you're busy saving everyone, I'll be saving myself." Snart states and Peter takes this opportunity to try and webbing his gun, but that turns into a bad idea as the gun fires all around the car, causing it to derail.

"Good luck with that!" Snart says and jumps out of the car.

Barry doesn't easy any time and uses his speed to get everyone out and free before the car has the time to crash. Barry goes back for Peter last and get out of there as the car crashes and they drop to avoid it.

Barry starts getting up when a blast of ice comes down and traps him. "You're pretty fast, kid, but not fast enough." Snart says to Barry as he tries getting up but is frozen to the ground.

"Thank you. You forced me to up my game, not only with this gun, but with how I think about the job." Snart says when something comes up behind him.

"Drop it!" Cisco shouts and he, Caitlin and Felicity are holding a device. "Oh, thank god, it's tech support. Never thought I'd say that." Peter quips and drops to the floor in exhaustion.

"This is a prototype cold gun, four times the size, four times the power." Cisco states as he holds the gun to Snart's head.

"I was wondering who you were talking to besides the arachnid over there." Snart states to Barry and Peter. "You know, you're the first person to say that right." Peter replies to Snart.

"Unless you want a taste of your own medicine, I'd back the hell up." Cisco commands Snart.

"Your hands are shaking. You've never killed anyone." Snart tells Cisco, since he doesn't have it in him.

"There's a first time for everything, Captain Cold." Cisco replies to him and he gives in and leaves. "See you heroes around." Snart says and keeps walking.

"Hey, leave the diamond." Cisco tells him and he keeps walking. "Don't push you're luck." Snart states and leaves. Caitlin goes to check on Peter while Cisco and Felicity help Barry. "I couldn't shoot him even if I wanted to. This is the S.T.A.R. Labs vacuum cleaner." Cisco says and chuckles.

"Thanks for the save." Peter tells them and they make their way to S.T.A.R. Labs.

-

"Snart must've disconnected the signal somehow, I can't track him anywhere." Cisco says as Peter stands behind him. "We'll find him, don't worry." Peter replies and sees him smile and he decides to call it a night. On his way out, he runs into Felicity.

"You've got some good friends here, you know." Felicity tells him.

"Yeah. It's gonna be hard to tell them. But I think they'll understand." Peter tells her.

"So you _are _going to tell them?" Felicity asks.

"Yeah. But first, I'm gonna have to go solo for a while longer. I'm going parasite hunting." Peter states and shows that he has locations where to find Venom. "Once I have the Symbiote, I'll tell them the truth."

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**Next chapter will be during episode 5 and 6, since there's not a lot going on during that time.**


	5. Black is the new black

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In the dark city, Herman Shultz, or the Shocker, is trying to get away with a robbery when he hears something coming at him and it hits him across the dark alley.

"Spider-Man. So you've come back for another fight, huh?" Shocker asks as he they'd thrown around the alley and tries to shoot a blast at Spider-Man and can't see him in the darkness, and only heard growls.

Shocker then gets punched and his gauntlets get crushed under the figure and he looks up to see a dark suit with a white symbol.

"Got a second suit?" Shocker asks when the figure leaves the darkness and Shocker sees he has a mouth, eyes and an enormous tongue.

"What...are you?" Shocker asks, realizing it's not Spider-Man.

"We...are Venom." The creature says and slams Shocker against the wall.

-

Joe is leaving the prescient when he hears a noise down the alley. He just thinks it was the wind when an even bigger noise comes in and he ddcodes to check it out.

"Whoever you are, show yourself!" Joe commands when he makes it down the alley and sees Spider-Man and his suit is damaged.

"Joe...help me." Peter says as he tears off his mask and Joe looks and wonders what inured him this much.

-

Peter wakes up confused to where he is as he looks around the room to see pictures on a fireplace, a tv in the corner, a chair across from the sofa he's currently on and looks to see Joe at the table across the room.

"Thanks for the save, detective." Peter says as he gets up and sees he's not in his suit. "Some of Barry's old clothes. I thought it'd be easier to explain why there's someone on my couch than explaining why Spider-Man is on my couch." Joe explains why he's wearing what he is.

"Again, thanks. I owe you one." Peter says and tries standing and he's still bruised. "I couldn't exactly do anything with your injuries. Who do you usually go to for injuries?" Joe asks him. "I mean, you've been doing this for years, you must have someone, right?" Joe asks him.

"Nope. I usually let my injuries take care of themselves. The one time I saw an actual doctor would be Caitlin a while back after my run in with that Black guy. The Clonerizer." Peter explains to Joe.

"So, What happened to you? Who beat you so badly?" Joe asks.

"An old friend. You ever hear about when Spider-Man went dark?" Peter asks, referring to his first encounter with the Symbiote years ago.

"Yeah, you beat up several criminals to a pulp."

"It...it just happened, I never saw him coming the first time. But he calls himself Venom...he's a parasite that consumed me once. He turned me into an emo freak. I was going through a dark phase, because that Symbiote was effecting my head. But I didn't care, because when I wore that suit, I felt it's power. It made me feel powerful. It wasn't until Ronnie that I realized what it was doing."

"Ronnie, like Caitlin's dead fiancé?"

"He was my best friend for years. He tried getting me to see that the suit was corrupting me. I didn't believe him until one day. It was raining, I was thinking about what Ronnie told me leaning on this old bell tower. That I'm becoming someone different, then I decided to finally get rid of the suit. I tried taking it off, but it was becoming attached to me. I did everything in my strength to pull myself free, until I slammed my head against the bell, that seemed to have provoked it and it tried escaping the noise. I guess it's sensitive to sound, or something like that. I then captured it, kept it a safe until I learnt of a way to destroy it. It just stayed in a safe for years, until someone broke in and stole it."

Joe is in shock to hear something like this from the hero. "So what are you going to do about it?" Joe asks as he walks over to him and sits across him.

"I'm gonna have to find who he's attached to, stop him. Apparently team Flash is dealing with something so I can't ask them for help. And I can't risk putting any of them in danger. I have to fight him alone. It's been trying to find it's way back to me and if it gets me, it could be disastrous."

_"All units, we have reports of a dark Spider-Man breaking into Mercury labs." _Joe's radio says and they look at each other.

"Venom. He's trying to find me." Peter says and webs his mask back to him. "And I'm gonna stop him."

-

Mercury labs, Tina McPhee is trying to escape as Venom starts chasing her, smelling the scent of Spider-Man on her. She accidentally runs into a corner a looks back to Venom as he starts sniffing her. "Where's...spider?" Venom asks in a dark, menacing voice.

"I..I don't know!" Tina says scared out her mind when a window smashes open and Spider-Man comes flying in and webs Venom and tries holding him back.

"Ms. McPhee, get out of here! I can't hold him back forever!" Peter says and Tina starts running, when Venom breaks free and Venom slams Tina through the window.

"No!" Peter yells as he drops Venom and runs out the window to save her.

He quickly catches up with her and webs the side of the building to bring her to the ground. "Oh my goodness, than you for that, Spider-Man." Tina says as she lets go of Peter and a police car approaches.

"Go. I'll explain the best I can, you need to stop that thing." She tells him and Peter agrees and tries finding the creature.

Venom keeps swinging around and Peter is right on his tail. "I don't get it, he seems to be after me, but he's running every opportunity he gets." Peter states as he keeps chasing him when he turns a corner, and when Peter follows he disappears.

"Where'd he go?" Peter asks himself as he looks around and a arm grabs him from behind and before he could react, he was slammed into the wall.

Peter looks to finally see Venom clearly.

"Eyes...lungs...pancreas. So many snacks, so little time." Venom says and licks Peter's face/mask. "Oh, you're not after me to become _me_. You wanna destroy me." Peter realizes and wonders why he didn't think about that when Venom only beat him up and left him to die. "First, I will destroy everything you love, then destroy you." Venom says.

"I just gotta say, that's a cliche at this point." Peter states as he tries prying himself free and Venom starts getting shot at and Peter sees Joe shooting him.

"Joe, run!" Peter yells and Venom drops him and charched at Joe. Joe then runs out of bullets and aims his taser at Venom and shoots. Once it impacts him and activates, Venom screams fill the air as he drops and starts turning into a liquid substance again.

"Whatever you're doing, Joe, it's working!" Peter states and Venom leaves the body and attaches itself to a new host. Joe West.

"That's not good." Peter states as Joe Venom leaps off. "And the worst part is that since he can see into my mind, he can see Joe's mind and knows where to find everyone." Peter realizes and realizes there's a piece of Venom left.

"Except, I might be able to help you better now." Peter says and covers the sample up and takes it.

-

Luckily, Mercury labs wasn't exactly under investigation that long, but they've decided to keep an eye out for any more attacks just to be safe. So Peter was able to use his laboratory, not wanting to go to S.T.A.R. Labs after hearing about this man of steel Barry is facing. He plans on using the piece of Venom he has to Anti-Venom to get rid of Venom once and for all. But he also knows it's a matter of time before Venom comes back for the rest of himself, and Peter.

He keeps doing his thing when he hears something smashing and hears Venom. "_Where's Spider-Man?!_" He now realizes he also needs to get dressed back up on his suit and make sure nobody sees him.

He hears gunshots and knows that the police have engaged not knowing it's one of their own inside of that thing. Once the compound is finally completed, he goes in and gets changed into his suit on the way, also reminding himself he needs to go through the cameras to delete himself and makes it to the fight.

"Detective!" Peter shouts seeing Venom holding Eddie Thawne in his hands. "_Spider-Man." _Venom says, seeing him.

"You want me, leave them out of this!" Peter says and Venom charges at him. "I know you're still in there, detective." Peter says, trying to help Joe and remembered what helped was when he remembered who he used to be. Venom comes in and punches Peter through several walls.

"In there somewhere...ow." Peter says and sees Venom comes at him again. "You know, I didn't miss you." Peter quips and moves out of the way to have Venom smash himself into the wall.

Peter uses his taser webs to quickly stop Venom. As soon as the web makes contact, Venom once again drops and screams. Peter quickly sees Joe's head sticking out of the creature and uses it to pull Joe free.

"You okay?" Peter asks him as he seems weakened from Venom.

"Stop...him." Joe says and Peter is confused. "It's okay, he can't do anything without a host." Peter explains and Joe points back to the feature and looks to see Venom transforming into a giant web-like creature and he starts getting bigger and tries charging at them. But before he could, Peter slams to metal containers together causing a vibration to make venom back away.

Peter then takes his Anti-Venom serum and throws it at Venom, takes Joe's gun and shoots it at the container, causing it to break and Venom starts dissolving into nothing.

"Is it gone?" Joe asks Peter as he scans for anything and it's all gone. "Yeah, it's gone. Venom's gone." Peter says happy to have completed his mission in getting rid of Venom.

-

Joe and Peter are back at his place and Joe hands him a beer. "That has no affect on me, just so you know." Peter says and takes the drink. "Then I don't need to worry about you drinking and swinging." He jokes and takes some of his own drink.

"That was probably the strangest thing I've experienced in the years I've been a detective. And that's saying something." Joe tells Peter and Peter then wonders something. "Speaking of which, how did it feel? I mean, I didn't feel anything when me and Venom were together, how did you feel?"

"It was like all of my anger over the years rose back up and...I can see why you were so anxious to get rid of it." Joe states to Peter.

"Let's just hope that's the last we've seen of that thing." Peter says and takes a drink.

"I also felt everything you ever felt. You've been through a lot, I'm actually surprised you stayed on the good side." Joe states to him.

"My Uncle always said _with great power, comes great responsibility._ That's what I use to fight. Responsibility for my power." Peter explains to him when all of the lights go off.

"Looks like we blew a fuse maybe." Peter says when his senses go off and lightning enters the room.

Peter uses his spider senses and slows down time and sees someone running in a yellow version of Barry's suit.

Peter tries webbing the man and sees a demon like face before it disappears.

"What the hell was that?" Peter asks when something catches his eye and he stops.

"What?" Joe asks when he looks to see a picture of Iris and a knife sticking in it. But what caught Peter's eyes was a picture of May with the same treatment. "Stop or else." The picture above Iris' picture says and Peter's reads, "never speak of this"

"Joe, who did you piss off?" Peter asks in fear for aunt May.

"The man who murdered Barry's mother." Joe explains but that raises more answers than questions from Peter.

———————————————————————————————


	6. Tick tock, goes the clock

——————————————————————————————————————————————-

Today wasn't exactly what you would call a normal day in Central City, but it's quickly becoming normal. It's been a week since the entire Venom incident, Joe obviously had to explain to captain Singh what happened and Joe had to call Peter as Spider-Man to explain most of what happened and was given a leave for a few days, but Joe didn't take it.

Barry was called in on a new case and finds a body completely destroyed. Joe and Eddie approached him and Barry sees them. "I hope you both skipped your breakfast." Barry says and they look and see the body and are shocked.

"What the hell could do that?" Eddie asks Barry.

"2,4000 degrees, give or take." Barry tells him and Joe sees everything is explosive around them. "This area's filled with combustibles. How come nothing else burned and blew?" Joe asks Barry as he climbs a latter.

"You see the spot on the ground where the cement is burnt?" Barry asks and looks down to them. "That's evidence of arc blasts. Happens when high-amperage currents travel or arc through the air." Barry says, but in English it just means he was electrocuted.

"There's no utiliti poles. So how was he electrocuted?" Eddie asks and Joe looks down at the body. "First thing to do is I.D. him."

"His face is melted off. How's anything gonna help I.D. him?" Eddie asks and Barry takes a picture. "I've got mad skills." Barry replies.

Joe starts staring out, thinking about Venom and the visit from the man in yellow and Barry sees him. "You okay?" Barry asks his stepfather.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" Joe asks Barry, snapping out of the trance.

"I don't know you just seem a little off." Barry explains to him and Joe gets instant flashbacks to both events again. "No, I'm fine." Joe states.

"Okay." Barry says and leaves to get help.

-

Peter was doing his normal patrol when he gets alert the Petersburg electrical system is getting a power drain and decides to check into it.

Once he arrives, Barry speeds in next to him.

"Hey, Flashy." Peter quips to the finally named hero.

"Spider-Man. Good to see you." Barry says and they see someone absorbing the electricity.

"Oh man, I hate these guys." Peter says, remembering Max Dillon, Electro. "I'm pretty sure this is a restricted area." Barry informs the metahuman. He then looked over at them and tries hitting them with electricity.

"Easy there, Zappy." Barry says to him.

"I have to feed." He tells them and keeps aiming for Barry and gets him. Peter watches and sees him doing something to Barry and shoots him with a taser web and he drains everything from his suits systems.

Peter quickly lets the web go and his suit short circuited on him.

"More of that!" He says and moves to Barry and uses his powers again to drain the lightning from Barry. Peter tries stopping him, but his suit is attacking his nerves system.

"Too much." He starts mumbling and walking off. Peter watches Barry try to run and fails. "I can't run...my speed. It's gone." Barry says in shock.

-

Later on Peter drops Barry off at S.T.A.R. Labs to get to the bottom to what happened to his speed and offered Barry offered him his lab at the CCPD so he can fix his suit.

Barry is running at normal speed on the treadmill and they look at everything that's happening to him. "He runs slow even for a normal person." Cisco says as Barry stops and gets off.

"You can't just lose you're powers, okay?" Caitlin states to Barry as he leaves the room. "Your DNA was transformed by the particle accelerator blast. There's no way to un-transform DNA."

"Yeah, tell that to the spider who complained I was heavy while I swung on his back to get here." Barry states, remembering the awkward looks they were given when Peter needed a break with a secondary person with him over a longer period of time than he's used to.

"Guess we were wrong, this metahuman doesn't electrocute people, he siphons electricity, thereby removing your power." Wells says Barry.

"Is this just temporary, or..?" He asks them.

"We have to run some tests." Wells tells him and he understands.

-

Peter is using Barry's labs to diagnose his suits damages while Barry and Joe are sitting in silence until Joe grabs Barry's cup and throws it.

Peter quickly webs it with his secondary web shooters he keep on his wrists for protection and catches the cup.

"You didn't catch it." Joe tells Barry.

"What part of a metahuman stole my speed didn't you understand?" Barry asks Joe. "Barry, there's no part of anything you or even him for that matter," Joe says while looking towards Peter, "that I will ever understand." He states.

"Well, What did dr. Wells say about it?" Peter asks, knowing he wouldn't just leave it at this.

"He said he's working on it." Barry says.

"Barry, you need your speed back. Without your speed, how are we gonna keep everyone in the city safe?" Joe asks when Peter looks up confused.

"So the past 10 years I've been keeping it safe meant nothing? Good to know." Peter says and goes back to work.

"Not what I meant." Joe apologizes to the web-head. "Joe, the meta who stole my speed, he burned up the body we saw in the alley today. You need to tell the police not to confront him." Barry says and Iris enters the labs, Peter quickly covers up his suit so she doesn't see it.

"Hey, you get an assistant, Barry?" Iris asks noticing Peter. "No, Iris, sorry. Iris, this is Peter Parker, he works for Mercury labs, he was here...checking on Joe about the whole creature incident last week." Barry quickly lies for Peter.

"Yeah, and I'm happy to say he appears to be perfectly fine." Peter says and shakes Iris' hand. "Well, I thank you for helping after whatever happened." Iris said, since nobody wants to explain about what happened.

"Barry, don't you need to be somewhere?" Joe asks Barry and he bids and leaves to head back to S.T.A.R. Labs.

As he enters the elevator he checks his watch as the Clock King, who Oliver and Peter actually stoped while he was visiting Starlight City. "That's a quality time piece, young man." He tells Barry.

"Oh, thanks." Barry says as he gets in the elevator.

"They took mine, all of them."

"Shouldn't have done whatever you did." Barry says as the doors close.

-

S.T.A.R. Labs, Harrison goes into the Time Vault and activates his artificial intelligence. "Gideon, show he the future." Wells tells her and instead of a newspaper saying _"Flash vanishes in crisis" _but it now says _"Spider-Man still missing after crisis"_ and now Wells is worried.

"Run a complete search. Show any references to the Flash." Wells tells Gideon.

**"Zero references to the Flash." **Gideon tells him. "Look again." He tells her and it's the same result.

"Show any references to Barry Allen." Wells tells her.

**"Zero references to Barry Allen." **Gideon tells him.

"Look again!" Wells now shouts at her.

**"I've searched 3,452 times, dr. Wells. There's nothing."** Gideon tells him and he's now worried.

-

Outside the vault, Cisco just got the name of the new metahuman Varook Javan when the alarms go off and they see he's there.

"You're kidding me, this is not happening." Cisco states seeing him and reaches for the Spider-Phone. "Dr. Harrison Wells, I need to see you!" He shouts into the cameras. "Come on, I know you're inside."

"I just want to talk, Wells." He says and none of them believe him.

-

Peter is still running a diagnostic while Joe is downstairs when Singh goes over to him. "Joe, I need you to cover for me until shift change. There's only one thing. Prison transfer, William Tockman." He says and looks over to him in the corner surrounded by two officers.

Peter's senses go off and he doesn't understand why...yet.

-

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Varook uses his powers to break into their power supply and starts absorbing the energy from the facility.

Inside, they watch all the lights flicker.

-

At CCPD, the lights start flickering and Peter watches as his suit stops charging when all power to the city goes off. Clock King uses this as an opportunity once he gets his handcuffs off to steal the officers gun and shoot him. Everyone reacts and he aims at The officers.

"Guns on the floor!" He comands them.

Upstairs, Peter hears what's happening and can't do anything with his damaged suit.

"It should take you less than three seconds to discard any thought of rebellion and comply." He tells them and punches another officer and Peter recognized that anywhere. The Clock King. "I take it I don't need to found out loud." He says as one of the officers try shooting him and gets shot by Clock King faster than he could react.

Iris hides behind Joe and Clock keeps King sees them. "Striking resemblance." He comments.

Peter tries looking for anything he can use as a makeshift suit to stop him or wait for his suit to stop glitching.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Varook absorbs all of the energy and blasts the doors.

"He's inside." Barry comments.

-

Outside the CCPD, they have SWAT teams surrounding the place. "Captain, Tockman has at least ten hostages." One of them tell Singh. "We have two officers down."

"Copy that. Where are we about the power?" Singh asks the men. "We're on gennies for now." They tell Singh when his phone rings.

"Captain Singh, I've been trying to get in touch with Joe or anyone at the precinct." Barry says.

"There's a hostage situation, Barry, Joe's inside so is his daughter." Singh tells him.

-

S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry is freaking out until he realizes that Peter's inside. "I'll call you when I know more."

"Joe and Iris are in trouble, possibly Peter." Barry says, remembering his suit has been damaged. "I need my powers back, fast."

"I have a theory." Wells tells Barry. "It's untested. You've lost your speed, yes, but nothing has changed inside you on a subatomic level. In other words, your cells are still primed. We just need to give you a jumpstart." He explains to Barry.

"Okay, how do we do it? How do we jumpstart me?" Barry asks them. "We need to replicate the initial jolt to your system." Wells says.

"But that would mean a peak current of at least 20,000 kilo-amps." Cisco tells them.

"Are you insane? That's more electricity than they give people in the electric chair." Caitlin tells them.

"With Varook in the building, we're all looking at a death sentence here." Wells states.

"Why don't we contact Spider-Man? He might be able to help." Cisco states and holds the Spider-Phone in his hand.

"Spider-Man was at the prescient, Cisco. And the whole place is in a hostage situation, he's more helpful there than here." Barry says.

"Okay, that's one idea dead. The spare generators are offline, we could get a charge that big if we reboot it." Cisco says.

"We need something that can transmit the load from the generator to Barry's body." Wells explains.

"The treadmill. It can take the charge." Cisco says.

"What If Barry can't?" Caitlin asks them.

"It's up to Barry." Wells says and Barry starts walking away. "Where you going?" Caitlin asks him.

"I'm gonna talk to him. You didn't see him back there, he needed to feed. I got super speed out of the particle accelerator blast, but his friends died. He woke up with a disease." Barry justifies.

"You worked at a crime scene where this metahuman electrocuted an innocent man. He's a murderer! And you ar powerless to defend yourself against him." Wells tells him.

"He may just need help like I did." Barry says and goes to try to help.

-

Singh gets another call and answers it. "Hello?" He asks.

"This is Spider-Man." Peter tells Singh.

"Yeah, right. I'm gonna need some proof." Singh tells him.

"Look, I can't prove it, but I'm inside the prescient right now. I'm gonna try to stop Clock King, I just need you to buy me some time while I come up with a plan to stop him." Peter begs him.

Singh thinks about it and knows he has no other choice. "Okay, how much time are you hoping for?" Singh asks him.

"As much as you can. I hope it doesn't take long to come up with a plan." Peter explains and hangs up.

Singh does what he can and goes to a radio and tries talking to Tockman.

-

Inside the prescient, Tockman picks up the radio. "I have control of eight of Central City's finest, three underpaid assistants, and one very brave civilian girl." Talkman tells him.

"If you've got demands, I wanna hear them. But let the civilians go." Singh tells him. "Would you prefer I sent them out alive or dead?" Talkman asks him. "Please be more specific next time. One helicopter, one vegetarian takeout meal, one laptop with eight gigabytes of ram will be delivered on this roof in exactly 53 minutes and 27 seconds from now. Or I shoot a hostage." Talkman warns him and Eddie is the only cop he hasn't accounted for and was gonna use it to his advantage.

"There's a citywide blackout. I'm gonna need more time." Singh explains to him. "Captain, you may delay, time will not." Talkman tells him.

In the labs, Peter sees there's no way to get the suit back online and knows what he has to do. He starts looking around to find anything he can to create a makeshift generator to get his suit online.

-

Barry finds him roaming through the halls. "I'm not gonna hurt you." Barry explains and he puts his hands up and summons lightning.

"You can't hurt me. Where is Harrison Wells?" Varook asks him.

"Look, I know what happened to you. That night, it changed you. It changed me too." Barry tells him and he calms down.

"You were the one in the red suit. Spider-Man's been around longer than the accelerator, so I fed from your energy." Varook says, putting pieces together. "I have to keep feeding."

"All right, I know this has to be terrifying. That's why I want to help you, okay?" Barry tries reasoning with him.

"The night of the explosion, when the light hit me, it stopped my heart. Jake and Darya, I woke up, and they were beside me, dead. They tried to give me CPR. They touched me and I electrocuted them."

"This is not your fault."

"You're right. Wells did this to me."

"Varook, you need to listen to me." Barry says, but he doesn't listen and blasts him down the hall where everyone else is. Caitlin helps him up and Cisco closes the doors, blocking him.

"Caitlin, get him to the treadmill." Wells tells her. "Cisco, get the generator online. Make sure Barry gets the charge." Wells says as he has an idea to how to buy them time.

"What? I'm not leaving you." Cisco tells him as Caitlin takes Barry out of the room.

"Listen, out of everything I've done in my life, of everything I have invented, the most important creation is the Flash. Barry Allen must have a future. Now go!" Wells tells Cisco and he does as he says.

-

Talkman watches outside and Joe looks up the stairs and sees light coming from the labs and knows Peter is doing something.

"End this now, and I'll talk to the D.A." Joe tells Talkman, trying to keep his attention away from the labs.

"It was your district attorney that denied me furlough so I could visit my dying sister one last time...say goodbye in person. That's time I'm never getting back!" Talkman yells and Joe sees he's agitated, but at least he's distracted. Eddie also takes it as an opportunity to sneak up on him with a gun.

"So however long I have in this life, I promise not one second more will be spent in a prison cell." Talkman says, calming down when Eddie shoots him in the back and Talkman turns to shoot him. He gets two shots trough his vest and they scream.

Talkman then picks up a radio. "An officer was just shot 9.2 seconds ago." Talkman warns them, not knowing Spider-Man was crawling across the ceiling. "I'd pick up the pace in meeting my demands, Captain." He warns them.

"Or maybe not." A voice says and he turns to see Spider-Man, but before he could react, Peter webs his hands to the ground and punches him in the face, knocking him out cold. "Punched your clock in two different cities with two different time zones, ironically." Peter quips and grabs the radio. "Captain Singh, thanks for the time. Your people are safe, but detective Thawne is gonna need the hospital." Peter tells Singh.

-

Outside, Singh hears it and calls everyone. "All clear! Move in!" He tells the SWAT teams and they move in.

Once they make it inside, they see all the hostages are free and Eddie is ready to be transported. Singh looks around and sees a note.

"See you around-Spider-Man. ;)" Singh finds the notes annoying, but still charming that he cares.

Outside the precinct, Peter is happy to have done something good and looks at his phone to see a reply from Caitlin when he said he would visit later. **Don't come. Metahuman invaded the labs-Cait****. **It reads and Peter then rushes towards S.T.A.R. Labs to protect his friends.

-

At said location, Wells opens the pipeline to see Barry's childhood bully, Tony Woodward, who can turn his body into steel. "Come to check on your pet? Why don't you just kill me, huh?" He asks Wells.

"Quid pro quo." Wells says, Speaking Latin. "That's Latin, mr. Woodward. It means something for something, this case being your freedom. I will grant it to you." He explains to Tony.

"How do you know I won't kill you?" Tony asks him.

"Let's call that a calculated risk." Wells says, knowing he couldn't hurt him if he wanted to.

"Why would you do that?" Tony asks Wells.

"Because there is another metahuman in the faculty. I want you to kill him." Wells explains to him and he smiles at the idea.

-

Peter makes it into the labs, scans the environment and sees Barry and Caitlin are in the treadmill room, Cisco is working on the generators and he couldn't find Wells.

He moves into the cortex and sees Varook.

"You know, you're not entirely original." Peter quips and Varook looks to him. "Because I fought a guy with the same power. Almost the same, his were lightning based, you're more living electricity." He states and Varook shoots lightning at him.

"Did you know the human body generates electricity? The average person gives off 342 watts, and I could easily smell it from you, even you're radioactivness." Varook tells Peter.

"Hate to break it to you, but radioactivness isn't a word." Peter informs him.

The lights to the facility come back online.

"Let there be light." Peter quips and Varrook and him start fighting trough the halls.

-

"Turn on the treadmill." Barry tells Caitlin, wanting to help Peter fight him off.

-

Peter gets shocked again, but his suit finally absorbs it instead of it damaging it now. Suddenly, Varook gets hit by a steel fist and Peter looks to see the metahuman Barry was dealing with during the whole Venom scenario.

"Hi there, Spider-Man. I've just been dying to punch somebody." Tony says and Vorook tries blasting him, but Tony turns to steel stopping it from harming him.

-

"Caitlin!" Barry tells, waiting for the electricity. "We don't have anymore time!"

"If I turn this on, it could kill you." Caitlin says.

"If you don't us, including Spider-Man will die." Barry tells her.

"I already lost one person I cared about, I can't loose someone else." Caitlin explains. In the past few weeks, Barry has been just a close as a friend as Cisco. Peter being higher up since she knew him even longer than both of them.

"Someone told me I was struck by that lightning for a reason, that it chose me. I'm not sure if I believe that, it doesn't matter right now. What do you think?" Barry asks her as she hesitates and finally pulls the lever and Barry gets blasted by electricity.

"Are you okay? Did you feel anything?" Caitlin asks him and sees his hand vibrating then stops.

"It didn't work." Barry says as they hear the fighting.

-

Peter is blasted down the halls and Tony is blasted down the other way and runs into Barry and Caitlin.

"Tony." Barry says and runs to him.

"Oh, come on. You know me, Allen. I never run from a fight." Tony says as he's taken as much as he could.

"Come on, stay with me. You're good." Barry says and sees he's taken too much.

"Run." He says as he flatlines on the spot and Barry is in shock when Peter comes in being blasted.

"If I never see another super villain with lightning power, it'll be too soon." Peter says and Caitlin sees Varook coming in and they grab Peter and run before he could blast them.

-

Cisco is still working in the generators when Barry and Caitlin come running in with Spider-Man on their shoulders.

"Oh my god, what happened to him?" Cisco asks, seeing Spider-Man.

"He was attacked by Varook." Caitlin explains and puts him down. "You gonna be okay?" She asks the hero.

"I'm gonna be okay, what about Flash?" Peter asks them.

"I need to take your blood and figure out what happened." Caitlin tells Barry and gets to work.

"I can't believe he's dead."

"Dr Wells?" Peter asks him.

"No, Tony Woodward. He somehow escaped from the pipeline."

"Not possible. The pipeline was made to withstand a power outage." Peter says, remembering he and Ronnie went over the schematics for it. "It must've been opened for him." Peter states.

"I did it." Wells says and they turn to see him. "I released him."

"Why?" Barry asks him, confused to why he would do such a thing. "To divert our intruder's attention while we worked to restore your speed. I wasn't expecting mr. Spider-Man to show up." Wells explains and looks to Peter.

"Sorry for racing to the rescue." Peter mockingly says and tries standing. "You used him as a distraction?" Barry asks Wells.

"An unnecessary one, as it seems the plan failed." Wells states and they agree. Barry then looks to his hands to see Tony's blood.

"I have his blood on me. How could you do that?"

"You're showing a lot of sentiment for a man who tormented you as a child." Wells replies, ignoring the question. "Tony might've been a bully then and even now, but he didn't deserve to die." Barry defends.

"Does Caitlin or Cisco or me, you or even Spider-Man?" Wells asks and looks towards each of them. "I had a choice to make, him or us. I chose us without a second thought."

"Well, all your talk about miracles cures and scientific breakthroughs, but you don't care about people at all."

"Maybe you care too much, Barry. I know being a hero is important to you, and I respect your ideals. I just don't have that luxury of being able to share them. Even mr. Spider-Man knows when he has to choose more or many." Wells says and looks towards Spider-Man.

"Don't you drag me into this, I choose people safety over my own and it's gotten me in trouble with others." Peter interjected and ran another diagnostic on his suit, again.

"I forgot, your game's chess. We're all just pawns to you, right? So what's your move, Doctor? Which one of us gets sacrificed next?" Barry asks him.

"We have to get out of the facility." Wells says, putting a plan together.

"He was just on D level. We won't be able to make it out from this place." Peter tells them. "What about the van in the garage?" Cisco asks them.

"It's my move, mr. Allen, I say we make a run." Wells says when Caitlin gets information on why the plan didn't work. "Barry, your cells, they're rapidly regenerating." Caitlin says and Barry's hand starts vibrating again.

"I still don't have my speed." Barry replies. "Must be mental, not physical." Wells says.

"That could possibly be it." Peter replies and they look to him. "A while back, my powers were going through a phase of working and not working. It took a realize that it was because of how scared I was. You just have to control your fears, Barry." Peter explains.

"What fear?" Barry asks confused. "Look, you asked if I believed you were struck for a reason. I believe. You should too." Caitlin tells him and Peter and Cisco agrees.

The room then starts to shake and they know Varook is close. "Okay, you guys go, I'll try to hold him off." Peter says and leaves to fight off another criminal who uses electricity to try to kill him.

-

Varook keeps looking when a web hits him in the back and tries electrocuting him, but he obviously just absorbed it. He then turns to see Spider-Man waiting.

"Oh well, it was worth a shot." Peter quips and starts webbing Varook, but he uses his lightning to stop the shots and then sends a giant blast at Peter, sending him flying through the wall.

-

The others just got into the van and get it running when it stops running and Wells chair stops working. Varook was close, and they knew it.

Peter just comes crashing though the wall and Varook comes through the hole in the wall and sees them. He sends a blast to the van and Barry gets out just in time.

Peter charges and throws a web grenade to stop him, but he didn't think about how he could absorb the power supply of the grenade and it doesn't go off.

Peter then gives up on fighting him and runs to protect his friends from Varook. He gets ready to hit them with a electric shock, when a voice stops him.

"Hey!" It yells and he turns to see Wells stuck in his wheelchair. "You're here for me."

"Finally show your face." Varook says.

"Well, I wasn't exactly eager to be killed." Wells tells him. "Neither were my friends."

"I hurt a lot of people that night." Wells defends, knowing it won't help.

"People? You don't even know their names."

"Jake Davenport. Darya Kim. Ralph Dibny, Al Rothstein, Grant Emerson, Ronnie Raymond." Wells replies, naming everyone who was hurt because of the explosion. "I know the names of everyone who died that night. I know they all mattered, and the fact that the world is now deprived of their potential is something I have to live with every day, but these people...they have done nothing wrong. You wanna punish me? Fine, let's do that, but let these people live."

"You died that night too." Varook says and shoots a blast at Wells, sending him flying across the room and the four of them scream "no!"

Barry then feels his powers returning and before Varook could send a blast to kill Wells, he speeds across the room and saves him.

Peter is now ready to fight, seeing he has backup. Barry goes back to grab his suit and they're both ready. Varook tried hitting them with blasts and they both use their powers to avoid every hit, until Barry missed and got hit by one, but instead of absorbing his speed, it seemed to be too much for Varook to absorb and he drops to the floor, dead.

"Wait, what about the prescient?" Barry asks as he gets up and looks to Peter.

"Taken care of. They're all safe, Eddie took a hit, though. I was told he'll be fine." Peter tells Barry and he is happy that he was there to help.

"Thank you."

"Just doing my job." Peter replies.

-

They put his body in a body bag and inside the pipeline. "We could've called him _Blackout._" Cisco says, naming the metahuman.

"It's better than what I was gonna called him. _Electro ll_." Peter states.

"Why didn't he just siphon all my powers like before?" Barry ask them.

"Because you finally stopped thinking about your powers and just connected to them." Caitlin says and grabs a laptop. "This is a sample of your blood after you were struck by the lightning. Now your cells are generating more energy than before." Caitlin explains to him.

"So you had more energy than his body could even handle." Peter states.

"Mr. Spider-Man, as happy as I am you were here, I have to ask, how did you know to come here?" Wells asks and Peter now doesn't know what kind of lie he could come up with they would be happy with.

Peter looks to Barry and all his face reads is saying, _only if you want to._ Peter now knows he's done with the lies. He's ready for them to know. "I knew to come here, because a good friend of mine alerted me, there was a meta here." Peter says and they look confused.

"Who would warn you that?" Cisco asks and he looks to Caitlin and they all face her. "Hey, I did _not_ text Spider-Man, I text..." She states when realization hits her like a truck.

"Peter?" Caitlin then asks and Peter just pulls off his face mask revealing his secret to them. "Hey guys." He says and Wells looks amazed, Cisco's mouth is basically on the floor and Caitlin is shocked.

"Mr. Parker. How did I not see that?" Wells says impressed to how well Peter kept a secret from him.(even though he already knew because of the future). But the moment is cut short when Caitlin passes out in shock, but Peter was quick to catch her.

"Guess today's been a little tough on her." Peter says and moves her to the med lab.

-

Once Caitlin came to, she looked over and saw Peter in normal clothes, but before she could think it was a dream, she sees the Spider-Man mask in his hands. "So it really happened." Caitlin says and Peter smiles. "What can I say, I played a bunch of scenarios in my head to how you'd react. I didn't expect that reaction." Peter quips and she laughs at that and then thinks to how she missed it.

"How could I've not noticed this? It explains so much about you! The constant times you were late to classes, the constant times you had to ditch me and Ronnie." Caitlin then states listing thousands of times she should've realized and a thought comes to mind. "Did Ronnie know?" She asks and sees his reaction to the question.

"Yeah, he did. He actually stopped me from going inside the accelerator that night, Cait." Peter admits to her. "I wanted to do it, in case what happened would happen, but he said the city needed me more than him. I'm sorry, Caitlin." Peter apologizes, finally able to let this out that he's been holding in.

"He was right, though. Central City needs Spider-Man. And I need my friend, Peter Parker." Caitlin says and reaches for his hand and Peter holds it.

"You're a hero with or without the mask. You always have been, Peter. When me and Ronnie were going through problems, you knew how to help us."

"Yeah, I've always been a third wheel when you guys dragged me along." Peter jokes and she chuckles at that.

"If you weren't for us, you wouldn't have a life outside the labs." Caitlin tells him. "So, are you gonna join us here?" Caitlin wonder and sees he's thinking about it.

"You think I should? Seems you guys got everything covered." Peter asks her.

"We're always ready to receive help from a friend." She says and smiles at him and he gives in and agrees to help.

—————————————————————


	7. Flash vs Spider-Man

—————————————————

Peter was swinging towards a bank robbery in progress with Barry making his way as they speak. Peter swings in to see everyone tearing themselves apart and one of them has a gun raised and shoots at a pedestrian.

Luckily, Barry sped in and stoped the bullet. Peter decides to send a small tase through the floor, shocking everyone and they all calm down quickly. "That's strange, everyone okay?" Peter asks them and they all nod at him and he hears the sirens and takes his leave.

-

Later on Barry shows up at the bank again this time as it's a crime scene. "Busy morning for you and Peter." Joe states. "Witnesses reported seeing a red streak and Spider-Man?"

"Joe, you should've seen it. It was like everyone here was out to kill themselves. If we didn't show up when we did, it could've been a completely different scenario." Barry tells him.

"Well, it must've been a diversion, there's a half of a million bucks missing from the vault, but we have a tracer in the bills. We're trying to get the signal. Meantime, any idea what could've caused this?" Joe asks him and he was thinking the same.

"A neurotoxin, maybe? I'll swab some surfaces, see what I can find, but my opinion is they got whammied." Barry promises as they make it to the entrance.

"Did you just say _whammied_?" Joe questions.

"I got so angry. I can't believe I did that. I would never hurt anyone." One of the people who was involved tells Eddie as he interview her.

-

"Something is happening in this city and everyone wants to pretend like it isn't, but it is, and I think something should be done about it." Eddie tells Captain Singh at the prescient in his office.

"My boyfriend had decided we need to eat healthy at home, so work is the only place I can eat what I like." Singh says, ignoring Eddie while holding a Sloppy Joe. "Sorry, were you saying something, detective?" Singh asks Eddie, finally listening.

"The Blur, the Flash, man in the red suit, whatever he's called, he was spotted at the bank this morning." Eddie explains his suspicions. "You mean the bank that was robbed of half a million dollars, where a dozen people tried to murder each other, where Spider-Man showed up to calm them down. And you think our attention should be focusing on chasing Santa Claus." Singh clarifies what he's asking.

"I can't explain how he gets to and from crime scenes so fast. We need to figure out who this guy is and what he wants." Eddie states to Singh.

"Why doesn't Spider-Man get the same treatment then? I mean, some cops here don't like him. Maybe we should learn who he is and what he wants. I mean, he saved everyone in the precinct, helped you after you were shot, saved joe from some living slime. Maybe that's why he gets a pass, besides, why don't you ask your girlfriend? She writes about him all the time." Singh states why he doesn't go after vigilantes doing what's right in their eyes. "Joe, help me out here." Eddie turns to his partner who hasn't spoken once.

"Sorry, partner. Spider-Man saved my life, and Iris', so he gets a pass in my book. And I stopped believing in Santa when I was around eight." Joe explains to Eddie, not wanting to get either Peter or Barry into trouble.

Outside the office, Barry is listening to every word as Iris approaches him. "Hey, what's going on in there?" She wonders.

"I think Eddie's trying to convince the captain that the Flash and possibly Spider-Man are public menaces." Barry replies to her and sees her rage emerge. "Excuse me?" She asks and looks to Eddie leaving the office.

"So after weeks of trying to convince you that the Flash is real, now you do believe in him, you're trying to have him arrested?" Iris asks Eddie

"Thanks, Barry." Eddie tells Barry, knowing he didn't want to tell her. "Sorry." Barry apologizes.

"No worries." Eddie tells him and looks to Iris. "The captain shot me down. Look, I'm not feeling like lunch. I'll see you later." Eddie says and leaves the three of them.

"He's just jealous." Iris states. "Of the Flash? Should he be?" Barry asks her. "No, I'll see you later." Iris says and leaves.

"Barry, you should get to S.T.A.R. Labs. Fill them in." Joe states to him.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry and Peter were filling them in on what happened. "Anger, hate, aggression." Wells says as he rolls around the room. _"A Jedi craves not these things."_ Cisco says in Yoda's voice and gets a mixed reaction from everyone except Peter who was thinking the same thing. "Come on, are we the only two feeling that quote?" Cisco asks them.

"Everyone in that bank went savage for about five minutes. And once Peter shot a electric web onto the floor and send a quick electrical zap at them, they went back to normal." Barry states to them. "Anger can be a powerful emotion." Wells explains to Barry. "If this metahuman can engender irrational feelings of anger in his victims, he could do a lot of damage."

"Detective west helped get a copy of the cat scans the hospital did on everyone at the bank." Caitlin says as she brings in a flash drive and puts into the computers. "Look at this, it seems the emotional centers of the brains are still showing signs of being overwhelmed." Peter states looking at the scans.

"Particularly the area that controls executive function. That's the part of the brain that's stops people from doing whatever random and potentially destructive things pops into their heads." Caitlin also explains.

"Ha. Hasn't stopped me before." Peter jokes to her and she chuckles at that."How do you think the meta does it to them?" Barry asks.

"That's the half of a million dollar question." Caitlin says and its his turn to laugh as an alert comes from Barry's phone.

"If you guys figure it out, give me a call, okay?" Barry says and starts leaving but Caitlin stops him. "Is the Flash off to another rooftop rendezvous with Iris?" She asks him.

"No. Yeah, but she probably just wants to ask me--Flash about metahuman stuff for her blog." Barry says and starts moving towards his suit.

"Want some friendly neighborly advice?" Peter asks him and he looks towards him. "No matter what I say, I'm gonna get it." Barry states.

"Don't get her involved in this. As Flash or Barry Allen. You don't want to be the one to blame for their breakup. I've gotten a few people separated trying to see things differently." Peter advices him, remembering even his own relationships were ruined because of his two lives. "Okay, thanks for the advice." Barry says and speeds off.

"You think he'll take my advice?" Peter asks Caitlin. "Like I said, million dollar question." Caitlin says when Peter's suit gets a radio contact and listens in. "CCPD got a lead on the cash, they're heading in. Call Barry, I'll meet him there." Peter tells them and leaves to stop him.

-

Peter swings into the area and sees it's a storage unit. "He always paid in cash. Never seemed like trouble." The owner of the unit explains and joe sees Peter. "Spider-Man." Joe greets the hero. "Detective. Thought I could offer my assistance." Peter explains to the officers.

"Much appreciated. He's on the third floor, we're moving in now." Joe explains and they do so. Once they reach the floor, they see the man with the bills in a bag and doesn't see them. "Freeze! Hold it right there!" Joe tells him.

"Is there a problem, gentlemen?" The metahuman asks them and does as they say. "Certo, cuff him." Joe tells one of the officers. "Try not to touch him." Peter warns, not knowing how his powers work.

"Turn around." Joe tells him and he takes off his sunglasses while doing so and the cop freezes in his tracks. Peter's senses start warning him of something but doesn't know what as usual. "Certo, What are you waiting for? Cuff him." Joe says and Certo turns around in anger and raise the gun.

"You don't tell me what to do!" Certo tells him and gets ready to shoot. "Get down!" Joe yells, all the cops do exactly that and Peter tries to stop him by shooting a web at him, but it doesn't help as he's already shot at them. At that moment, Barry comes in and stops the metahuman and grabsJoe before he could get hit. Certo gets ready to shoot again when a arrow comes flying in and tales him down.

Peter quickly looks to where the arrow came from and sees the Arrow. "Nice masks." Oliver tells them and runs onto the roof and escapes the police.

"Yeah, that just happened." Peter states to himself.

-

While Barry raced with Oliver, Peter just decided to go back to S.T.A.R. Labs with a huge grin on his face. "What's with the grin on you?" Cisco asks him.

"Nothing really big, just the Arrow showed up at the site." Peter explains to them. "The vigilante from Starlight City?" Caitlin asks him, but before he could reply, Barry speed back with Felicity and her shirt is on fire. While they try removing it, they exit the labs and see them.

"You guys remember Felicity, right?" Barry asks and Peter quickly grabs his shirt and hands it to her.

"I'll always remember this." Cisco says, strangely. "Thanks, Peter. It would seem you told them?" Felicity asks seeing he has his suit on but his mask is off. "Yea, they know." Peter assures her.

"Hi, Felicity, it's good to see you. What brings you back to Central City?" Caitlin asks her as she puts on the shirt. "I'm here..because of this." Felicity says as she pulls out a package with an boomerang. "Awesome!" Peter and Cisco say at the same time.

"What are the wings made of?" Cisco asks her. "Not sure. I'm thinking some sort of composite or high density plastic." Felicity theorized. "Reinforced with carbon fiber." Cisco finishes her thought and hands it to Peter.

"Oh, that's weird. It feels like it's...vibrating." Peter states feeling it ans finds subtle vibrations. "Oh, I wanna run some tests, and I wanna do it now!" Cisco says as he and Felicity run into the labs.

"You guys come up with anything new on our meta?" Barry asks Caitlin. "The Officer Who was affected tonight says he saw a flash of red before loosing control." Caitlin tells him. "Is that my new look does to people? Maybe I should change to black and blue." Peter jokes about his suit, causing them to chuckle, and he sees it as he's killing it!

"I suspect the meta is inducing rage via the ocular nerve." Caitlin finishes and remembers something. "Oh, Dr. Wells wants to see you, Barry." Caitlin reminded him and he leave to find them.

"Well, looks like I'm either swinging home, or am going to have to steal a sweater from here now." Peter says and Caitlin doesn't have anything today to that. "I was hoping for a small chuckle at least, but it wasn't my best work." Peter jokes.

"What is with the quips anyways? I've been wondering this for years, why joke in the middle of fights?" Caitlin asks him. "I sometimes say it's because it distracts the criminals I'm fighting, sometimes it's because I'm scared and need a way of distracting myself. It's for a number of reasons, sometimes I just crack them to see you laugh." Peter tells Caitlin and she slightly blushes at him.

"To be fair, some of the quips are funny." Caitlin says when Peter's senses go off. "Get down!" He shouts to Caitlin and grabs her and get on the floor as the boomerang comes flying into the room and flies into some stuff and slams into the wall. Felicity and Cisco come out of the labs, looking at the boomerang. "That's my bad. That's on me." Cisco states to them all.

"Nobody's arguing!" Peter says and sees he's still on Caitlin and quickly helps her up, hoping she doesn't see him blushing. "Hey, you good?" He asks her.

"Yeah, I'm good. Thanks for the save, Peter." Caitlin says in relief he was there, but is also blushing to what occurred.

"I want that Arrow out of my city. Tonight." Joe tells Barry and Peter knows they're talking about Oliver.

-

Back at the storage unit, Diggle is in the van while Oliver finds out what he can for the guys. "I mean, do you think he can do everything really fast?" Diggle questions about Barry's speed. "I mean, like, how fast do you think he goes to the bathroom after he's eaten something?" He clarifies to Oliver who's sneaking into the units.

"This is you watching my back?" Oliver asks his friend as he keeps heading inside.

"Well, I mean, Peter and his radioactive spider bite story is one thing, but this...it's crazy." Diggle says, a little confused about Barry.

"Whatever he can do now, he's still the same Barry we met last year." Oliver states to Diggle.

"Well, if you're so adamant of teaming up with them, what are we doing here?" Diggle questions him.

"Because Barry's a good kid. Besides, I have no problems with Peter, he came to me for advice and refuses to take a life. And it's just a name, Diggle." Oliver states as he kicks open the door where the owner works. "The man who rents this storage unit...I want...his...name." Oliver states to him and raises his arrow to his face.

-

Next day at Jitters, Barry goes in and sees them waiting for him while Felicity is catching up with Peter. "The bad guy you're after, the one who robbed the bank, his name is Roy G. Bivolo." Oliver tells Barry and he goes nervous. "How did you find that out?" Barry asks and Oliver looks away quickly.

"He's still alive, right?" Barry asks him. "Come on, Barry. Oliver doesn't kill unless it's the last resort." Peter defends Oliver and gets a stern look from him. "I'll stop talking now." He states.

"I thought you didn't wanna help." Barry questions Oliver. "I'm not helping. It's just a name." Oliver tells Barry when Iris comes over with their coffee.

"One non-fat latte, extra sugar for Felicity, one creamed coffee for Peter, and one coffee, black, for Oliver." She says while handing them their coffee. "I brewed you a fresh pot." Iris tells Oliver and they can all see the love in her eyes for him.

"Thank you." Oliver tells her. "Barry, can I talk to you for a second?" Iris asks and pulls him away form them.

"If that isn't a clear sign a girl likes someone, I don't know what is." Peter tells them and notices Felicity is staring. "Earth to Felicity?" Peter asks.

"Yeah, Felicity, you're staring." Oliver agrees with Peter. "We need to help them with this case." Felicity tells him. "Why don't you want to help?" She wonders.

"Because army doesn't really want my help. He only thinks he does." Oliver explains. "Wells and Barry's cop foster dad said you were dangerous and a bad influence. Barry defended you." Felicity tells him.

"I would've helped, but Cisco threw your boomerang, so I was ducking for cover." Peter defends, hoping Oliver didn't put him on his bad side. "You're going to hock me about this until I say yes, aren't you?" Oliver asks Felicity. "I'm a hocker." Felicity states. "I wouldn't brag about that, it sounds bad from a distance." Peter informs her.

"Yeah, I heard myself." Felicity agrees with him and Oliver goes to tell Barry he's agreeing to help.

-

While Barry went to meet up with Oliver to train, full _Rocky_, as Peter called it and Oliver asked him to never say that again. He just hoped he doesn't try shooting Barry with arrows like he tried with him. So he decided to go back to S.T.A.R. Labs and sees dr. Wells. "Peter. May I have a word?" Wells asks him.

"Sure." Peter replies and follows him to a private area.

"You did state that Spider-Man spent some time with the Arrow during the Mirukuru outbreak, didn't you?" Wells asks Peter. "Yeah, he needed help, I was happy to assist. When everything calmed down, he taught me a few useful skills I could use here." Peter says, not understanding where he's going with this.

"You see, it's just...Spider-Man brings hope to thousands of people for years. Why would you turn to someone like that?" Wells questions.

"Arrow is just misunderstood. He kills when there's no choice, always leaves it as a last resort. I understand why some don't trust him, but you gotta remember, I know how it feels not to be trusted. So I don't tell anyone his identity even though I know it, so please don't ask if I know." Peter pleads with Wells and he decides against it.

"Thank you, dr. Wells." Peter says and goes to join the others. "Nice save the other day, by the way." Wells states and Peter turns back to him. "Regarding What?" Peter questions.

"Dr. Snow. You and her are pretty close, aren't you?" Wells states to him. "Yeah, I mean, she's one of my only friends I have. Sadly the only other one being Cisco." Peter jokes and leaves, not knowing Wells sees through his feelings. Ever since Ronnie died, Peter and Caitlin have of course gotten close, but Peter sees it as betraying Ronnie if he were to take his girl so keeps his feelings locked up. Besides, he knows Caitlin will always see him as a friend and he'll be happy to stay that for her.

-

At the precinct, Barry comes back after being shot in the back by Oliver like Peter predicted to see Eddie and Singh arguing again. "Hey, what's going on in there?" Barry asks Joe, not knowing why he's in there again.

"Eddie's making his case for the TASK force again." Joe explains to Barry. "I thought the captain shot him down." Barry replies, remembering the earlier argument.

"Apparently, he has a new argument." Joe states and gets a bit more serious. "The Arrow made another appearance last night. And you forgot to tell me you hit Bivilo's name from shooting that storage guy in the leg."

"Well, I wasn't the one who shot him." Barry defends, since he really didn't. "Well, what word would you use to describe how you got the information? Because mine would be _torture_." Joe states.

"I didn't...the Arrow gets results." Barry tries defending him. "He's a crazyman." Joe retaliates.

"Look, I don't actually disagree with you at the moment," Barry says, regarding the fact he shot him (he's not letting that go anytime soon), "but we wouldn't even have Bivilo's name if it weren't for the Arrow. So maybe instead of judging him, you could thank him." Barry states.

"Two things I won't be doing in this life. Playing professional baseball, and thanking that lunatic." Joe tells him and leaves.

-

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco is working on the boomerang with Peter standing at the ready. "You know, it was an accident." Cisco states to him. "The disaster of Courrières was also just an accident." Peter informs his friend.

"Okay, you win." Cisco tells Peter, seeing he's just being the protective hero he is. "You. Stay." Cisco tells the boomerang, seeming kinda crazy.

"Have you heard of color psychology?" Caitlin asks Felicity outside the labs. "The theory that change in the color spectrum can affect emotion." Felicity says, understanding. "It is seriously nice to have another woman to talk to." Caitlin states and gets focused.

"I was thinking that if Bivilo uses color to induce the temporary psychosis, maybe light and color could reverse it." Caitlin explains when Wells asks Felicity to go have a private discussion about the Arrow. As they did that, Barry came back and the computers sound off.

"The facial recognition software on Bivolo, AKA, Prism." Cisco states, trying out the new name for him. "Wait, you guys have facial recognition?" Peter asks them.

"I didn't even know we did." Caitlin states to him. "Since when did we have facial recognition?" Caitlin asks him. "Happy Hanukkah." Felicity replies as she comes back in.

"Okay, where can I find him?" Barry asks them. "Traffic cameras just caught him entering a residence at 168 Jarvis." Cisco states as Peter takes off his shirt, revealing his suit. "You always wear that under your everyday clothes?" Felicity asks, curiously. "I mean, what if it gets hot?"

"It has a cooling feature." Peter tells her. "Hey, Barry, we should let Arrow know. Just in case." He then tell Barry.

"Come on, we can handle this solo. We've done it before." Barry says and speeds them out, before anyone could say anything.

-

They make it to the address and Barry uses his hand to vibrate the lock off and they enter the room. They see a mess everywhere surrounded by stolen goods. "This guys never heard of spring cleaning." Peter jokes when his senses ring and he knows they're not alone.

"I knew you'd be coming for me. I could see it in your eyes at the bank. When I turned those poeple against each other, it made you angry." Prism says as he exits the dark corridor.

Barry speeds at him, knocking his glasses off of his face, unleashing his power. "Have some real anger." He tells Barry and before he could do more, Peter webs his eyes closed.

"You look better with the shades on." Peter tells him, while Barry seems to be dizzy. "You're not looking so good, man." He states to the man in red.

-

Peter brought the metahuman in and locked him in the cell while Barry is getting checked on. Sadly, the webbing dissolved and let's just say that Bivolo is p!3d. "You think this will stop me?! I will make you tear each other to pieces! You will all die screaming with rage!" He informs them as they just walk away.

"Blah, blah, blah. _No prison can hold me._" Cisco says, mocking him. "_I will have my revenge_." Peter says, mocking him with Cisco.

"We've heard it all before, pal." Peter states to Bivilo as the doors to the accelerator closes. "Addios, Prism." Cisco tells him.

"Eh, I liked Caitlin's name. "Rainbow Raider"." Peter states to him. "Okay, only _I _get to pick the names." Cisco informs Peter as they go upstairs to check on Barry.

-

Caitlin is checking up on Barry to make sure Bivilo didn't do anything. "No signs of macular damage. Your retina and cornea seem unaffected." Caitlin tells Barry as he stops shining the light in his eyes.

"I told you, I'm fine." Barry states and starts getting up. "You said Bivolo whammied you. No desire to go MMA on any of us?" Felicity asks him.

"No. I mean, something weird happened with his eyes, for a second everything went red." Barry explains to them and Caitlin realizes she was right on how his powers work. "Then the next thing that happens, Peter webs his eyes shut. Thinking it was doing something. Obviously, his powers didn't work on he, so.." Barry states as he leaves her lab.

"It was a good thing Peter was there then to help you." Caitlin states as said Peter and Cisco enter the cortex. "As fast as you are, Barry, you take too many risks and someday it's going to catch up to you."

"Caitlin, I'm not Ronnie. You gotta stop treating me like I am." Barry states to her and Peter and Cisco's eyes open in shock as Caitlin looks angry.

"You're right. You're not." She states and leaves the room.

"So, you wanna talk to her, or let her blow some steam?" Cisco asks Peter, regarding Caitlin. "Let's try the steam first. I'll do the talking later." Peter tells him.

Barry gets a text from someone. "It's the Arrow. Wants another session." He explains to them. "I'm sure he's not planning on shooting you again." Felicity tells Barry but that's interrupted by Peter whispering, "_you might wanna wear body armor, my friend_." He warns and Barry speeds off.

"I'm gonna go find Cait." Peter states to them and leaves to find his friend. Happy to see that it didn't upset her that much, but it obviously still upsets her to think about Ronnie, and that's why he's always been there for her.

Later on, Felicity gets a call and turns to the others.

"Okay, I'll call you later." She says and hangs up. "That was the Arrow. He said Barry acted strangely."

"Strange, How?" They ask her as Joe comes in. "He's been whammied. He was acting angry, it was scary. And his eyes...they glowed." Joe informs them.

"It's possible that his body is fighting off the effect, so it's hitting him slower." Caitlin explains to them. "And if Venom taught me anything when he was attached to me, that's not a good thing. The longer you suppress your emotions... the bigger they're going to blow in the long run." Peter finishes her thought, hating that Venom was actually useful for something.

"Considering What he can do, how do we stop him?" Joe asks, seeing it's a matter of time, before Barry blows a bigger fuse. "A cold-gun would come in real handy right about now." Cisco states, remembering he did state this could be a possibility and they all look towards him. "I'm just sayin'." He states.

"I could stop him." Peter offers and they look at him. "My six sense allows me to see things before they have a chance to happen. But...I would feel better if I did have backup. Just because I can predict his moves, doesn't necessarily mean I can dodge them all." Peter explains as he starts changing into his suit.

"Fortunately, Felicity knows someone who can help." Wells states and looks towards Felicity. "I think you better call back Oliver Queen." He states, figuring out who Arrow was by himself. "We're gonna need Arrow's help."

-

On the road in Iris' car, Eddie is constantly changing the radio. "Is this your way of telling me you want satellite radio for Christmas?" Iris asks him as he turns off the radio and goes silent. "Look, I'm not mad at you." She states.

"Good, 'cause there's no reason you should be." Eddie states to her. "Eddie, you, Flash and Spider-Man care about protecting the city. You all would give your lives for it. I mean, Spider-Man saved your life once if I recall. You and him are alike, he's not the bad guy." Iris states, trying to make him see her point of view.

"How do you know so much about the Flash, Iris?" Eddie asks her. She goes silent for a quick minute and decides to tell him about their meet ups. "He got in touch with me after I started the blog, and I've seen him a couple of times." She explains and he freaks out.

"A couple of times? Why didn't you tell me about this?" He asks her. "Well, given the fact I think he's a hero, and you wanna put him in jail, do you really need to ask that question?" Iris asks him.

"How could you ever think I would be okay with this?" Eddie asks her, acting like her dad when something comes up, breaks their window and pulls Eddie out. Iris then slams on the brakes and sees Eddie tumbling to a stop with the Flash standing over him.

"I heard you've been looking for me." Barry states, while vibrating his voice. "All this time, you've been trying to catch me, and I caught you first." He mocks when Eddie pulls out his gun and tries shooting Barry, but of course he dodges all of them.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs, they're just meeting Arrow/Oliver Queen and John Diggle for the first time. All except for Peter of course. "Ooh, see, I knew the Arrow was Oliver Queen." Cisco states, giddily excited. "I mean, I had it narrowed down to, like, a list of 150 people, but he was definitely on that list." Cisco tells Diggle.

"Do you have a way to stop Barry's rage fest?" Diggle asks them. "I have an idea about how to do that. Joe, we're gonna need your help." Wells explains to them.

"We need to find him before he hurts somebody." Joe states when Felicity finds him. "I think we're a little late for that." She states showing them.

-

Back on the street, Eddie tries fighting Barry but is easily stoped. "Who the hell are you, huh?" Barry asks Eddie as he falls after an attempt to grab Barry. "You think you can just come along and get to have whatever you want? What gives you the right?" Barry asks, making this a bit too personal.

"What the hell you talking about?" Eddie asks, as he crawls back towards his gun.

"What are you doing?" What has happened to you?" Iris asks Flash. "I feel fine." Barry tells her.

"You are not fine." Iris states, seeing his anger. "How would you know? Because you write about me?" Barry asks. "You don't know me! You don't know who I am! You never did."

"I know you risked your life to help people, to save them! Someone who does that does not suddenly turn around and want to hurt people. Please." She begs of him and the anger keeps taking over him, and he runs at Eddie.

Before he has the chance to touch him, something grabs his arms and he looks to see webs attached to him. Iris, Eddie and Barry turn to see Spider-Man with his hands out and webs coming from his wrists that are holding Barry back, but not for long.

"Run!" Peter commands Iris and Eddie and they do as he says. Barry just looks to Peter in anger. "Flash, you need to get your anger under control." Peter pleads to his friend, not wanting to hurt him. "And you need to hold on." Barry warns Peter, before running down the street and dragging Peter along with him.

-

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, they're working on the problem. "I hope they can get Barry back before he kills one of them." Caitlin states, hoping it doesn't come to losing a friend.

"Me, I'd be more worried about what Oliver and Peter might have to do to Barry." Diggle states, knowing Peter was right about his senses.

"Barry has superpowers, Peter can still to the side of buildings and move buildings, and Oliver has a bow and arrow." Caitlin states, knowing Peter can do damage, but not Oliver.

"Do you have any idea how many people Oliver has killed with that bow and arrow?" Diggle asks them. "Despite that, Peter has 15 years on both of them, plus training from Oliver."

"Recurve bow arrows can travel up to 300 feet per second, so, like, 200 miles an hour. Peter's webs go up to the range of 60 feet per second. Barry can run three times that fast." Cisco calculates.

"Whatever. Peter's been doing this a lot longer. Of Oliver can't stop him, Peter can with ease. My moneys on experience." Diggle states.

"My moneys on speed." Cisco states and Caitlin's not picking sides. "Please tell me you're not actually having this conversation right now." Felicity tells them.

-

Back in the alley, Oliver shoots an arrow at Barry and he dodges it. "You missed." Barry tells him, Peter juts grabs Oliver and waits for the blast.

"No, he didn't." Peter states and they take a quick step back. "Made you look." Peter whips when a explosion comes from the arrow, sending Barry flying. As Barry tries getting up, he sees they're both gone. As soon as he's about to move, an arrow gets wedged into his back.

"2000 milligrams of horse tranquilizer should be hitting you any time now." Oliver states to him as Barry states collapsing. "Sorry, Barry." Peter says as Barry stands and starts literally shaking the tranquilizer off as green smog leaves him and he's ready to fight again.

Barry quickly speeds at Oliver and Peter shoots a web at the ceiling of the building and grabs Oliver and they head upwards. "Where you going?!" Barry asks as he speeds up the side of the building and grabs the webbing attached to the building. "We're not done!" Barry states and removed the webbing and sends them falling.

Peter shoots a second web, lower down where Barry can't reach and shoots his second hand at Oliver, stopping him from hitting the ground. "I've heard of _hanging in there_, but this is ridiculous." Peter jokes and olive rolls his eyes at the pun.

Barry speeds back to the ground and looks to Oliver in anger. "Is that all you got?" Barry asks him and speeds at Oliver, before he could though, a taser web hits him in the back, hitting his nerves system.

Barry quickly shakes the web and looks to Peter. "You know what? He can wait. You're the one getting me mad." Barry states to Peter. "Why does everyone always say that about me?" Peter asks, since everybody he fights gets angry at him fast.

Barry speeds at Peter and tries hitting him, but Peter dodges the punch. Barry goes in to backhand him, but Peter just grabs his hand and throws him over his head. Barry tries punching Peter over and over, but it was Peter who was able to get a hit in. Peter realizes that was a mistake seeing that Barry is even more aggressive. "Hey, big guy. Suns getting real low." Peter jokes, but Barry just runs in and starts beating him faster than Peter can predict.

Oliver takes that as his opening, and pushes a button to shoot two arrows at Barry. Barry quickly speeds around and grabs the arrows. "Fool me once." Barry states, as Oliver takes out an arrow of his own and shoots his leg, leaving him in pain. Peter takes it as an opening to web up his legs and hangs him over a street light, preventing him from running.

"I still believe in you, Barry." Oliver tells him as the S.T.A.R. Labs van approaches with Joe and Wells inside.

"Is this even gonna work?" Joe asks Wells, not sure about the plan. "He just needs to see the right colors." Wells explains as they pull to a stop and the doors open to reveal several spotlights. Once activated, they all send different colors into Barry's mind, breaking him of the anger-trance.

"Barry, you okay?" Oliver asks him. "Oh, how do you do this all day, Peter? This is a special kinda hangover." Barry jokes and they see he's back to normal and they let him down.

-

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, they watch everything and are surprised. "So...it was a three way tie." Cisco states.

Later on, they bring Barry back and Oliver Is saying his goodbyes. "My identity is a closely guarded secret known only to a few, and if it were to get out, it will endanger my family , friends, and it would embolden my enemies to retaliate at me through them." He tells them.

"Why's Oliver is trying to say is he had a nice time working with you and getting to know each of you, and he can't wait to do it again soon." Felicity corrects him and Oliver just agrees to it.

"You know, it doesn't sound like that's what he was saying." Cisco states and Caitlin agrees with him and they head out.

Peter and Caitlin were talking about all the quips he used on Barry. "I guess you were right about how your quips actually distract your enemies." Caitlin admits seeing his quips work to distract Barry during the fight. "It makes me wonder what you could say about me." She states.

"You, Cait? I'd have to find something to mock first." Peter tells her and Caitlin wonders if he was just giving her a compliment or if he was trying to flirt worth her but she knows Peter better than that.

-

At Jitters, Iris is working when Eddie comes in patches up after the beating Barry gave him. "Captain Singh approved the TASK force." He informs her. "For the Flash at least. We agreed Spider-Man is in his own category for now. You wanted me to believe the Flash was real. Now I do. I believe he's dangerous, and I'm gonna take him in." He says while walking towards her. "How do you feel about that?" He asks her.

"All I know...is how I feel about you." Iris tells him and kisses him as Oliver and Felicity come in and see Barry watching them.

"Hey. You guys heading home?" Iris asks them.

"Yeah, were just getting some Java's for the road." Felicity tells her. "I will hook you up." Iris tells her and they leave.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs that night, Peter and Cisco started working on something he thought of during the fight. When Oliver was using his dozens of arrows, Peter remembered one of them sends out a sonic wave of sound. So he and Cisco are working on a gun version of it for when Venom might ever come back.

"I thought you said you destroyed Venom?" Cisco wonders as es looking at the blueprints. "That doesn't mean he's gone. Trust me, that alien has a way of bouncing back after a beating. He's like a bad sequel." Peter explains to his friend hoping he did see the last of Venom, but it's better to be prepared for a fight than not.

-

At Jitters, Barry sent a message for Iris to meet him on the roof. "I got your message." She tells him as he walks closer.

"I wanted you to know, last night...that wasn't me." Barry says, while vibrating his voice again.

"Sure looked like you." Iris replies to him. "Yeah. I was affected by one of the metahumans. He messed with me. But I'm better now, I promise."

"I defended you. Everyone told me that you would bring me nothing but danger. My father, Barry, Eddie. I didn't listen to them, I never listen to them." Iris states and Barry sees it's partly his fault. "But now its time I did. Don't contact me anymore." Iris tells him.

"I'm sorry." Barry apologizes and she just leaves him standing on the rooftop alone.

———————————————————————


	8. The man in yellow

**Happy holidays to all, and to all, a new chapter **

———————————————-

Christmas time in Central City. A wonderful time of the year. Unless you have the life of a superhero.

Barry makes it to S.T.A.R. Labs and greets everyone and sees Peter's not there. "Merry Christmas, guys. This is a small token of my gratitude for everything you guys have done for me this year." Barry states and hands out presents to the team. "I got something for Peter, too, for when I see him."

"I think I speak on behalf of my colleagues when I say you've been a gift for us, Barry." Wells tells him as Barry pulls out a bottle from his bag.

"What's that?" Caitlin asks him. "This is compliments of Iris. Grandma Esther's famous eggnog." Barry explains to them and Cisco gets excited.

"That's what I'm talking about." He states and heads off to find some cups.

"Not for me." Wells says and starts moving off. "Wouldn't want to drink and drive." He jokes while leaving.

"Did I say something wrong?" Barry asks Caitlin, feeling a bit guilty. "No. It's just...when the accident happened, it was before Christmas, so..it kinda ruined the holiday." Cisco explains as he comes back.

"I'm gonna get him a present." Caitlin states to them. "Maybe that'll cheer him up." She explains and leaves.

-

At Mercury labs, Peter is finishing everything he needs to get done so he can get to his aunt's for the holidays. He's just checking on their new creation. The tachyon enhancer. "Merry Christmas, Peter." One of the two security men say as they come in. When Peter started working at Mercury labs, he got to know each of the security guards. No real reason or anything, he just likes meeting people. And to be fair, he likes to be formal with people.

"Thank you, Jimmy, and back at you." Peter responds and walks with them.

"Hey, man, I know I know it's a secret, can you give me a hint? What exactly are you working on in there?" Jimmy asks Peter as he looks back at the case holding the device. Before he had a chance to answer though, the lights go off and the alarms start ringing, even Peter's six sense goes off.

"Get inside!" Jimmy tells Peter and Peter hates when he has to act defenseless, but knows it's for the best.

Peter then runs into the casing holding the enhancer. "Lock down the facility!" Jimmy tells the second guard and Peter waits for someone to come in, but what he sees is a flash of yellow lightning come speeding in and kill the two guards and tries breaking into the cell, but he fails and stares at Peter with glowing red eyes. They stare at each other for a minute before running off.

-

The CCPD come to see what happened and Barry is finished studying as Joe approaches him. "What are you thinking?" Joe asks him. "The blood splatter patterned and trajectory of the remains...only a high-speed collision could've done this. But to cause this type of damage to a human in this space?" Barry states to Joe he's confused. "Whatever hit them would've to have been moving fast."

Eddie then approaches with his statement. "Get this. The witness say all he saw was a blur. Sound familiar?" Eddie asks them, believing it's the Flash who did this.

Barry and Joe then walk towards Peter to understand. "You saw a blur?" Barry asks him. "Yeah, man. Whatever it was, it was looking for something in here." Peter states to them.

"What did he look like?" Barry asks his friend. "It was like seeing you. But...he had glowing red eyes, full body yellow suit." Peter explains and Barry gets excited as they move away from him.

"Joe, you head him, all right? The man who killed my mom, he's back." Barry states to Joe. "I know." Joe states, remembering the attack after him and Peter's fight against Venom. "He's been back for a few weeks. He paid a visit to me and Peter one day at the house. He took all the evidence from your mom's case. All the files are gone." Joe explains to him.

"Why wouldn't you tell me this sooner?" Barry asks him, wondering why neither of them told him about this. "Because he threatened to kill Iris and Peter's aunt May." Joe explains to him and Barry understands now.

-

They later head to S.T.A.R. Labs to fill in the team. "All I saw was a yellow blur. He looked just like Barry, except the emblem on his chest was in reverse, the suit was all yellow...And his eyes were glowing red." Peter explains to them, while he shutters at the image of the eyes. "That face will be the center of my nightmares." Peter states to them.

"A yellow blur just like the one that killed Barry's mother." Joe takes over and explains to the team. "Then we need to get cracking and stop this speed psycho." Cisco replies while eating a candy cane. "That...I wasn't trying to give him a name." He states to them.

"The crime scene at Mercury labs was on a floor with highly secured vaults, and you thought he was looking for something?" Barry asks Peter.

"Whatever it was, he wanted it badly enough to kill for it." Wells states. "Mercury labs was one of S.T.A.R. Labs major competitors until our little setback, and then they catapulted to the forefront led by Dr. Christina McGee, brilliant but egocentric physicist." He says while showing a picture of her. "She's also my boss." Peter interjected quickly.

"It says here Dr. McGee has secured half a billion dollars in private funding to develop, and I quote, "prototypes for the technology of the future"." Cisco says, reading off the computers. "I'm the one who told her that was a good line." Peter explains.

"Tina's messing with tachyons, superluminal particles." Wells states and looks to Peter. "Yeah, I'm the head scientist on that project." Peter explains to them. "Okay, since you know everything about it, what could someone do with it?" Joe asks Peter. "Well, if it fell into the hands of someone like him? Basically become invincible." Peter answers him. "If we were devise a matrix stable enough to harness their power, he could go faster than the speed of light."

"He's gonna try to get it again, so we need to get it away from Mercury and use it to lure the man in yellow." Barry states as he stands up from the chair. "He's exactly right. Cisco, Caitlin, let's start engineering a trap." Wells tells them and they walk off to start it. "Yeah, get my boss to hand over something without outing myself out as Spider-Man, or outing Barry as Flash. Because darn Parker luck." Peter states, hating this.

-

Once they make it to the prescient, Barry and Wells called Christina(Tina) and Peter in. "Barry Allen thank you for coming in." Barry tells Tina. "Dr. Tina McGee." She says, introducing herself. "I assume this is about last night's breakin?" Tina asks them.

"Well, yes and no." Wells answers her. "That's usually how things are with you, aren't they, Harrison?" Tina asks the man in the wheelchair and Peter really can't believe he's in this situation.

"We believe that whoever broke in was after one of your prototypes." Barry explains to her. "You'll have to narrow that down. We have literally hundreds of projects in development." Tina states to him. "The tachyon device." Peter explains, weighing in on the argument and she looks back at him.

"He tried getting in when he killed the guards. Couldn't get in though, thankfully." Peter explains to his boss. "We've had encouraging success with tachyons, yes, but there's still a significant gap between our prototype and any real life application, isn't there?" Tina asks Peter.

"Yeah, far from it." Peter agrees with her.

"We were hoping you would lend us your prototype to use as a lure." Barry explains to her and Tina looks to Wells.

"Us? You're assisting the police now, Harrison?" She asks the man in the wheelchair.

"I'm consulting on this particular case." Wells explains to her. "Listen, Tina, Once this man is apprehended, your prototype will be promptly returned." Wells guarantee her. "You know nobody wants to protect the future's technology more than me."

"I appreciate the CCPD's concerns, mr. Allen, but Mercury is quite capable of protecting its own assets." Tina tells them. "Good luck with your manhunt." She says and leaves.

"I'm gonna go make myself useful somewhere else." Peter explains and leaves to maybe hang with Cisco and Caitlin.

-

Said Caitlin has just got back from shopping and a run in with the burning man that's been sighted recently, she even saw his face and it was Ronnie. Her dead fiancé was alive and a metahuman.

"Hey, Cait." Peter says as he sees her against the treadmill. "Cisco's working in fashioning an electronic barrier by setting up a ton of super capacitors. Basically, a force field to trap man in yellow. Or Opposite Flash as Cisco's calling him." He explains to her and she looks up at the dumb sounding name.

"I told him it was a lame name. He's working on it." Peter explains and sees she's not looking like herself. "Hey, is everything okay?" Peter asks her.

She takes a minute and explains what's wrong. "Ronnie's alive. I saw him, Peter. I think he was following me." Caitlin tries explaining and Peter just thinks she's missing him.

"Ronnie died, Cait. There was no way he could've survived being vaporized when the accelerator exploded." Peter tries explaining , not understanding why she would be seeing him now and not sooner, maybe he did survive.

"Ronnie's alive. And he's out there alone and scared, and I'm gonna need you and Cisco to find him." Caitlin pleads her friend and Peter knows she's not gonna take no for an answer. Besides, if there's a small chance that his friend is alive, he's going to find him.

-

At the prescient, Barry was looking out his window and sees him. The man in yellow as he speeds off. Barry then speeds off after him. They come to a stop in an alleyway and Barry is shocked to see him. "It was you. You were the one in my house that night." Barry state to him.

"You killed my mother!" Barry shouts as loud as he could. "Why?!"

"If you want to know that, you're gonna have to catch me." The man in yellow tells Barry and speeds off with Barry on his tail.

They run through the streets with their lightning being the only thing anyone can see. The man in yellow is just slightly faster than Barry as he runs as fast as he possibly can to catch the man who killed his mother.

He comes to a stop at a football stadium when it comes to life and the lights flicker with lightning running around the screens. The man in yellow comes back and Barry just looks to him in anger for a quick second before shooting himself off at him. The man in yellow also speeds at him and sends him across the court.

"Not fast enough, Flash." The man in yellow mocks him and they keep running trying to beat the other. But the man in yellow is still faster as he beats Barry and sends him tumbling.

"Who are you?" Barry asks him. "You know who I am, Barry." The man in yellow tells him and Barry is surprised he knows his identity as he speeds around him in circles starting to beat him and Barry falls down.

"I don't know who you are!" Barry states to the murderer of his mother. "But you do, Barry. We've been at this a long time, you and I, but I'm always one step ahead." The man in yellow replies to Barry as he tries one more time to punch him, but as he said, he is faster.

"It is your destiny to lose to me, Flash, just as it was your mother's destiny to die that night." The man in yellow tells Barry and speeds off before Barry could stand up. Once the adrenaline wore off, Barry feels everything that has been broken and collapse.

-

Once Barry got to S.T.A.R. Labs, he informed everyone of the fight. "He acted like he knew me, like we'd done this before." Barry explains to them.

"He was antagonizing you, Bare." Joe states to Barry. "I would get close, and he'd just pull away. I mean, this was just some sick game to him." Barry states, hating the fact he's not fast enough to stop the criminal. "You'll catch him, we'll help." Wells explains to Barry calmly.

"No, you don't get it, all right? His speed, it's...its beyond me. I'm not the fastest man alive, he is." Barry states, angrily. "So how do we catch somebody that even I can't keep up with?"

"The beautiful thing about force fields, mr. Allen, is they're impervious to speed. Now, we're almost finished fabricating the trap, and all that remains is for detective west to procure the bait." Wells explains and looks towards Joe.

"I'm on it." He tells Wells and looks at Peter. "You got any tips on dealing with your boss?" Joe asks Peter, hoping for some advice.

"I'm...not exactly the guy who tells people what he wants." Peter explains, hating that about himself. "Besides, I've never had a complaint about my boss. All I can tell you is best of luck." He tells Joe knowing it's not useful.

Joe sees he's on his own and heads off with Barry behind him. "Barry, why don't you stay here?" Joe asks him. "No, Joe, today is not the day to tell me to stay behind." Barry warns his foster dad and walks off with him.

-

At the precinct, after Joe and Barry were able to convince Tina to hand him the hand over the tachyon enhanced as Eddie approaches him.

"Joe, you got a second?" He asks his partner. "Not now, Eddie." Joe tells him. "I read the witness statement, the Flash was there." Eddie explains to Joe. "I know you got something in the works."

"Yeah, But you don't want any part of it." Joe warns to Eddie. "I've got a TASK force approved to capture him, and I want in." Eddie tells Joe. "I'm not asking permission, Joe."

"Excuse me?"

"If my TASK force isn't a part of this, I'll go to captain Singh. I'll tell him somethings going on, and you're not talking. I'm sorry. You'd do the same thing if you were me."

Joe thinks for a minute and doesn't want it to get out about either of the heroes he's secretly working with, and just agrees to let him in. Knowing it's not gonna end well for anyone.

-

Around the city, Peter, Cisco and Caitlin are searching for Ronnie. Peter is also wearing his suit just in case something goes wrong. Cisco worked up a device to track the heat emitting from Ronnie. "Wefollow the ionized particles, and that should lead us right to him." Cisco tells them as they walk through a workplace.

"The CPMs are rising, Cisco." Peter explains as he leads them with the device in his hands. "We should've told dr. Wells and Barry." Cisco states as they walk into a clearing.

"No, not until we're sure it's him." Caitlin explains as they go into a tight space hallway. "This is seriously a bad time to state I'm claustrophobic." Peter tries joking a bit nervous about seeing his friend after almost over a year.

"Look, guys, Ronnie is not like you remembered him." Caitlin tries explaining and the two of them get confused. "What does that mean?" Cisco asks her.

"Just don't freak out when you see him, okay?" Caitlin explains to them. "Trust me, Cait, there's nothing he can do that'll surprise me. I've seen him at his best, even at his worst." Peter states as they keep walking and the device turns off.

"Please tell me this means the batteries are dead, Cisco." Peter begs his friend, when his senses go off and he senses someone else is down here with them when a homeless Ronnie come into view.

"Okay, I've seen him better." Peter states, even though he's in complete shock he's alive. "Ronnie, it's me, Cait." Caitlin says walking towards him. "Look, I brought Peter and Cisco with me. We're here to help you."

"I'm...not Ronnie." He tells them and Peter's senses indicate he's not, but Ronnie is in there. It's...strange to say nonetheless. "Yes, you are. You're Ronnie Raymond." Caitlin tries getting trough to him.

"I'm not Ronnie. Now get away from me." He pleads with them while shaking uncontrollably. "Look, we need to get you back to S.T.A.R. Labs. We'll help you remember." Caitlin replies hoping to help him when he grabs her hand and whispers one word. "Firestorm" right before his hands and head burst into flames and vanishes.

"Okay, _now_ that is new." Peter states as he's lost all control over himself and drops in shock.

-

They've decided to look further into it later while Cisco and Peter are working on the forcefield trap for the man in yellow. "The tachyon device is in place." Cisco tells them as he looks over the trap on the monitors. "You think it'll work?" Barry asks them.

"It'll work, don't worry." Peter states and goes to find where Caitlin is. "So how do we advise to him that the prototype's here?" Barry asks them.

"We'll take care of that." Wells explains to him and Barry and sees their faces. "What's the problem?" Barry asks them.

"Look, Barry..me and dr. Wells have spoken and we think it would be best if you weren't here for this. You're too close to this." Joe explains to Barry and waits for him to explode. "Or maybe you're not close enough. If you haven't been to scared and warned me he was here weeks ago, I could've been prepared for this."

"I think we can all appreciate Joe!s concern for Iris and Peter's concern for his aunt, Barry." Wells defends the two of them. "That's why I have to be here! I'm the best chance at catching this guy!" Barry yells at them. "Not right now, not in this state." Joe replies seeing Barry angry.

"This man stabbed my mother through the heart and sent my father to prison for it. This is my fight." Barry defends wanting to finally catch this guy.

"Not today, son." Joe states and Barry sees he's not wining this and leaves.

Peter goes into the pipeline corridor and sees Caitlin crying while holding her engagement ring. He walks up to her and sits down beside her. "You know, I'm told my shoulder is a nice place to cry if you need it." Peter offers remembering all the times people needed to do it in the past. Caitlin doesn't say anything to him and stays silent. "Hey, Cait, now we know he's out there, we'll find him again." Peter explains to her, hoping to cheer her up.

"Why? So we can throw him in the pipeline with all the other metahuman psychos?" Caitlin asks while her voice is breaking. "I used to play this game in my head. _What would I give up for just one more minute with him?_ My home, my career,..the rest of my life?" Caitlin lists off as more tears flow down her face.

"Today I finally got that minute. And I wish I hadn't. Seeming him like that, what he's become...I wish he had just died that day." She states and puts her head on his shoulder and she continued to cry and Peter puts his hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

"You're shoulder is pretty nice." Caitlin sates and leans further in and Peter is happy to be here for her.

-

Later on, they're waiting with Eddie and his TASK force while Peter put on his Spider-Man suit so nobody puts the pieces together. "Sending out another pulse." Cisco tells them as they just wait for something.

"Are you certain this trap will work?" Eddie asks them. "I've sent up at least three charges into open satellite. If anyone's looking for tachyonic particles, they'll know we've got them." Cisco explains as they wait for something to happen when a flash of lightning enters the room and hets trapped in the force field. They watch as the man in yellow is beating against the walls.

"I think he's agitated, don't you think?" Peter asks the team. "Let's see what we caught." Wells states and they all head to the basement.

Once the TASK force, Eddie, Joe and Spider-Man make it to the room they see the man in yellow standing there with his face vibrating and his eyes glowing red.

"Cisco? Lights." Wells asks and the lights come on and they see him completely. "Detective Thawne, would you like to read him his rights?" Wells asks Eddie as Joe approaches the cage.

"Joe, what are you doing?" Eddie asks him. "Getting some answers." Joe answers as the TASK force all aim at the forcefield. "14 years ago, you murdered Nora Allen. I wanna know why." Joe states and he ignores Joe and looks towards Harrison.

"Dr. Wells, we meet at last." The man in yellow tells Wells and ignored Joe. "What do you want with the tachyonic particles?" Wells asks him. "My goals are beyond your understanding." The man in yellow states to him.

"Oh, I don't know, I'm a pretty smart guy. I knew you were exceptional fast, so any trap we manufactured would have to be invisible. I knew your cells could repair themselves at extraordinary speeds, so you could withstand the dagame this is doing to your body right now." Wells starts listing when the lights start flickering and Peter's senses go off.

-

In the cortex, Cisco and Caitlin see there's a malfunction. "The super compositors...the containment field is fluctuating. They need to get out of there now." Cisco states.

-

"The reason I know all this is because your powers are almost exactly like those of the Flash." Wells tells the man in yellow. "Oh, I'm not like the Flash at all." The man in yellow replies. "Some would say I'm the reverse." He states when everything starts glitching and Peter has a bad feeling.

"Peter, you need to evacuate!" Caitlin's voice enters his ear when the man in yellow escaped the containment just to pull Wells inside the container and starts beating him.

"Cisco, turn it off!" Joe yells into the speakers and Peter gets ready for it to turn off. "If I turn it off, that things gonna get out." Cisco tells them.

"Cisco, he's gonna kill Wells!" Peter shouts to his friend, pleading for him to turn it off so he can help and just decides to use a taser web to shut it down.

As soon as it was turned off, the man in yellow grabs the tachyon enhancer. "Find him!" Eddie shouts as Peter's trying to sense him as lightning comes running around the room and comes to a stop by the door.

"Don't move, or we will shoot." Eddie warns the man in yellow. He doesn't listen and speeds around and punches all of the officers and was even faster than Peter's senses and sends him flying into the circit box. Peter tries getting up and sees that the man in yellow is staring at Eddie.

Before anyone could do anything more, Peter send another taser web to at least distract him. Once it hits him, Peter watches as he screeches in anger and rams Peter into the wall. "I warned you, Parker. Maybe your aunt should pay for the consequences." The man in yellow says and that gets Peter angry, but can't do anything to stop him. Barry just comes speeding in receiving a text from Caitlin and rams into the man in yellow and they start running around the facility.

-

Outside, Cisco and Caitlin go outside to see Barry and the other man speeding upward and he rams Barry into a car. Barry hets up and starts fighting the man who murdered his mother. Now he has the chance to prove his father's innocence, but he's still not fast enough. The man in yellow holds him in a choke hold and throws him into the ground. The Reverse goes to finish, when a web pulls him into the air and slamming into the ground. Once he gets up, he sees Peter in a damaged suit, bleeding from his right arm, and one of his eye sockets are destroyed.

"Let's do this, Reverse Brain." Peter quips even though he's on the verge of passing out. Reverse speeds up to him, Peter was able to predict this time and dodge the attack and web his face, blinding him. Peter tries shooting a web grenade to finally stop him when Reverse speeds and throws the grenade back at Peter, causing it to stop him in his tracks. The Reverse goes in for the final kill when a blast of fire comes in and they look to see Ronnie.

"Our race is not yet done. See you soon, heroes." Reverse says and speeds off into the night. Peter starts getting himself free from his webbing with help from Cisco as Caitlin approaches Ronnie.

"Don't look for me again." Ronnie warns her then uses his fire to fly off into the sky.

"Look at that, my dead best friend can fly. My life is weird." Peter states as Barry and Cisco help bring him back into S.T.A.R. Labs to get checked on.

-

Later on, Barry went to the prescient to check on Joe and Eddie while Peter's letting his healing do it's job and takes it easy. "Looks like Spider-Man took quite a beating." Cisco tried joking to Peter.

"Yeah. I thought my senses would work against anyone, but that man was so fast it's like my senses couldn't register him in time." Peter states as he tries to think of anything beside the pain.

"Look, I've been going over the data, and I still don't know why the containment system failed. I must've missed something." Cisco explains to Wells.

"It's not your fault, Cisco." Wells tells him, calmly as Caitlin is patching his wounds. "But if you feel the need to apologize for something, you might start with the not telling me Ronnie is still alive."

"I asked Cisco and Peter not to say anything." Caitlin explains, defending her friends. "Once I saw what Ronnie had become, I needed...time to see if I could make him hole again. I'm sorry. I know you're mad."

"No. I don't know what I would've done differently in your situation." Wells tells her. "I know I made you a lot of promises and I couldn't keep all of them. But on my life, I promise you this...we will bring Ronnie home." Wells promises them.

-

What they didn't expect though was to get an invite from Joe to go to his house for a Christmas get together. Peter even asked if he could invite his aunt May to join them since not many of them has met her yet and it seemed like the best time.

Barry and Joe finally shows up and Barry's surprised to see Caitlin, Peter and Cisco. "Hey, what are you guys doing here?" Barry asks them.

"I invited them." Joe explains to Barry and sees someone's missing. "Where's dr. Wells?" Joe asks them.

"He wasn't feeling up to a social gathering, but he appreciated the invitation." Caitlin explains to him when they heard something coming from the kitchen.

"Who's in there?" Joe asks. "That would be my aunt. She doesn't like having many people in the kitchen." Peter explains to them.

"She's scary. If I'm allowed to say that." Eddie says and looks to Peter.

"She's downright terrifying when she wants to be." Peter agrees and takes a drink from the eggnog and almost spits some of it. "Okay, that's strong." He states, never tasting real alcohol because of the spider bite but he could definitely taste that.

They all start having conversations with one another as May finishes in the kitchen and joins them.

After a while, Cisco and Joe talk about when Barry said he saw red and yellow lightning as a kid when his mom died. There wasn't the only speedster the night his mother was killed.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Wells is in the time vault and shows he has the tachyon enhancer and places it on his suit to enhance his speed.

"Merry Christmas." He tells himself and sees he's a step closer to going home, back to the future.

———————————


	9. Can't stand the heat, get out of the ice

————

Peter was running around the city, keeping the people safe while Barry was working on getting faster to catch the newly named Reverse Flash. They were both afraid of the criminal and what he can do. But they're going to train harder so they can stop him and not put their loved ones in danger.

At a car containment building, the door starts getting frozen over and a car comes ramming into the door, shattering It. Leonard Snart and Mick Rory, his new partner with the heat-gun, exit the car.

"Told you It would break." Snart states to Mick.

"And the shrink says I'm crazy." Mick states to himself. "What is this place?" He asks Snart.

"Customs warehouse. Imported cars from Europe, all worth a fortune." Snart explains and Mick removes the covers on the cars and sees the bran new vehicle.

"Question. How do you suggest you and I drive all these cars out of here?" Mick questions seeing they didn't bring any vehicles except the one they rammed.

"We're not. We're not stealing anything." Snart answers.

"What are you talking about?" Mick asks now believing he truly has gone crazy.

"Our entrance set off the silent alarms. The cops will be arriving in two minutes and 14 seconds." Snart starts explaining the plan since Mick doesn't exactly have the brain to ask him the plan.

"Bring them." Mick states and goes for the case with the heat-gun from the car.

"That's not for the cops, as we discussed." Snart warns him as he sits against the cars. "He'll be here." Snart states, talking about the Flash.

Outside, Spider-Man got word of what's happening and is following the police cars to help with the criminals.

Back inside, Snart starts hearing the sirens and is getting confused. "You do hear that, right?" Mick asks him.

"He's not coming." Snart realizes and they start leaving. Seeing they won't be getting their fight they were hoping for.

"Seatbelt." Snart warns mick and they escaped.

-

Later the police show up to see what's happened. "Are you sure nothings missing?" Joe asks the officer.

"That's what the supervisor said." He explains to Joe. "I can check again." He offers as Barry is doing his thing.

"Well, the breakage indicates the door somehow had zero viscoelasticity when it hit the ground." Barry explains and they don't understand. "I'm sorry. The steel shattered like glass." Barry explains and looks over the pieces of the door. "It was frozen, Joe."

"Snart." Joe states.

"I thought Snart was some world-class thief." Eddie states. "All these expensive cars...he didn't take any of them?" Eddie asks and Barry was thinking the same thing.

"Eddie, put out an APB on Snart." Joe tells him and he leaves to do it.

"Snart wasn't here to steal anything. He was setting a trap for me." Barry tells Joe.

-

"Captain Cold is back?" Cisco asks as Barry fills them in what's going on.

"For a non metahuman, Leonard Snart is proving to be quite the nemesis." Wells states to them.

"Doesn't he still have the cold-gun?" Peter asks them. "Because If prefer not to go against that thing with round 2." Peter states, hating normal cold, let alone a gun that can give you frostbite easily.

"Well, what does he want this time?" Caitlin asks him.

"The Flash." Barry answers them. "If Snart wants a fight with the Flash, then I'll give him one." Barry tells them and Wells disagrees. "You don't think I should?" Barry asks him.

"I didn't say that, but as fast as you are, you cannot be everywhere at once. And it becomes a question of priorities." Wells explains to him. "Now, in the last month, you have made a commitment to increasing your speed, enhancing your reflexes, and it's working. You're finally getting faster."

"Okay, but I can't just ignore Snart." Barry states to him not wanting another chance of someone else dying.

"Last time you fought with Snart, a train derailed. You were lucky to get all of those people to safety. Now if you don't give him a fight..." Wells explains and Barry understands.

"He might just back off, and there'll be no casualties."

"Look, Barry, Cisco and I will work with Joe and the police and devise a way to catch Cold. Yes, I said it, Cisco. As soon as it came out of my mouth, I heard it." Wells realizes and Cisco just smies that his name is spreading.

"We can easily devise a way to stop Snart." Cisco tells him.

"Yeah, and I can upgrade my suit to be able to melt the ice or something I already have a heater installed." Peter offers.

"Whether or not you go after Snart, that's your choice. We here, we will do whatever we can to support it." Wells tells Barry. "But after this past Christmas, after the events with the Reverse Flash, I just think he poses a greater threat to all of us."

-

Cisco and Peter came up with an idea that can keep the police safe and they brought the prototype to the prescient to see if they'll take it.

"Excuse me, can I have you attention?" Cisco asks while all of the police are looking his way.

"You have their attention, Cisco." Peter states to him and Cisco Just chuckles nervously.

"Okay, check it. So, dr. Wells, dr. Parker and I, we took your ballistic shields and we lined them with a pretty sweet compacted heating ribbon designed to repel temperature attacks, especially those reaching absolute zero, like Captain Cold's gun." Cisco explains to them.

"And that's supposed to stop us from turning into popsicles?" One of the officers asks them.

"In a nutshell, yes." Peter tells him.

"How we supposed to trust anything from S.T.A.R. Labs after you nuked the city?" A different officer asks and they knew that would come up from someone.

"You're right, you shouldn't trust us." Cisco tells them. "What happened a year ago, that was our fault. And we can't change the past, as much as we wish we could. But tomorrow is a different story. We just want the chance to make things better." Cisco explains and aims his ice gun and shoots the shield and the police watch as the ice on the shield quickly melt away and they're impressed.

"Dummies are one thing. My officers are another." Singh warns them and they understand and he leaves.

"Looks like we did a good thing today." Peter states and smiles to his friend seeing he's got some cred back and leaves to S.T.A.R. Labs to work on his suit for the fight.

-

Caitlin is also at S.T.A.R. Labs and is looking at anything related to Firestorm. She was so focused, she didn't hear Peter coming in and touching her shoulder and she jumped.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you." Peter quickly apologized.

"No, it's okay. I was just focused on something." Caitlin says and Peter looks at what's she's looking at.

"_Firestorm._ Isn't that what Ronnie said before he vanishes?" Peter asks her.

"Yeah. I've been looking over everything to find anything that could help with him, but theres nothing." Caitlin states and changes the subject. "So, What brings you here?" She asks him.

"I'm here to give my suit's heaters some upgrades like I said last night to withstand the cold temperatures. I don't wanna repeat of the last time I fought Snart." Peter explains to her.

"Yeah, even with your radioactive blood, you almost got permanent frostbite, so it's a good idea." Caitlin states to him and sees something else is bothering him. "You sure nothing else is bothering you?" She asks.

Peter thinks for a minute and goes for the straight answer. "I'm terrified." He states and Caitlin is surprised at him. He's never admitted to being afraid before. "The Reverse Flash threatened May. And I'm not as fast as Barry to be able to save her if he goes after her. And I don't know how to tell her she could be in danger without telling her about Spider-Man." Peter explains the predicament to his friend.

"Why don't you just tell her?" Caitlin asks him. "I mean, you told us pretty easily." Caitlin explains to him.

"If I told her, I don't know how she's going to react, and if I remember correctly, you passed out when I told you." Peter states and she sees his point. "I know I have to tell her eventually, but it's been over a decade and I still haven't been able to tell her. I just want to keep her safe."

"Maybe telling her will make her more safe." Caitlin explains to him. "I mean, if she knew her nephew was Spider-Man, she would know you'd never stop until she was safe. Sure, you fight criminals and super powered people, but that's because you choose to." Caitlin tells him and he understands what she means.

"I'll think about it." Peter says and starts getting to work on the upgraded and gets an idea. "Wait, Cait. What if Firestorm isn't a word?" Peter asks him and she doesn't understand. "What if it's an anachronism for something? Like a scientific idea." He explains and Caitlin sees where he's going with it and retypes F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M.

"Fusion Ignition Research Experiment and Science of Transmutation Originating RNA and Molecular Structures." Caitlin reads outloud.

"That's a mouthful." Peter tells her happy to have helped. "Wait, I've seen this research before." Peter realizes. "It talks a lot about altering the structure of an element by unzipping the atoms, and rebuilding it to create a new element. It was written by Martin Stein, and co-written by Jason Rush, who's a grad student here at Hudson university. So if we want information, he's the most likely to have it." Peter explains to her and she gets happy.

"Thanks, Peter." She tells him.

"With or without the mask, I help those who need it." Peter replies and then starts getting to work for real.

-

That night, they got word Snart is planning on stealing a painting resembling fire and ice. And let's be honest, when you buy something that's basically half white and the other is red for over a million dollars, you've got too much money.

The Rathaway's are leaving their plane with the painting as they speak as Snart approaches them. "Somebody better call 911." Snart tells them, hoping the Flash will show up this time.

As time passes, the police approach with Spider-Man and his cold-resistant suit. Snart shoots his cold-gun and it has no effect on any of them.

"Mick!" Snart shouts and the police and Peter see his partner.

"Who's he?" Peter asks, completely confused now. "Why do they call you people the heat?" He asks them. "I'm the heat!" He shouts and shoots them with his heat-gun and they can't protect themselves against that.

"Forget them, Mick. Get ready for him." Snart says and Mick isn't listening as he's loosing control over himself as he keeps burning. Peter sees Mick's more focused on the cops than him, and uses it as an opening to shoot a taser web, causing his gun to short circuit.

"We go, now!" Snart tells him and shoots Peter before he could stop them. The cold doesn't hurt him, but the blast still hit him across the room. "I hate Snart." Peter states as Snart and Mick escape.

-

Peter went to S.T.A.R. Labs to have Caitlin check up on him after the fight and he's perfectly fine despite the light bruises and a bit of s sunburn on his chest.

"Thanks, Cait." Peter thanks her as she finishes.

"No problem, Peter." Caitlin tells him happy to help. "So, what happened?" She asks

"Snart has a new partner with him. He had this handheld flamethrower. I wasn't able to counterattack that." Peter tells her.

-

At their hideout, Mick and Snart think about what to do now they have the painting. "The bug's webb fried the secondary internal fuel chamber." Mick explains as he fixes the gun. "It could've been worse. You were right to get me to learn every part and circuit of this thing." He states as Snart comes up completely angry. "Repairing It was...a snap." Mick says as Snart raises the cold-gun at Mick and he raises the heat-gun on Snart.

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't kill you right now." Snart asks Mick.

"It's gonna be hard to find someone else to listen to your winning speeches." Mick replies to Snart.

"You lost it out there," Snart tells Mick, "just like the last job. You lost focus, became obsessed."

"I'm obsessed? What about you?" Mick asks Snart since he's been obsessed with the Flash for months. "What about you? You're usually counting the seconds, gig the whole thing planned out. But all you care about now is the Flash."

"We have to put him down. With him gone, that leaves Spider-Man and he's useless against these weapons." Snart states to Mick.

"We got the finger painting. It's worth millions. It's ours. We're rich, job done." Mick counters seeing no point in going after someone faster than the two of them.

"What about the next job, Mick? With weapons like these, no one can stand against us, no one except the Flash." Snart explains then lowers the cold-gun. "If you want out, take the painting and go." He tells Mick. "But if you want Central City to be outr home where we can do and take whatever we want...this is our chance...your chance." Snart explains and Mick just turns to the painting and burns it with the gun.

"Very motivational." Mick states about the speech and is in with the plan of taking down the Flash. "How do we get him?" Mick asks Snart.

"Flash and Spider-Man aren't so different from us. They have partners too." Snart states and remembers the people who saved them the first time.

-

Caitlin went to Jitters to get what he could from the co-author of the paper Peter found and he explained to her that Martin Stein was the leader behind the project and he's been missing ever since the accelerator. And that the army showed up and took everything related to their research so there's nothing that could help her find Ronnie and she leaves to her car.

As she's heading to the car, her phone rings and she sees Peter's name on the screen and answers it. _"Hey, you get anything that could help with Ronnie?" _Peter asks her.

"No, but you were right about the research. But get this, a day after the accelerator, the army confiscated everything related to F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M." Caitlin informs him on what she found.

_"Okay, if the army is involved, this could be more serious than we thought."_ Peter states.

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I'll tell you about it more later, see you." Caitlin replies, but before he could reply a blast of ice hits her car door.

_"Caitlin, what was that?"_ Peter asks heading the commotion from the other end. Caitlin turns around slowly and sees Mick and Snart.

"Car trouble?" Snart asks and Peter recognizes the voice as Caitlin screams and tries getting into the car and Mick grabs her.

-

"When the heat-gun was fried, it increased the surrounding temperature of the air dramatically, sort of like an extreme heat wave." Cisco explains at S.T.A.R. Labs to Barry and Wells as they're unaware of what happened and Cisco gets a name for Mick. "Heatwave."

"Stop doing that." Wells exclaims at him.

"Okay. I measured the temperature output of both the cold and heat guns, right? And while the cold-gun achieves absolute zero, the heat gun successfully reaches absolute hot, or the hottest temperature an object can achieve." Cisco keeps explaining to them.

"So potentially, these two guns could cancel each other out." Wells realizes seeing where Cisco is going.

"Yes, but to do that, you'd have to make them cross streams." Cisco explains when they hear something slamming in the halls.

"You mean like in _Ghostbusters_?" Barry asks him as Wells turns to check on the noise.

"That film is surprisingly scientifically accurate." Cisco realizes and they turn to see Peter in his suit and out of breath and he pulls off his mask.

"You alright there, man?" Cisco asks him.

"He..he took Caitlin!" Peter tries talking through gasping for breath after running from his apartment all the way to S.T.A.R. Labs.

"Who took Caitlin?" Wells asks when Barry's phone goes off and he answers it and speeds off.

"I was talking to Caitlin on the phone when I heard Snart talked and she screamed and she must've dropped it or something." Peter explains to them.

-

Barry makes it to the crime scene and sees Caitlin's car and calls out for Joe. "There's no sign of Caitlin." Joe explains and Barry now blames himself because Snart got her to get to him.

"We have to get her back." Barry states to Joe.

"Damn right. Come on, let's go." Joe replies and they go to find her.

-

At the prescient, Eddie approaches them with some news about Snart's partner. "We got a hit, a second pair of prints. Belonging to a Mick Rory. A big time arsonist. He and Snart worked a job last year that went bad." Eddie explains and hands them the file on him. "Half of Rory's body was burned in a fire that got out of control. He escaped from the ambulance on the way to the hospital, hasn't been seen since." Eddie tells them and is still confused.

"Why would they kidnapped someone like Caitlin?" Eddie asks since he doesn't know she works with Flash.

"Joe, Thawne, it's on every channel." Singh states and turns on the tv's and shows Caitlin being held hostage with Snart and Rory holding her back.

"Greetings, citizens of Central City. I am Leonard Snart. But you can call me Cold." Snart tells them.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Peter is watching the same broadcast and his anger is growing. "I'm gonna make this simple for everyone. That read streak you've been hearing whispers about, the one mysteriously saving people these last few months with Spider-Man? Well, surprise, he's real. Calls himself the Flash. Porter and main, tonight, sundown. Show the whole world you're real." Snart says and Peter knows that's where Snart wants the fight and he's serious. "And Spider-Man, if you decide to make an appearance, this woman dies." Snart warns Peter and the camera goes dead.

"Hang on, Cait. We'll find you." Peter whispers, hoping she can hold on until they find their location. From what he could see in the background, they were in some warehouse.

-

At their hideout, Mick is tying Caitlin into the seat with a bomb strapped underneath. "You're a friend of theirs, huh?" Mick asks Caitlin. "He's fast." He states and lights a lighter. "Like fire. Fire, it's undefinable. Heat, light, energy. It's an evolution when things burn."

"You're sick." Caitlin states angrily, hating she's being used against her friends.

"Maybe you're the sick ones. You ever think of that?" Mick asks her and Caitlin disagrees and sees his scars.

"You've got third-degree burns. Why didn't you get skin grafts?" Caitlin asks him.

"The fire revealed my true self, showed me who I really am." Mick replies. "I wonder what the Flash will reveal when I burn his skin off. Maybe afterwards, I'll roast a spider." He states and that makes Caitlin's blood boil. Peter's been there for her whenever she needed him, if he dies because of her, she'll never forgive herself.

"Do whatever you want to me, but leave them alone." Caitlin states through her teeth.

"Ooh, you and these heroes must be pretty close if you're willing to die for them, hmm?" Mick asks her and grabs the heat-gun. "You want me to show you who you really are?" He asks her and aims the gun towards her head and she starts getting scared.

"Mick." Snart interrupts him. "Time to go." He tells Mick and he activated the bomb under the chair.

"You better pray the next people that come through this door is us." Mick warns her and puts a cloth around her mouth to keep her quiet.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry is waiting for his time to get to the fight when his phone rings.

_"Okay, you're up._" Joe tells Barry. "_Barry, after tonight, everyone's going to know that the Flash exists. You ready for that?" _Joe asks Barry and he isn't sure about it and hangs up.

As Barry gets into his suit, he goes into the halls and Peter is there in his suit. "Okay, we clear on the plan?" Barry asks Peter.

"You keep them busy, me, Joe and Cisco locate Caitlin and get her to safety. It's not a complicated plan." Peter states, since he was the one who had the idea.

"Okay, let's do this." Barry says and speeds off.

-

Porter and main, Snart and Mick show up and wait for Flash to make his appearance. Barry comes speeding in and is ready to fight. "The scarlet speedster. Any preference on how you'd like to die?" Snart asks him. "The flame or the frost?"

Barry doesn't say anything and walks towards them. "Not in the mood for chitchat. Gotcha, ready when you are." Snart states and they warm up their guns and Barry's eyes flicker with electricity and they beigin their fight.

Snart freezes the road and explodes a firehydrant and freezes up the explosion.

Barry runs and slips onto the ice sending him through the water, causing it to shatter.

"_Barry you okay?" _Wells asks him from S.T.A.R. Labs. "_You know what you need to do._"

"Yeah, get them to cross their beams and cancel their guns out. I know." Barry replies from behind a car. "Not as easy as you would think." Barry states.

-

Peter and Joe are moving in on a location Cisco pinpointed for them. "Are we sure Caitlin's here, Peter?" Joe asks him as they move towards the warehouses.

"Starting from Caitlin's car, me and Cisco were able to piece together surveillance footage that lead us to this general area." Peter explains and activated his heat signature software to do its thing.

"There's over a dozen warehouses here. How do we know where to start?" Joe asks Peter.

"Well, my scans indicate that only one of these places has heat on for about the past few days. And I jags a feeling Snart's hotheaded friend likes things hot." Peter explains and they move towards the warehouse and see the doors are locked.

"This is definitely the place." Peter states and grabs the lock with his bare hands and shatters it.

"You watch my six, my senses will handle the rest." Peter tells Joe as they walk through the warehouse.

"Caitlin, you here?" Peter asks and hears someone whimpering. "Caitlin, is that you?" Peter asks and his mask gets her behind the cases.

"Stay here, I'll get her." Peter tells Joe as he leaps on top of the shelves and sees her.

"Caitlin." Peter calls out and she looks up to see him. "I'm glad to see they didn't hurt you badly. Okay, is there anything I should be concerned about?" He asks her and she tries saying something, but the gag is preventing her.

"Okay, That was a stupid idea on my part, just nod your head where." Peter states and she nods downward and Peter sees the bomb. "That's not good." Peter mumbles since he knows nothing about bombs but remembers what Oliver taught him about land mines.

"Caitlin, I'm gonna need you to remain calm and trust me." Peter states, not wanting to explain what he's about to do and she looks confused. "You trust me, right?" Peter ask her and she nods her head and he puts his plan into action.

Please shoots a web at the ceiling and knows that if he's not precise, he and/or Caitlin could die. "I hope Oliver taught me right." Peter states and swings down and grabs Caitlin's chair and that sets off the bomb, but Peter got them far enough away so they didn't get hurt, but it burnt the webbing.

"You good?" Peter asks her and she's terrified. "It's gonna be okay, we got you." Peter states as Joe comes up to them and sees she's okay.

-

Back at the fight, Barry is trying all he can, but he can't get their beams to cross. "I can't get them to cross streams. Speed isn't getting this dome." Barry explains to Wells.

"_You're right. Maybe the way to do this is not by going faster._" Wells realizes and Barry understands.

"It's going slower." Barry replies and starts running slowly towards the two of them and they shoot him with their beams. Barry just takes it and moves closer until their lined up and speeds off and the beams finally cross causing them to blow Mick and Snart backwards. Snart reaches for his cold-gun and Barry stops him.

"I didn't see that coming." Snart states. "I guess you win this time."

"There won't be a next time." Barry states and Eddie, who tried helping during the fight, came up to arrest them. "_Thank you, detective_." Barry says, discarding his voice before speeding off to see if Peter did his part.

-

At the prescient, Snart and Mick are being brought through for processing as Mick screams about how he'll burn everything and everyone.

"You're partner's a real hothead." Joe states to Snart.

"That's funny." Snart says while fake laughing.

"You know what's hilarious, Snart?" Joe asks him. "We got you."

"Congratulations." Snart replies non-enthusiastically and they take him away.

"Nice work, Eddie." Barry congratulated him.

"It wasn't me. It was the Flash." Eddie admits while he hands the head and cold gun to Cisco.

"We won't be needing these for trial." Eddie states and Cisco promises he will destroy it.

-

Peter makes it to S.T.A.R. Labs to check on Caitlin after the events that's occurred. "Hey, Cait, you doing okay?" Peter asks as she's just staring at the computer and it's off.

"Yeah. I guess." Caitlin replies to him and Peter doesn't believe her. "All things considered, I knew you guys would find me." Caitlin reassures Peter.

"You know, this is exactly why I kept my identity from you. Everyone who learns my secret gets into trouble." Peter explains to her.

"The reason I was safe was because I knew my friend would rather die than give up on me." Caitlin assured him and he agrees he would always put his friends first. Maybe that's another reason that he should've told everyone a long time ago.

"Also, thanks for the quick rescue." She states and gets up to give him a hug. Peter retaliates and hugs her back.

"I'll always be there for all of you. No matter the time, place or reason." Peter replies to her.

"That's why I know I can rely on you, Peter." She states and breaks the hug.

"Look, Cait, I won't be able to get much sleep knowing people might actually know who you are, you mind if I just kept my eyes on you for tonight?" Peter asks and she knows he's just looking out for a friend.

"Sure, just for tonight. I can take care of myself, you know." Caitlin agrees, hoping he doesn't make a big fuss.

"I know you can, but I make no promises." Peter states as they get ready to leave for the night and she just laughs at his reply.

—————


	10. Soundstorm

—————————————————————

Peter and Barry have just returned from stopping a motorcycle duo from getting away with almost a million dollars in jewelry. "Give me some!" Cisco shouts from his chair as they both give him a hi-5. "Efficiency dome, mr. Allen and mr. Parker." Wells tells the two heroes.

"We need a picture." Cisco states and runs off to find a phone.

"I'm pretty sure rule number one of having a secret identity is not taking pictures of yourself in your super suit with the mask off." Barry states and Peter sees his point but sees no harm in it.

"Come on, it's not like anyone else is gonna see it, man." Peter tells Barry trying to get him to lighten up. "Besides, you should see my photos." He states since he likes taking selfies while he's swinging through the streets.

"Who knows? Maybe people in the future will want to know how all this happened." Wells agrees.

"All right, Well, if you want the future to have the whole story, we all need to be in it." Barry finally agrees and Peter is happy and drops his mask.

"First, let me put in some makeup?" Caitlin asks not feeling like she looks her best.

"Cait, come on, you look fine. Besides, it's not like anyone over a hundred years from now will care about your makeup." Peter states and goes behind Wells left side.

Barry has the camera up and is ready to take it. As soon as he pushes the camera button, he zooms over to Wells' right side and the picture gets taken and he speeds over before the camera has time to move.

"Does that count as a selfie?" Caitlin wonders. "It looks like it came out really great." Peter states seeing the picture. "And since did you worry about makeup?" Peter asks Caitlin as they leave for the night.

"Just stop talking." Was Caitlin's reply.

-

Wells makes it to his home and seeing he's alone, gets off of his wheelchair. Trying to keep his secret is easy when around the team, but hiding the Speedforce from Peter's senses was just as tricky. Yet when he's alone, he doesn't need to worry about it.

What he didn't see was what was happening at his home when his phone began to ring.

"Hello?" Wells asks into the phone.

_"We both know what you did."_ The voice says and Wells hangs up and looks around. _"It's time to pay the piper." _The voice states through his home speakers and his glass roof starts shattering and he uses his speed to escape it as more blasts come in and destroy more glass.

-

The next morning, the CCPD show up with Barry and Joe arrive at his home. "Come in." Wells greets them.

"Look, Joe, I apologize for all of this. It really feels like a case of so much for so little." Wells states with all of the police everywhere. "The police shouldn't have been called. I got a prank call before this happened."

"This feels like more than a prank, Doctor." Joe states seeing the glass shattered covering up across the floor.

"Well, there are those who feel I did not suffer enough for the particle accelerator explosion of last year, and some of them act on it." Wells explains when Cisco, Caitlin and Peter show up.

"Dr. Wells, are you okay?" Caitlin asks as they make it over to them.

"D. Snow, I'm fine. A little chilly. Otherwise, I'm fine. Hello, Cisco, Peter." Wells greets them. "Make yourselves at home as best you can." He tells them and rolls away. "I'm gonna make a hotel reservation." He explains while leaving.

"This place is so sick." Cisco says looking around the place.

"His living room is bigger than my entire apartment." Peter states seeing how huge the room is.

"Hey, what took you guys so long?" Barry asks them.

"I was held up at Mercury labs. Seems Spider-Man's getting a bit more life than Peter Parker." Peter explains.

"And we got lost." Cisco explains why they were taking so long. "We've never been here before." Caitlin states.

-

"I canvased the street." Eddie tells Joe as they leave the group. "No other reports of vandalism. No strange cars. Get this, Wells says he's right there when it happened. All that glass shattering down around him and he can't walk?"

"There's not a scratch on him." Joe states seeing something doesn't add up.

Barry is using his speed to place all of the glass back together to find something and there's nothing to find. "There's no point of impact." Barry tells Wells as he rolls in behind him. "No rock or bat or any solid object went through these windows. It's as if they shattered themselves." Barry explains and sees Wells' face.

"This wasn't some prank, was it?" He asks Wells and he agrees. "You don't want our help. Why?" Barry wonders.

"Because I already know who did this." Wells explains. "Hartley Rathaway. Better gather the others and get to S.T.A.R. Labs." Wells states and leaves.

"Wait, Who's Hartley Rathaway?" Barry asks, not knowing the man.

"He's the protocol son and he has returned." Wells states.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs, they're all filled in on who he is. "Hartley Rathaway possesses one of the finest scientific minds I've ever encountered." Wells starts explaining.

"Any ties to Rathaway Industries?" Joe asks seeing the familiar name. "His grandfather founded the company, his father expanded it, and Hartley here was set to inherit the throne." Wells explains to Joe seeing he's right.

"What happened?" Barry asks them.

"He came out to his parents. Old money, old values." Caitlin explains to him.

"They were estrange when we met, but brilliant. I couldn't have built the accelerator without him." Wells replies.

"You guys have never even mentioned his name." Barry says to his friends.

"That's because Harley had a challenging personality." Caitlin explains while scratching her neck.

"Don't try beating around the bush, Cait." Peter states and looks back at Barry. "He was a jerk, brought a while new meaning to the phrase pain in the neck." Peter states to them.

"But every once in a while, he could be a dick." Cisco finishes causing Joe to laugh.

"Let's juts say that Hartley, like many outliers, has trouble relating to his peers." Wells states.

"Yes, But he was always your favorite." Caitlin tells Wells.

"The chosen one." Cisco jokes.

"The one to save us all." Peter replies, getting in on the fun of mocking him.

"He used those phrases to refer himself." Cisco explains to them.

"So if you two were so close, why would he target you?" Joe wonders.

"Hartley left S.T.A.R. Labs about a year ago after we had a...a disagreement." Wells says answering his question.

"Disagreement about what?" Barry asks and Wells doesn't say anything in regard to that. "Look, don't worry, we'll stop him." Barry says and the two of them leave.

"I could've gone my whole life without seeing that jerk again." Cisco tells Peter who strongly agrees.

"No arguments here, man. He was a pain to us all." Peter tells his friend. "But yet again, he was the reason we met." Peter states remembering when Ronnie invited him to S.T.A.R. Labs to check out the accelerator and he ran into the new guy who happened to be Cisco Ramon.

"Yeah, well, even a broken clock is right twice a day." Cisco states and is happy that he met Peter, otherwise maybe none of this could be possible.

-

"Everything has a natural frequency." Barry tells Joe as he places a glass cup in front of a speaker. "And since should is expressed as a vibration, if the pitch of the sound matches the natural vibration frequency of an object, then.." he then turns up the frequency of the speaker until it destroyed the glass.

"So, you're saying that can happen to anything. Not just glass?" Joe asks his scientist son.

"Oh, yeah. I think it's what happened to the windows at Wells' house. He's using sonic technology." Barry explains.

"I'm getting this feeling that Wells is hiding something...about what's going on with this Rathaway character." Joe explains his suspicions about Wells to Barry.

"I mean, it sounds like the Hartley guy was a pill before he went all super villain. So, I get why he wouldn't mention him." Barry explains.

"Like he never mentions his girlfriend that got killed?" Joe asks Barry remembering his conversations with Wells a while back.

"How do you know about her?" Barry asks Joe.

"He's taking up a big part of our lives. I wanted to know more about him." Joe explains to Barry.

"I mean, if you want to know more about him, you could've asked me."

"Seems like you don't know him as well as you think." Joe states when Eddie enters the lab.

"Joe. Multiple 911 calls. Rathaway Industries is under attack." Eddie explains and Joe takes Eddie out when his phone rings.

"_Barry, it's Caitlin._" Caitlin says when he answers.

"I think I know why you're calling." Barry says and hets his spare outfit from his locker.

-

Rathaway Industries is getting their windows shattered by a man wearing gauntlets that are shooting blasts off sound blast off and he even shoots a police car with the gauntlets, shattering the engine. Peter wa already making his way over when he sees Barry speeding in.

"It's over Rathaway." Barry tells him and Peter webs his hands together so if he uses his blasts, he'll break his hands.

"Clever, Spider-Man." Rathaway tells him and looks to Flash. "You know my name. I know some names too. Caitlin Snow. Cisco Ramon. Peter Parker. Harrison Wells." Hartley lists down the names of them. "I can hear the radio waves emanating from your suits. About 1900 megahertz. Is that them on the other end, listening?" Hartley asks them as he stands back up. "Are they gonna hear you die?" Hartley asks him.

"Buddy, you're hands are a little tied at the moment, man." Peter replies and attaches a taser web to his back and shocks the gauntlets while he's at it.

"Looks like you're not as smart as everyone says." Barry comments on Hartley. "I'm smart enough to have figured out who Harrison Wells really is." Hartley states and that gets their attention. "You see, I know his secret." Hartley tells them and they're confused, but don't care.

-

Later they bring him into S.T.A.R. Labs and is just getting out of the elevator. "Being scooped up by two guys clad in head to toe leather is a long time fantasy of mine, so thanks." Hartley tells them as Caitlin and Cisco approach them.

"That just tells me you don't have a girlfriend." Peter replies to the man who he's hated since his first visit to the labs.

"Well, Well, Well, the gang's all here." Hartley tells the team.

"You've lasted a lot longer than I would've thought, Cisco." Hartley tells him.

"And you didn't even last five seconds against Spider-Man and the Flash." Cisco states happy to have something to rub in his face.

"I was thinking of calling myself Pied Piper." Hartley states his villain name to them.

"Hey, I assign the nicknames around here. Although that ones not bad." Cisco states to the man and Peter just rolls his eyes at his friend.

"Caitlin...never did get that wedding invite." Hartley comments knowing what happened, but as soon as he said that, Peter activated the taser web sending a small shock down his spine.

"Shut up and keep walking, Jerkenstein." Peter tells him as Cisco helps bring him to the pipeline.

Down in the pipeline, Cisco locks him in as Peter (now out of his suit) scans him and finds something in his head. "Scanners are picking up some foreign metallic objects in his ears." Peter tells Cisco.

"Take then out, man." Cisco tells the man.

"I can't. I suffered head trauma when S.T.A.R. Labs exploded. My hearing was severely damaged. Without these, I'm in pain you can't imagine." Hartley explains to them as Caitlin comes up to them. "We all lost something that night. Very clever re-purposing the anti-proton cavities into confinement cells. Wells' idea, I'm sure." Hartley guesses.

"It was Cisco's, actually." Peter tells him and Caitlin nods in agreement.

_"Little Cisco."_ Hartley says in Spanish. "_Still begging for his masters approval._"

"_If you're so smarter than us, why are you the one out of us trapped in a cage?_" Peter asks back in Spanish.

"Hartley, don't make this more difficult than it has to be." Caitlin says.

"_I forget._" Hartley tells her this time in French. "_You don't like emotions. They're messy._"

Peter was seriously regretting not knocking his lights out when he had the chance for what he's saying about his friends. "Enough, Hartley." Wells interrupts them as he approaches them in his wheelchair. "Give is a minute." Wells asks them and they start leaving.

"How's your aunt, Peter?" Hartley asks, still trying to mess with them.

"Tell the Devil I said _hi_ when you meet him in Hell." Peter replies leaving the pipeline.

Wells and Hartley begin talking back and forward.

Barry listens to their argument from the cortex and doesn't understand anything that anyone has said that wasn't said in English. "God, I should've taken a second language in high school." He states hating not understanding what they're saying.

"How did you know we were working with the Flash and Spider-Man?" Wells asks Hartley back in the pipeline curious to how he figured it out.

"I wrote a hexagonal algorithm tracking all of their sightings, extrapolating a theoretical exit trajectory." Hartley explains to him. "In other words, every time they got to a crime scene, they were making their way in this direction. Of course Spider-Man only started that recently. Usually it would be random directions to alleys, except a few occasions he made his way to Mercury labs. The same place a certain Peter Parker happens to work." Hartley states and Wells is surprised he learnt Spider-Man's well kept secret easily.

"You are brilliant." Wells tells him. "And...any anguish you have been through because of me was never my intent."

"Not bad, as far as heartfelt apologies go." Hartley replies to him. "Except that wasn't for my benefit. That was for you, Flash. Feels great to ave the great Harrison wells behind you, doesn't it?" Hartley asks looking into the camera inside the pipeline. "But one day, this man will turn on you...in a flash...and even you won't see it coming."

"I only hope he leaves you in better shape than he left me. If you're lucky, you're only be dead. Because every day I have to live with the agonizing, piercing screaming in my ears." Hartley states and Wells starts leaving. "I almost forgot...I told your pets I know your deep, dark secret, Harrison. Have fun letting him in on that one." Hartley tells him before he could get too far.

-

Back in the cortex, Everyone is there and Wells comes rolling in. "I assume you were all listening." Wells tells them knowing them better than that. "Hartley was telling the truth. I have not been honest with any of you." Wells states and starts getting nervous which is new for all of them to see. "The accelerator...Hartley warned me there was indeed a chance that the accelerator could explode." Wells explains and that shocks everyone in the room.

"His data did not show 100% certainty, just that there was a risk, but it was a real risk. And yet I made the decision that the reward...that everything we could learn and everything we could achieve, that all of that...simply outweighed the risk. I'm sorry." Wells apologizes and the team doesn't know if they can forgive him.

Caitlin was the first to speak after a minute of silence. "Then the text time you choose to put our lives, and the lives of the people that we love, at risk, I'll expect a heads up." Caitlin states and gets up and leaves the room followed by Cisco.

"I need a minute to think." Peter states and leaves with his friends leaving Barry.

"After the explosion, when everyone else left you...those three stood by your side. You owe them more than an apology." Barry states to him and he agrees.

"They might soon get more than that what with Hartley so intent on sending me to the next world." Wells replies to him seeing Harley won't stop until he's dead.

"What? That wouldn't make it right with them." Barry tells him and walks closer to Wells. "You broke their trust. Our trust." He explains to Wells and leaves.

-

Peter makes his way through the halls and happens to run into Caitlin laying against the wall. "Where's Cisco?" Peter wonders.

"He want to check out Hartley's gauntlets you webbed up." Caitlin explains to him. "What are you doing?" She asks him.

"Eh, probably the same as you. I just needed a breather after that bombshell." Peter explains and joins her on the floor. "It's at times like this where I question what Ronnie would think." Peter tells her.

"He'd probably say that we all make mistakes, and that all we can do is forgive and move on." Caitlin tells him and Peter laughs at thinking the same thing.

"If it weren't for the explosion he would still be here. And you probably still wouldn't know about my secret." Peter tells her and she doesn't see where he's going with this. "But, because of the explosion, the city has a new hero. I drummed up the courage to tell you guys about Spider-Man." Peter tells her.

"We all make mistakes in life. It's just the matter of wether you let those mistakes drag you back or you use them to push you forward." Peter says and Caitlin agrees with him.

"You're really good at that, you know." Caitlin asks him and he laughs.

"Come on, let's keep Cisco from destroying the labs like with the booming." Peter tells her and they walk towards the cortex.

"Where's dr. Wells?" Caitlin asks as they enter the cortex and only see Cisco. "I'm not sure." Cisco tells them as they see him messing with the gauntlets. "Get this, Barry was right. Hartley was using sonic resonance. The intensity regulator's measuring decibels. But you know what's weird? He had it set to the lowest setting." Cisco explains to them.

"What, destroying glass on a tall fifty story tall building was on the lowest setting?" Peter asks him. "Why not destroy the entire building then and not risk getting caught?" Peter questioned when his senses go off. "He pulled a Dark Knight on us!" Peter realizes and he runs to the computers and Cisco realizes what he means and sees Hartley has escaped.

"Stay here." Peter begs Caitlin and runs to the pipeline to stop Hartley.

In the halls, Wells tries using his speed and drops in the hallway seeing his speed is deteriorating.

In the pipeline Hartley attaches the devices from his ears and puts them on the pipeline door. On the other side, Peter and Cisco run towards the door when his senses blare at him and he grabs Cisco and pulls himself over his friend to protect him as the doors explode, sending them both flying backwards.

Hartley steps out and sees Peter and Cisco have been knocked unconscious and keeps walking out.

-

In the cortex, Caitlin is trying to talk to them and turns to see Hartley before he hits her across the face, knocking her unconscious. Then he sees the gauntlets in Cisco's lab and takes those. He then starts using the computers to transfer all the information he can.

In the halls, Wells was able to contact Barry and tell him what's going on as Hartley sees him on the ground.

"Tell me, Harrison. Am I still your guy?" Hartley asks him and leaves.

Barry just shows up and finds Caitlin on the ground and helps her up. "Are you Okay?" Barry asks her.

"Yeah, Cisco, Peter and dr. Wells." Caitlin tells him and Barry runs towards the elevator and sees Wells back in his wheelchair.

"He's gone." Wells informs him and Barry can't believe he escaped.

-

Peter and Cisco start waking up and Peter looks to see Caitlin by his side while Barry was with Cisco. "Hey, you doing okay, Peter?" Caitlin asks her friend as he starts sitting up and his senses start going haywire on him. "Hey, no. You need to rest. You really suffering from sensory overload." She explains to him.

"Is that why my ears are bashing against my skull?" Peter jokes and sees Cisco is okay. "Did we at least stop him?" Peter asks her and she looks sad.

"You might've been right about the attack he payed out on his families company was a takeout so we could catch him." Caitlin tells him and he gets angry at himself.

"And that gave him direct access to S.T.A.R. Labs. This is my fault." Peter states but before Caitlin could disagree, Wells comes in.

"This is no one's fault but mine." Wells tells them. "I earned the blame. I'm not interested in sharing it. Hartley doesn't think I've paid for my crimes. And he's right, he won't stop until I do." He explains and starts leaving.

"Where you going?" Cisco asks him.

"To earn back your trust." Was Wells only response and he keeps leaving.

-

Wells went to the prescient, and they were all surprised to see that Wells called a press conference to tell everyone about the accelerator and that he was warned that it could explode.

"Did Hartley try making contact yet?" Wells asks as he strolls back into the labs.

"What makes you so sure he will?" Caitlin asks him, not believing he would.

"Because he's Hartley, and he'll want to have th last word." Wells answers as Cisco exits the med labs.

"Cisco, you should be resting." Barry tells his friend.

"The answer to Hey Hartley fooled us into catching him is in here, and I'm gonna find it." Cisco swears and gets back to work on it while Wells goes to have a talk with him.

"I'm just wondering why he would want access to the labs to begin with." Peter tells Caitlin and she was thinking the same thing when the labs start sparking.

"_Nice gambit, Harrison. But this isn't over." _Hartley's voice fills the labs.

"Hartley, what do you want? I already gave my mea culpa today." Wells tells him.

"_The city already hated you. You don't think I noticed that press conference was a pathetic bishop sacrifice?_" Hartley asks wells seeing through his game. "_No, no, no. I've played with you too many times to let you get away with that. This is between you, me, Spider-Man, and the Flash._" Hartley tells Wells.

"You don't want to play for those kind of stakes with me, Hartley." Wells warns his old colleague.

"_Actually, I really do._" Hartley replies to him. "_What do you say? One last game of chess?" _

"You and I both know that the winner of the game is the one who makes the next-to-Last mistake, and you clearly have a move in mind." Wells states to him.

-

At a bridge, Hartley is watching cars crossing back and forward. "You're right. And I'm already at the board." Hartley states and they are all confused at what he's talking about now. "So why don't you move your precious scarlet knight and spider rook...while I take out a few pawns." Hartley says and they see he's talking about civilians as he shoots a blast at the tool booth at the bridge.

-

"Okay, where is he, guys?" Peter asks as he throws on his suit and mask. "I can't trace the signal. He could be sending his messages from anywhere." Cisco explains to the two as Wells has an idea.

"Cisco, scan for seismic activity. If Hartley's using sonic blast, the vibrations could cause tremors." Wells explains and Cisco gets to work on it and gets an location.

"Look. Over here. Quake activity but no fault line." Cisco tells them.

"The keystone Cleveland dam." Caitlin tells them and they get ready to move out.

"Peter, Barry! Don't underestimate him. He's brilliant." Wells warns them and they understand.

"It's a good thing we've got you guys in our ears and have each other's backs." Barry states and grabs Peter and speeds off.

-

At the bridge, Hartley uses his gauntlets to blast a car over the edge of the dam when Barry comes speeding up and Peter shoots a web on the car as Barry speeds into the car and rescues the woman inside. Barry and Peter look to see Hartley walking towards them.

"Barry, you need to disarm Hartley immediately. Do you hear me? He is master of distraction. He is a master of hiding his true endgame." Wells warns the two of them as Hartley uses the gauntlets to blast all of the cars into the air.

As the cars go flying, Peter webs the cars two by two so they don't go falling off the dam as Barry uses his speed to get everyone out of the cars.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco finds what Hartley wanted in S.T.A.R. Labs. "Hartley has all the data on Barry and Peter's molecular scans." Cisco warns the other two.

"Why would he want that?" Caitlin wonders how that could be useful to him.

"He can get their frequencies." Wells realizes and gets to the coms. "Barry, Peter, you need to get out of there!" Wells warns them seeing his endgame.

-

Back on the bridge, they don't hear the warnings through the sonic blasts from Hartley as Peter dodges a blast and webs Hartley's hands so he can't make another blast and Barry speeds in and takes them off. "It's over!" Barry tells him.

"You lose, Hartley!" Peter states as he walks closer to them.

"Amazing. He replaced me with you?" Hartley asks Barry. "I got you with the same trick twice." He states and Peter's senses see his gauntlets start vibrating frequency while shooting out a blaring sound. The frequency starts affecting Barry and the sound sends Peter's senses into overload.

"I got the idea watching you and Harrison chit-chat to use your suits one speakers to kill you. I mean, it was easy for Spider-Man. His senses are dialed to, I'm guessing, maybe eleven. That feeling? That's your organs shredding apart." Hartley explains to them as Peter is trying to rip off his ears to stop the ringing.

"And you activated the frequency when you disarmed me." Hartley explains to them. "In chess, we call that a discovered attack. You don't see it until it's too late." He states loving their suffering.

-

Caitlin watches as their suits show they're dying. "Barry and Peter's vitals are bottoming out." Caitlin states in fear for her friends. "We need to do something."

Wells approaches the computers and gets to work on his plan. "What are you doing?" Cisco asks him.

"They're on the travel road of the dam, at rush hour, surrounded by cars. Many of those cars are going to have satellite radio. Satellite sends a signal to th car, song comes out the speakers." Wells is explains when Caitlin interrupts.

"Yes, I know how satellite radio works! How does that help?!" Caitlin questions.

"Well, I'm gonna have the satellite send something other than a song. Hartley is about to hear something he wasn't expecting, a frequency that will beat him and destroy his weapons." Wells explains.

-

At the dam, the cars start sending the frequency. "You don't seem that special. Given how easy it was to bring the two of you down, I wonder if Harrison will even miss you." Hartley tells them when he sees the cars and his gauntlets getting destroyed and explode in his hands when his devices in his ears also take him down.

"I have been waiting forever to say this, man." Peter states as he tries standing up and walks over to the unconscious Hartley. "Checkmate, loser." He says mockingly and Barry starts standing up. "We got him." Barry says and Peter helps him stand.

-

They make it back to S.T.A.R. Labs and get checked on. "How do you feel, Barry?" Caitlin asks him.

"Fine!" Barry shouts. "I mean there is a little ringing in my ears, but other than that I'm good, so!" He explaisnt o them.

"Buddy , you're screaming." Peter informs him and Barry lowers his volume.

"Sorry." He tells them.

"It's okay, it'll pass." Caitlin tells him and moves to Peter. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah, my senses are a little glitchy. But from past experiences, it'll pass over time." Peter reassures his friend as Cisco's getting a headache.

"I think I'm gonna take my doctor's advice and go lie down." Cisco states.

"What a great idea." Caitlin says and Peter decides to visit their friend.

"God, I haven't felt this much head pain since my last encounter with Otto Octavius, when he threw me into that concrete wall." Peter states while leaving with them.

"I'm not surprised." Caitlin laughs at that comment and keeps walking.

-

Later on, Hartley starts waking up back in the cell. "Your evil hearing aids won't help you escape this time." Cisco informs him as Peter did a scan for anything on him this time before he was thrown in there.

"So you should get comfy. You'll be staying with us for a while." Peter also states to him.

"You two must be enjoying this a lot." Hartley states to them.

"Well, this smile on my face isn't for no reason." Peter replies and Cisco agrees.

"Well, if that scares you, I can't imagine how you're gonna feel when you're going to open these doors and let me out, bug." Hartley tells Peter.

"Maybe it's us going crazy. I could've sworn we were gonna let you out." Cisco recaps what he just said and doesn't see why he would ever.

"Why would we ever want to let you out?" Peter asks him wondering the same.

"Because I know where Ronnie Raymond is." Hartley tells them and that wipes the smiles off their faces. "I know what happened to him that night and I know how to save him."

Peter thinks for a minute and just closes the doors to the accelerator. "What do we do with that information?" Cisco asks Peter, not knowing what to think now.

"Caitlin says she's moving on from Ronnie. I'd like to see my friend again, but I've already moved on from my friend. He wouldn't want us dwelling on him like this." Peter tells him. "We gotta move on, man." He explains and starts leaving but Cisco doesn't agree with that.

—————————————————————————————————


	11. Livin' the crazy life

"Dude. That was insane." Cisco tells the two hero's after rescuing a couple from a car accident faster than ever. "Even I'm getting mad at you for dirtying up my suit." Cisco tells Barry as he's cleaning said suit.  


"Okay, when are we going start considering it my suit?" Barry questions him as Peter's cleaning his suit.

"I'd be comfortable calling it our suit." Cisco states to Barry.

"Tonight was the fastest you've ever ran." Caitlin congratulates Barry.

"Yes, your training is paying off. That couple is alive tonight because of you two." Wells tells the heroes. "I'd say your fulfilled your save quota. Proper rest if what you need, as do we all."

"Better yet, what we all need is a proper drink." Cisco offers. "Who's up for a round?" He asks everyone.

"Sorry man, I've got dinner with my aunt tonight." Peter apologizes because he already made plans.

"I've got movie night with Joe, I can't either. But we'll see you busy tomorrow, all right?" Barry says and they leave.

"See you tomorrow, don't do something crazy without me." Peter warns them and leaves.

"Bye." Caitlin bids her friend farewell for the night.

"What about you?" Cisco asks Caitlin.

"I think I'll pass." She tells him while grabbing his tablet.

"Are you okay?" Cisco asks her.

"I was looking for my tablet at your workstation and I found this." Caitlin states and shows the F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. paper Peter told her about. "I can explain. I know you said we should stop looking for Ronnie, even Peter told me we should stop, so...I didn't stop looking for Ronnie." Cisco admits.

"Why?" Caitlin asks him. "Hartley. He said he knew what happened to Ronnie." Cisco explains to her. "Oh, Hartley Rathaway, Who is currently locked up in our supervilliqb basement jail for going psycho with sound waves?" Caitlin clarifies with him.

"Yeah. He's made some poor choices. There's no argument there. But I looked into what he was saying, and.."

"Cisco. Ronnie gone, and it's time for me to move on with my life." Caitlin says and starts packing in for the night.

"Doesn't seem like it." Cisco replies since she hasn't been doing much moving on. "What's that supposed to mean?" She questions him.

"Look, I'm not an expert on love, but I think in order to move on from Ronnie, you need to move on." Cisco tells her and she leaves.

-

The next day, Barry gets called into Iron Heights to check on a breakout. "The security cameras in half of the prison are shut down." Joe tells him as he enters the cell Barry is checking out. "Then Clay Parker, according to this data log, who was still locked in his cell, somehow vanishes." Joe explains and Barry disagrees.

"Not completely." Barry tells him and holds a container filled with something . "What's that?" Joe asks. "It's some kind of organic particulate residual." Barry tells him. "I found it on the floor here, just outside the cell, out in the hall. Trail leads all the way to outside." Barry explains when he sees his father coming up with a guard to watch him.

"Dad." Barry states and walks over to him and holds his hand, revising in the ability to do so.

"So...word around here is, Parker pulled a Shawshank?" Henry asks his son.

"Yep, And none of the other prisoners heard or saw anything." Joe explains to him.

"Well, they wouldn't talk to you about it." Henry states.

"Which leaves us with not a lot to go on." Barry explains to his dad. "Well, if there's anyone who can figure out how Parker got out of here, it's you, son." Henry states and his time is up and is taken back after a quick goodbye.

"So, my dad just happened to come by?" Barry asks Joe after watching his dad be taken away.

"The guard owes me a favor." Joe explains to him and Barry packs up everything to get to S.T.A.R. Labs.

-

"I just wanna go on record and state I have no connection to this guy whatsoever." Peter states to them after Barry filled them in.

"Not even Barry's cells move this fast." Caitlin says looking over the residue Barry brought them. "I've never seen anything like it."

"So Clay Parker is a metahuman?" Joe asks them. "Not so fast." Wells interrupts. "The particulate residue Barry gathered at Iron Heights does contains his DNA, but also the DNA of a woman."

"Run her DNA against the CCPD criminal database. See if we can get a match." Barry suggests and they do just that and get one.

"Her names Shawna Baez. Mostly petty crimes, and this girl likes to party, apparently." Cisco states seeing the list of disorderly conducts at bars.

"So I'm guessing we find her, we find Clay Parker." Joe clarifies and they get to work.

"I'll be right with you guys." Cisco says and leaves to talk to Hartley so they can talk about Ronnie behind their backs.

-

"What do you mean you've been asking around?" Barry asks his dad in their seats through the phone at Iron Heights with Joe.

"Do you know a Marcus Stockheimer?" Henry asks them. "Sure, he's some mid-level gangster. Works mainly on the south side." Joe answers.

"Well, word is Clay Parker was a runner for Marcus. When clay got pinched, Marcus lost a lot of money. Apparently Marcus doesn't like loosing money." Henry explains what he found out himself inside prison.

"So, what? Parker can't leave the city until he's paid off his debt?" Barry asks him. "From what I'm told, if you're a member of the Stockheimer crew, you get out, first thing you do is pay him a visit or suffer the consequences." Henrry explains to him.

"Okay. No more playing cop. Propose me." Barry asks his dad not wanting him to be hurt.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Peter and Caitlin are looking over the samples. "So, I was analyzing the particulates that Clay Parker And Shawna Baez left behind, and I found something very interesting." Caitlin tells Peter and he moves to see what she found. "When Clay's cells come into contact with Shawna's, they adopt her properties." She tells him.

"So, if she touches someone, they experience her powers with her." Peter recaps and sees her staring out and biting her lip. "Hey, you doing okay, Cait?" He asks her.

"Why would you ask that?" She asks back at him. "Because you're doing that hitting lower lip thing you've always done when something bothers you." Peter explains to her. "You've done it about maybe a dozen times since I've known you." He explains to her, being highly observant.

"I'm fine." She states and Peter giver her a look basically telling her he doesn't believe her. "Okay fine, Cisco says I don't have a life." She explains to him and crosses her arms.

"To be fair, you really don't." Peter tells her. "I do!" Caitlin defends. "I cook, and I eat, and I read, and I hang out with you sometimes." She lists everything.

"So if you were to eliminate me, you don't have much of a life?" Peter asks her and she just smiles and laughs at that. "You don't have to be rude about it." She states to him. "Hey, it's still better than my life. I'm either swinging around the city in tights, working in the labs, or hanging with either my aunt or you. And the occasional nights of resting after a beating." Peter reassures her and she smiles.

"We are quite the pair, dr. Parker." Caitlin states to her friend.

"We are indeed, dr. Snow." Peter replies when their computers go off.

"There's an armed robbery in progress." Caitlin tells him. "Two suspects, male and female in their 20s. Sounds like our metahuman Bonnie and Clyde are at it again."

"Well, at least they have a worse social life than us." Peter quips and grabs his mask. "Call Barry, tell him to meet me there." He tells her while leaving.

-

Clay and Shawna are robbing the truck around a construction site as Peter swings in and sees Clay is holding two guards hostage. "Just a few bags, baby, is enough to pay back Marcus." Clay tells her as she grabs a few bags from the car. "These things are heavier than they look." Shawna states and vanishes. Peter senses her and sees their car and leaps down just in time for Barry to join them.

"Oh, Spider-Man and the new guy. The Flash, right?" Shawna asks Barry. "I've heard you're real fast. Let's see if it's true." She says before vanishing and reappearing. "Catch me if you can."

Barry starts speeding to catch her and Peter just watches. "You've gotta be kidding." Peter states when she teleports behind him and grabs Peter and brings him into the air and drops him.

Back on the ground, Shawna gets to her car, but Barry speeds in to stop her when a shot goes off and a bulletproof almost penetrates his suit. Shawna gets runninga en grabs Clay before vanishing. Barry looks and sees Peter coming in hot, but before he hit the ground, he used the surrounding equipment to catch himself and sees Barry on the floor.

"I'm just gonna say it. I hate teleportation." Peter states to Barry and he agrees.

-

They make it to S.T.A.R Labs and Caitlin checks on them. "This is a bullet wound, you're lucky it just barley broke the skin." She tells Barry and looks to Peter. "You've just got some windburn during that free fall. With your healing, it should be gone in about an hour or two." She tells him.

"That's a relief. After all these years of swinging, I experience windburn because I was thrown into airplane distance." Peter replies happily as Wells joins them.

"Shawna Bias. She can teleport." Barry informs Wells.

"As in, _beam me up, Shawna?_" Caitlin asks them and Peter is surprised she knows that reference.

"Yes, of course. Quantum entanglement." Wells states. "The ability to manipulate interconnected particles over an infinite distance. Or, as Einstein put it, "spooky action at a distance"."

"Every time either of us got close, she'd disappear." Barry states to them.

"Except for when she grabbed me and sent me to sky high." Peter interrupts. "It was almost like playing a game of-"

"Peekaboo." Caitlin interrupts him and they look to her. "Comeon, can't I name one?" She asks them.

"I like it." Peter agrees. "How are we supposed to catch her if we don't know where she's gonna be?" Barry asks.

"Everyone has limits, now we know her powers, we'll focus on those limits." Wells tells them and starts leaving.

"I'm gonna change. I gotta go help Iris." Barry tells them and leaves to find her.

"I could use a drink after today." Peter states and stands up to leave. "You wanna join me?" Peter asks Caitlin and he sees she's thinking about it.

"Sure. Remember that place where you and Ronnie showed me?" Caitlin asks him.

"The place with karaoke night?" Peter asks her. "I'll meet you there in 30." She tells him and leaves and leaves Peter as he goes to get ready himself.

-

Peter makes it there five minutes early and decides to wait for her and listens to someone singing _Working for the weekend_. His senses go off and he looks to the door and sees Caitlin and he is shocked to see her in a nice black dress.

"What?" She asks seeing his face.

"Nothing. It's just...you look nice." Peter tells her and she smiles at the compliment and sits next to him. "You know I don't always dress like a high school principal." Caitlin informs him.

"Yeah, it's just you haven't looked like this since Ronnie." Peter explains.

"Well, since I'm trying to have more of a life, I'm changing some things up." Caitlin explains.

"I hope not too much about you, I like you as you are, Cait." Peter tells her.

"Well, maybe while we're out we can throw ourselves back out there." Caitlin states.

"Please, you're talking to the guy who can't hold a relationship because he has to hide a secret for why he's always gone and when he comes back, he has bruises or unconscious." Peter lists the problems remembering his brief relationships with Harleen Quinzel in college, even though since last he heard, she went crazy, he might've dodged a bullet.

Kitty Pride in high school that ended because of Spider-Man, and his most recent date he went on with Laurel Lance when he visited Starlight City a while back. "It Just seems I'm destined to be a lone avenger." Peter states to her.

"At least you're not lining for someone who bursts into flames and wants nothing to do with you." Caitlin tells him with a smile.

"I mean, what is wrong with us? We're in our 20s, we should be having fun, things we regret later on. But my moral compass likes to keep me from doing so." Peter states realizing why he doesn't take many risks in life.

"That compass is what so many people love about you." Caitlin says and grabs her drink. "Here's to liquid courage." She states and starts drinking it down and Peter can't remember when she actually drank more than a sip of anything like that.

"Wow. That's...seriously fast for you, dr. Snow." Peter says and she finishes the glass. "You actually drank it all." Peter states and sees she's taking risks now.

"Excuse me?" She calls a bartender. "I would like to start a tab." She tells her and Peter is surprised at her.

"I'm in the twilight zone or you are actually serious." Peter jokes and she laughs at him and Peter loves how he knows how to make her laugh so easily.

-

At the prescient, Cisco is using Barry's lab to figure out what happened to Ronnie. "CCPD confiscated everything from S.T.A.R. Labs after the explosion." Hartley tells Cisco as he's searching the footage. "Video, audio, traffic cam footage."

"Okay, so?" Cisco asks Hartley not seeing the point in this.

"I saw Martin Stein the night S.T.A.R. Labs went boom. He walked right past me." Hartley explains to the engineer. "You see, Stein specialized in transmutation. Molecular transmogrify. Quantum splicing. Taking two things and making them one." He expains to Cisco.

"Let's go to the videotape, shall we?" Hartley states and Cisco pulls up the footage and zooms in on Martian stein who's holding a box that's glowing and slowed the video down to see something strange.

"His eyes." Cisco realizes. "They turned white, just like Ronnie's." He states remembering how Ronnie looked when they found him. He then keeps going frame by frame and sees a face in the mist of energy from the accelerator. Ronnie's face.

"The dark matter merged Stein and Ronnie together." Cisco realizes.

"Explains why ronnie hasn't seemed like himself lately." Hartley tells Cisco while removing the devices from his ears Cisco put in and uses them on Cisco and he hold his ears as the frequency drives him crazy.

"You can't say I didn't keep my end of the bargain." Hartley admits and crushes the remote and leaves Cisco.

-

Back at the bar, Barry's trying to get the bartenders attention and nothing seems to be working. "Mr. Peter Parker!" His name fills the air and he turns to see Caitlin on the stage and he regrets turning his back.

"Come on down! Or is it up?" She asks and Peter sees she's drunk out of her skull. "Come up here with me." She says and Peter doesn't know what to do now.

"Oh, come show 'em what you've got. Come on." She insists while Peter knows he can't just abandon her since anyone could take advantage of her, but at the same time he's not a singer, but that doesn't stop Caitlin from getting everyone chanting for him and thinks if he has to be embarrassed, it's better than the alternative and goes to the stage.

"Yay!" Caitlin cheers as he comes up to the stage. "You know I'm not a singer, Cait. And now I know you're not a drinker." Peter informs his friend while becoming nervous.

"We are gonna being this place down." Caitlin states to him and a song states playing and Peter sees what she chose.

**(Sorry for interrupting, just read this fast for this part; **_this text is for Peter, _**this text is Caitlin****. _T_****_his is for both of them_)**

"_She's into superstitions, black cats and voodoo dolls. __I feel a premonition that girl's gonna make me fall._" Peter starts off and Caitlin takes the next part.

"**She's into new sensations, new kicks and candlelight. ****She's got a new addiction for every day and night**." Caitlin sings.

"_She'll make you take your clothes off and go dancing in the rain. __She'll make you live her crazy life."_

"_But she'll take away your pain. Like a bullet to your brain_."

"**_Upside inside out. _**_Livin la Vida loca. She'll push and pull you down. Livin la Vida loca."_

"**Her lips are devil red. And her skin's the color mocha. She will wear you out. Livin la Vida loca. Livin la Vida loca. Livin la Vida loca**_."_

"_I woke up in New York City in a funky cheap hotel. She took my heart and she took my money. She must have slipped me a sleeping pill. She never drinks the water and makes you order French champagne. And once you've had a taste of her you'll never be the same. She'll make you go insane."_

"Upside inside out. Livin la Vida loca. She'll push and pull you down. Livin la Vida loca. Her lips are devil red. And her skin's the color mocha. She will wear you out. Livin la Vida loca. Livin la Vida loca. **_Livin la Vida loca_.**"

"_**Upside inside out. Livin la Vida loca**." _

"_She'll push and pull you down."_

_"_**Livin la Vida loca. ****Livin la vida loca**."

"_She'll push and pull you down." _

"**Livin la vida loca**"

_"Her lips are devil red. And her skin's the of color mocha. She will wear you out."_

"_**Livin la Vida loca. Livin la Vida loca. Livin la Vida loca. Livin la Vida loca.**" They finish the song and learn they sound well together and get a thunderous applause from the audience._

-

"You're strong, super flexible and a bunch of other super things and you can sing?" Caitlin asks him as they go back to the bar. "Is there anything you can't do?" She asks him as she takes another drink.

"Stop you from taking more drinks than you can obviously handle, apparently." Peter tells her. "I'm not even sure that was mine." Caitlin realizes and heads towards the bathroom and Peter hopes she can make it there on her own. He then gets a call and sees it's his aunt.

"Hey, aunt May." Peter says answering it while staying where he can keep an every out for Caitlin. _"Hey, just wanted to check in, see what you're doing." _May explains to him and Peter love how much she cares. "Not much, I'm just out with Caitlin." He tells her.

_"Is that so?"_ May asks and Peter realizes what he just said.

"No, just as friends. Nothing more than that, she sees me as a friend and I'm okay with that." Peter tells her.

_"Whatever you say, Peter. Tell her I said hi." _May says before hanging up and Caitlin comes back to him.

"Peter, I don't feel so good." She tells him and he helps her out of the Armand quickly uses his web shooters to forge a quick bag made out of webbing and she throws up into it.

"You okay?" Peter asks her while holding her hair back. "No." She answers him and Peter knows think she shouldn't be driving and decides to swing her hoping she has the stomach for it.

-

Barry swings Caitlin across the city and Peter drops her outside her window and opens it and helps her inside. "Are we still swinging?" Caitlin asks him as he laughs at her. "No, we've made it. We're here now." Peter assures her and helps her to her bedroom, while closing her window behind them.

"Vodka and swinging, not a good combination." Caitlin tells Peter and he's glad that he can't get wasted like she is or he wouldn't have been able to stomach swinging.

"So, who were you talking to?" Caitlin asks Peter. "Oh, that was just May checking in on me, you know how much she cares." Peter explains to her. "She said hi by the way." He tells her while looking away as she gets changed.

"She seriously cares about you." Caitlin states while trying to get out of her dress. "My mom didn't care much as to call just to talk, let alone check up on me." She states and Peter remembers how her dad died when she was little and she doesn't talk to her mother often, or at all.

"A little help, please." Caitlin asks him and Peter sees she's having trouble with her dress.

"Oh boy." Peter says uncomfortable but quickly gets her into pajamas first and removes the dress the best he could without looking.

-

"There you go again, saving me from that evil dress." Caitlin tells him and Peter finds it funny how this is the same woman who tells him off when he gets a paper cut because she cares.

"Just get in the bed." Peter tells her and helps her into her bed. "Did you sneak a peek? At my goods?" Caitlin asks him and Peter is glad she might be wasted enough that she won't remember anything from tonight.

"I wouldn't be much of a friend if I did, now would I?" Peter asks her as he tucks her into bed.

"Yeah, But it's okay if you did. You don't have enough danger in your life Peter Parker." She tells him and Peter finds it funny.

"Oh, I just swing from building to building, fight super powered people, with a chance of death. Not enough danger for you?" Peter asks and sees she's trying to think.

"You don't take many risks." Caitlin rephrased her statement and Peter laughs at how hard she's trying. "Same question." Peter replies. "Now, I'm gonna bring you something that helped Ronnie when he got hangovers and you're definitely going to have one in the morning. Remember to drink plenty of water." Peter tells her as she gets comfortable.

"Thank you for tonight. I sang." She says, whispering that last part.

"Any time, Cait." Peter states and starts leaving. "Hey, Peter? Can you stay with me until I fall asleep?" Caitlin asks and Peter knows on any regular day, she could handle herself but he sees now she needs a helping hand l

"Of course." Peter says and gets comfortable as she drifts to sleep.

-

The next day Caitlin shows up in the elevator with glasses, a scarf and a jacket with a cup of coffee. "Hi." Peter greets her and she stops to see him.

"You're so loud." Caitlin states and causing Peter to laugh.

"Sorry, just wanted to see that you're okay." Peter says as they walk together to the cortex.

"Let's just say that I envy your metabolism. I don't remember much after leaving last night." Caitlin states to him.

"Yeah, that's probably for the best." Peter tells her and decides to mess with her a little. "_Livin la Vida loca_." He says quoting the lyrics to the song and she looks away from him.

"Oh, god. That I do remember." Caitlin states causing Peter to laugh at her as they enter the cortex and see Barry and Wells looking towards Cisco.

"Hey, what's going on here?" Peter asks them.

"Cisco...has something he needs to tell us." Wells explains and they look to Cisco.

"Hartley's gone." Cisco tells them and they're confused.

"Wait, what? How did he escape from the pipeline?" Peter asks confused.

"He didn't escape. I let him out." Cisco explains and they can't tell how Caitlin feels wth his she looks. "Are you mad? I can't tell with those glasses on." Cisco states.

"I'd like to yell and wave my arms, but I'm afraid I'd throw up." Caitlin tells him and they hear by her voice, she's angry.

"Why? What were you thinking?" Barry asks surprised at his friend. "You know how dangerous he is."

"Hartley said he knew what happened to Ronnie." Cisco explains his actions.

"I thought we agreed to let that go, man." Peter states remembering their talk.

"I thought I also asked you to let it go and stop looking into it." Caitlin states remembering talking few nights ago.

"I wasn't doing for you, I..." Cisco stops and thinks about what to say.

"Look, Cisco, I wish I could take back what happened that night. I closed Ronnie inside the accelerator, but it was his choice. He made he promise to wait until closing it, and he didn't make it back. He made his choice, if I could've taken his place I would. I lost my best friend that night because he thought Spider-Man was more important and if I died, Spider-Man died with me." Peter states regretting ever shutting the doors.

"What happened that night wasn't anyone's fault." Caitlin states to her friends. "Now, come on. Don't we have a teleporter to catch?" She asks them and Wells weighs in.

"We do have a teleporter to catch and fortunately, we do have a promising theory." Wells explains and pulls up Shawna's cells again. "This is the normal behavior of the particulate that Shawna left behind. Watch what happens when we remove light." Wells shows and the particulates stop moving.

"Shawna can only become entangled with something she can see." Peter realizes. "Correct, take away her ability to see, she can't teleport." Wells finishes.

"So we just have to get her into a dark space." Caitlin clarifies. "How do we do that?" She asks when Barry's phone goes off and he's told his dad was stabbed at Iron Heights.

-

During the talk, Barry learns some intel and needs to get some answers and calls on Peter for some interrogation.

Barry speeds into the cell and brings Julius, one of Marcus' boys, out for the interrogation.

"Evening, Julius." Barry says and sees Peter's drone flying behind Julius to keep him where he is.

"How'd I get out here?" Julius asks them.

"_You escaped._" Peter answers and Julius sees him and Peter activated interrogation mode. _"Remember me, Julius?"_ Peter asks remembering when he threw him behind bars.

"You. If they catch me trying to escape, they're gonna add five years to my sentence." Julius tells them.

"Ten, actually." Barry corrects him. "_Then I suggest you start talking_." Peter informs him. "_Tell us where Marcus Stockheimer's next job is happening_." They hear the alarms going off and they learned he escaped.

"Oh! Guards will be here any second." Barry warns him. "I'd start blaming if I were you."

"Okay! It's a TDK and money transfer truck coming from the federal reserve bank in St. Louis. Supposed to be millions." Julius tells them. "It's supposed to be happening around eight."

Peter activated his clock inside his mask while turning off his lie detector and sees it's 8:03 and they better hurry. "That's all I know. I swear." Julius promises and Barry looks to Peter.

"He's telling the truth. And it's happening now." Peter warns Barry turning off enhance interrogation mode and Barry grabs Peter then speeds off leaving Julius.

"Hey! What about me?!" He asks the heroes as the guards approach him.

-

Barry and Peter are making their way and see an armed car and a car behind them and they go into a tunnel. Barry speeds ahead of them and drops Peter.

"Remember, She can't see, she can't teleport." Peter reminds Barry as Shawna appears in front of them.

"Why the hell do you two care what we do?" She asks them. "Are you cops or something?"

"More something than cop. I mean you think cops would wanna show their faces wearing these outfits?" Peter quips as she starts teleporting, but Peter can sense where she's going to be and counter attacks every time. She eventually gives up on him and looks for Barry and can't find him.

As they were fighting, Barry was running down the tunnel and is breaking all of the lights and the lights on the car. Shawna tries teleporting and she can't, so Peter takes the opportunity to web her hands to stop her from running off.

Barry speeds to the car to get Clay and he's gone. "He's not here." Barry tells Peter.

"Well, we got half." Peter replies looking at the positives and sees it's gonna be a challenge to get her to S.T.A.R. Labs.

-

They put her into the pipeline by webbing her eyes shut for a while and this time she isn't going anywhere.

"Is there anyway she could teleport out of that?" Barry asks them.

"Impossible. It's one way glass, mirrored on the other side. No one dangerous is ever getting out of here again." Cisco promises them learning from Hartley.

"Shawna. Clay left you." Barry tells he through the microphone. "He's out there, and you're in here."

"You know what the crazy thing is?" She asks them. "I still love him." She states and they close the pipeline and she joins the other metas.

"Crazy is right." Caitlin tells Peter as Barry and Cisco leave ahead of them.

"Well, there are some people in this world worth being crazy for." Peter replies as they continue walking through the halls together.

"Sorry if I acted like a drunken mess last night." Caitlin apologies but Peter doesn't mind. "Actually, It reminded me of old times. Before the explosion, before everything. It was quite fun." Peter informs her and she laughs.

"Okay, Yeah it kinda was." Caitlin agrees from what she could remember, she did had fun. "You know what?" Peter asks her. "I think both of us have been hung up about throwing ourselves out there for too long." Peter states to her.

"I mean, I believe I'm destined to have to either choose between Spider-Man and a normal life, you think everyone that cares about you eventually leaves." Peter explains to her.

"If what Cisco says is true, that Ronnie merged with Martin Stein, then he's not alive anymore." Caitlin tells him and Peter is sad that his best friend is truly gone. "It's time for me to move on. Find someone new to be crazy about." She states and Peter is happy for her.

"All right, well, I'll see you later." Peter tells her and begins leaving and doesn't think Caitlin might be talking about him.


	12. Burning man

It has been a while since their last encounter with the Burning Man also known as Ronnie Raymond and they got a report saying he attacked someone the night before and they now know he can't be left alone anymore.

"Well, it appears letting Ronnie roam free is no longer an option." Wells says as they're starting a search for him.

"He's not even Ronnie anymore." Caitlin states while searching. "He's Martin Stein walking around in Ronnie's body, like a vampire." She states.

"I'd think of it more like _Invasion of the Body Snatchers_, personally." Peter states remembering watching the movie with May one night when he was younger."is there a reason that Stein's brain is in control of Ronnie's body, not the other way around?" Barry asks anyone.

"Simple Darwinism, is suspect." Wells theorizes. "A brand new organism will select the strongest parts of itself in order to survive. Survival of the fittest. In this case being, Ronnie's body, steins mind." He explains to them and they understand mostly.

"In any event, he badly hurt an innocent man, and we have hunted metahuman for less." Wells states and looks to Caitlin. "Caitlin, we need to know you're onboard with this." He explains to her and she is.

"How do you suppose we find him?" Caitlin asks Wells. "Quentin Quale, the scientist that Ronnie attacked, he's a former colleague of Martian Stein. If Martin is indeed in control of Ronnie's body, he may be trying to figure out what exactly is happening to him."

"What do we know about him?" Barry asks them. "I mean, I don't know what Stein looks like." He asks and Peter quickly pulls up a photo of him.

"Stein actually visited Mercury labs a while back. Saw what I was doing with the Symbiote before it possessed me and saw it interesting." Peter explains how he knows him and Barry saw his picture and remembers he actually met him on the day of the particle accelerator explosion.

-

They decide to ask Martian's wife Clarissa if she knows anything of what's going on. "Of course I've heard of S.T.A.R. Labs. Martin was always vocal about the competition." Clarissa explains to Barry as the others look around their home for any leads.

"S.T.A.R. Labs is actually helping the CCPD looking into your husband's disappearance, mrs. Stein." Barry tells her.

"Oh, please. Call me Clarissa." She insists while Wells looks at Stein's achievements.

"The Conway Prize for scientific advancements." Wells reads looking at the awards. "I'd always hoped to win one of these myself. Oh, and look at that. He won it three times." Well states jokingly.

"Takes a special kind of person to make dr. Wells jealous." Barry says to Clarissa. "Well, Martin had a talent for making people jealous." Clarissa tells him.

"And you haven't heard from your husband since he disappeared?" Peter asks her. "No." She explains.

Barry then asks if he can show her a photo of Ronnie and she recognizes him and he's been following her. They believe that they have more than enough and leave her alone.

"So it appears Martian Stein and Ronnie Raymond have something in common besides sharing a body. They both feel the need to protect the women they love." Wells puts together as they're leaving Clarissa's driveway.

"She said she feels like she's being watched. What if she's being watched by him?...them? Is it they?" Peter wonders to how you refer to two people becoming one.

"Well, then, this has all the makings of a stakeout." Wells states. "But Barry has a date tonight." Caitlin tells them and Barry offers to cancel.

"No, you should go, man. I can hang out and wait." Peter tells him. "I mean, I beat a man who could blast electricity from everywhere, a psycho hunter and a guy with four mechanical limbs. I can handle my best friend's body with the mind of an old colleague." He tells them and Barry is okay with that and they promise if they need him, they'll call.

-

That night, they're in the S.T.A.R. Labs van keeping an eye out for Ronnie. Caitlin is in the driver seat while Wells is in the passenger side and Peter is in the back with his suit on but has the mask off since theirs no need for it yet.

"Want some of my fries?" Wells offers them and Peter takes some to keep his strength up for Ronnie.

"Why would he come back here?" Caitlin wonders not entirely understanding why Stein would risk it.

"Because this is his home." Wells states and that confuses them. "I don't mean the actual house. I mean Clarissa. She's his home." He explains to them. "You know, where we feel safe. Where we feel loved."

Just a second later the Burning man comes flying in and Peter grabs his mask ready for a fight. RonnieStein is walking around the house when Peter comes swinging in with his mask this time.

"Professor Stein, I'm not here to hurt you." Peter tells him while walking towards them/him. "And I know you don't want to hurt anyone, so please don't..." he gets interrupted when their hands and head burst into flames. "Flame on." Peter finishes before dodging a blast from him.

Peter quickly shoots out a web and pulls Ronnie to him and tries holding him down. RonnieStein just burns his hands again and starts flying and Peter grabs on for dear life.

"I know you probably don't know this, but ironically I'm afraid of heights." Peter jokes as he sees the S.T.A.R. Labs van following them trying to keep up. RonnieStein just flies close to the ground and tries doping Peter, but Peter uses the ground to his advantage and attaches another web to RonnieStein and they go tumbling down the street. As Peter's getting up, he sees RonnieStein getting ready to roast him when Caitlin comes out of the van screaming to Ronnie and they take off.

"Note to self, never get on Ronnie's badside." Peter quips and feels something might either be broken or burnt and Caitlin helps him up. "Oh, on the plus side, I was able to drop a spider-tracer on him." Peter says and Caitlin is happy they can at least keep their eyes on him now.

-

The next day they take Clarissa to see Martin and find him under the Central City highway. "Looks like your tracker worked, Peter." Caitlin says and RonnieStein tries walking away.

"Professor Stein?" Caitlin calls out. "I told you to stay away from me." RonnieStein reminds them as he keeps walking.

"And I will, but there's someone else who wants to talk to you." Caitlin explains and Clarissa walks ahead closer to him.

"Martin?" She calls out and he stops to see her. "Do you know who I am?" She asks him.

"Clarissa." RonnieStein says and she's surprised.

"Is it really you?" Clarissa asks him. "I don't know. I hear the other inside of me." He explains referring to Ronnie. "He wants to go home to them." He says looking to Caitlin and Peter. "But we can't. I want to be me again."

"Martin...what's my favorite color?" Clarissa asks to make sure it truly is her husband.

"You could never decide, so you chose stripes." He answers and she knows it's him. "You shouldn't see me like this." He tells her and she is happy to see that he's alive.

"I see you. I see you, Martin." She states. "These people can help you. Please let them." Clarissa begs Martian and he agrees to let them this time.

-

"Well, we got him. Them. They. You see what I mean?" Peter asks them seeing he doesn't know what to say. "Well, what do we do with them now?" Barry asks them.

"Well, Stein clearly thinks he can separate himself from Ronnie's body using nuclear fission." Wells explains the plan. "Is it possible? Theoretically. But splitting an atom and splitting a man are two very different things."

They all look to see RonnieStein join them in normal clothing and his hair is cut short. Peter and Caitlin just look shocked that he looks exactly like nothing happened but they forget that there's someone else in control. "I don't suppose it's necessary to point out you're all staring?" RonnieStein asks them and they stop.

"Our apologies." Wells apologizes. "It is remarkable. I feel clearer than I have since the accident." RonnieStein tells them while looking around the labs. "What did you give me?" RonnieStein asks Wells.

"A cocktail or anti-psychotics, depressants, and mood stabilizers." Wells answers him. "The same formula used to treat dissociative identity disorder."

"We'd like to run some tests on you, if you don't mind." Caitlin asks him. "Of course not, dr. Snow." RonnieStein tells her and Peter still finds this weird and Barry gets a call and goes to take it.

Peter was taking a few tests he knew how to work on so Caitlin could clear her head a little. "You comfortable?" Peter asks RonnieStein. "A little warm." He answers.

"That isn't exactly strange for Ronnie, he usually says he runs warm a lot. I think it's because he's a hothead." Peter replies and gets a reading of 107 on the monitors. "Okay, that's hotter than his hotheadedness." Peter says after seeing it.

"So, how does this exactly work?" Peter asks curiously regarding their situation. "Is it like you can hear him in your head like a voice, or is it like you can see his memories?" Peter wonders.

"It's...more like I can feel him. But I occasionally have some memories." RonnieStein answers him. "Memories I know aren't mine. One strange one that constantly appears as much as a Hudson Falls memory." RonnieStein says and Peter knows that's where Ronnie proposed to Caitlin. "It seems to be like a bedroom of sorts. A bunch of what I believe to be Star Wars merchandise filling the room and a kid in red and blue crawling on the ceiling." RonnieStein describes the memory and Peter knows what that is.

"That's my bedroom when I was younger. You're describing the day Ronnie learned who I was hiding. The day he learned I was Spider-Man." Peter smiles thinking of the memory. "I just got home after spending the afternoon keeping the city safe and I came in through my window in my suit and I wasn't expecting him that day, but that's how he figured it out. He was the first to learn about it."

"Peter, we need to see you quickly." Caitlin tells him from the doorway. "I'll be back." Peter states and follows Caitlin to see Wells focused on the data.

"Ronnie's body is rejecting Stein's atoms like a host rejecting a parasite. The resulting instability is causing exothermic reaction." Sells tells them and they see his temperature is rising. "I worry if his temperature continues to rise, it'll set off a chain reaction."

"Are you saying he could go nuclear?" Peter asks Wells. "That's exactly what I'm saying." Wells tells him.

Meanwhile Cisco comes back after helping Joe find some blood at Barry's old childhood home to figure out who murdered his mother and runs into RonnieStein.

"Ronnie?" Cisco asks and remembers it's not him. "Martin Stein." Stein introduces himself to Cisco. "Cisco Ramon." Cisco says introducing himself as well.

"Your colleagues are in the next room not so subtly discussing my condition." RonnieStein tells him and Cisco goes to join them. "That's not freaky at all." He states sarcastically to the others.

"Thinking the same thing, man." Peter replies as they refocus on the situation. "It seems Ronnie's fight with Spider-Man has exacerbated the Firestorm matrix. It's unstable. Exponentially increasing the rate of fission inside his body." Wells explains to the team as they move to the cortex.

"How long does he have?" Caitlin asks Wells. "If his temple keeps rising at the current pace, no more than a couple of hours." He answes her.

"Then we should figure out a way to separate them, right?" Peter questions hoping there's a way. "Any attempt we make to separate the two of them could be catastrophic, a nuclear explosion. And a nuclear explosion of this magnitude would level the city. Unless...we find a way fast enough." Wells explains. "And I might have something, stay here." He tells them and leaves to get the tachyon enhancer from his suit.

"Gideon, could the tachyon enhancer prototype be converted into a quantum splicer?" Wells asks Gideon. "_Theoretically, But I must warn you, dr. Wells, converting the tachyon prototype will delay your timetable."_ She warns him.

"There's not going to be a timetable if Central City goes up in a mushroom cloud." Wells states and starts getting to work and leaves to explain to the others.

"I'll get professor Stein." Barry offers and before he could leave Cisco comes up to them. "Looking for the professor?" He asks them. "Yeah, he's gone." He states and they don't know where he could've gone.

Peter, Cisco, Wells gets to work on the quantum splicer to save them as Caitlin locates them. "I found Stein, he's in the badlands." She tells them and sees why he chose the location. "Middle of nowhere, 30 miles outside Central City."

"It's the minimum safety distance for a nuclear explosion." Peter states and realizes what he's doing.

"He's sacrificing himself." Cisco states seeing it also. "How much time does he have left?" Barry asks them.

"Twelve minutes maybe." Cisco informs him and they finish the splicer. "Will this work to separate them?" Caitlin asks since none of them have any idea if this will work.

"Well know in twelve minutes." Wells says and hands it to Barry. "Now, Barry, even you can't outrun a nuclear blast, so you get this device to Professor Stein, and get out of there as fast as you can." He tells him and Peter grabs his mask.

"What are you thinking?" Barry asks him. "What, you think I'm letting you go alone? That's my best friend's life on the line. Besides, if I get caught in the explosion I'm already radioactive thanks to the spider bite so I'll be safe. Besides I know how to operate the splicer, so let's go." Peter explains and Barry sees he's right and they go speeding off.

As soon as they leave a test result comes from the computers regarding Cisco's test results for the blood at Barry's childhood home and he sees it's Barry's. But not childhood Barry, it was from Barry as an adult.

-

Out in the badlands, Barry and Peter come to a stop to see RonnieStein holding a gun to his own head ready to shoot. "Professor Stein!" Barry calls out as Peter regains his legs after that run. RonnieStein looks behind him to see them. "What are you doing here? You can't be here!" He scolds the heroes.

"Please, look we have a way of separating the two from each other." Peter says and moves closer to him. "We can stop the explosion and your deaths." Peter pleads to him and takes the enhancer. "This is designed to bombard your atoms with as much energy as they experienced in the accelerator explosion." Peter explains the plan and RonnieStein agrees to it as Peter attaches the device to his chest.

"Looking forward to meeting you again, Professor." Peter says and activated the device and it wraps against his chest and they pray it works.

RonnieStein's body starts burning up and they see it's not working.

"We gotta go!!" Peter shouts knowing radiation won't kill him but the blast could and Barry grabs him and they speed off as RonnieStein blows in a huge mushroom cloud and they keep running.

-

Little did they know that the government actually heard about the detonation and is now sending someone to find him. Them. You know what I mean.


	13. Reunion

As they keep outrunning the explosion, Barry finds a safe distance and crashes. "You okay, man?" Barry asks Peter. "Yeah, I'm good." Peter responds and sees the explosion.

-

At the labs Caitlin is reading their suits for radiation since there's no telling how much they were exposed to. "Wait this is weird. The Geiger counter in your suits...it's reading less than one millirad in Barry's suit and at least ten in Peter's." Caitlin says and Wells looks over the new information just as confused.

-

"But that's normal for my standard." Peter informs them and Barry is normal for a human. "If there's no radiation..." Barry starts off and they run back into the explosion and see a body in the center of the crater and look closer to see Ronnie and his clothes are destroyed.

"Ronnie?" Peter asks and tears off his mask and runs to his friend. Ronnie is a little disoriented and turns to see his friend.

"Name?" Peter asks making sure it's him not Stein. "Ronnie Raymond." Ronnie replies and smiles seeing his friend.

"Sorry, I was looking for Captain Moron. I think you've still got some more people in your head." Peter jokes and Ronnie laughs as Peter helps his friend on his feet.

"Missed you too, Professor quack." Ronnie jokes back at Peter and he seriously missed their jokes and pulls him into a hug while laughing.

"Pardon me." A new voice says and they turn to see Stein back to his normal self. "Obviously, I'm gonna need a change of clothes." He tells them and they see his clothes are in the same condition as Ronnie's.

"Nice to see you in the flesh again, Professor Stein." Barry says and Peter just keeps smiling happy to have Ronnie back after everything.

-

They all return to S.T.A.R. Labs where they're met by Caitlin and Cisco. "Ronnie Raymond." Cisco says and hugs Ronnie happy to have him back. As soon as he saw Caitlin, everyone was happy to see them reunite after everything that's occurred.

"Welcome back, mr. Raymond." Wells says rolling up behind the two of them.

"Dr. Wells. Peter told me what happened to you. I'm so sorry." Ronnie says greeting his old boss. "I'm responsible for putting myself in this chair. You are responsible for everyone still being alive for what you did that night." He tells Ronnie.

"You said you'd bring him back, and you did." Caitlin says happy he's back. "Excuse me." Stein interrupts the reunion. "Are we all planning to sing Kumbaya next?" He asks the team rhetorically.

"Depends, you offering to start us off?" Peter asks jokingly getting a chuckle from everyone. "Professor Stein, I presume." Wells says to him.

"Harrison Wells. Do you have somewhere to freshen up and a change of clothes?" Stein asks them and they lead him to the bathrooms.

"I'm guessing this means they now know about Spider-Man?" Ronnie asks Peter regarding the fact he's not wearing his mask around them. "They found out a few months back." Peter tells him and they go to check on their condition.

"Your vitals appear to be normal, except you have a slight fever of 100.6." Caitlin tells Ronnie after finishing her checkup. "Cait, I'm telling you I'm fine." Ronnie tells her. "I know I'm just-" she gets cut off when he pulls her into a kiss to silence her and that's when Peter and Cisco walked in.

"Great. Just when I got the last memory of the awkward situations you two continuously put us in." Peter states and Cisco agrees with him and they look away from the lovebirds.

"Well, you better start getting used to it again." Caitlin mocks her friends shyness. "Never did get used to it." Peter states.

"Hey, Pete, I forgot to ask, what's with the new suit?" Ronnie asks Peter and he didn't realize the last time Ronnie saw Spider-Man he was in the old red and blue suit. "I just thought after the explosion it was time for a change." Peter expains as Wells joins them.

"So I did a full medical workup on the Professor. It turns now that he and Ronnie are seperged, they no longer possess the ability to harness nuclear energy." Wells explains to them.

"Aw man. It would've been cool to have you out there fighting alongside Barry and Peter." Cisco states.

"Professor Stein, you seem to be running a little hot as well, same as Ronnie." Caitlin informs the professor.

"Hardly a sweat, dr. Snow. And hopefully the only thing Ronald and I have in common-" "It's Ronnie." Ronnie corrects Stein.

"So how did it feel being able to beat me at flying?" Peter asks his friend curious to how it feels.

"It would've been cool if I was the one holding the controller." Ronnie states angerily. "Meaning?" Stein asks Ronnie about what he means by that.

"Meaning you weren't the most conscientious body-mate." Ronnie explains and gets off of the bed.

"So you do not consider keeping you alive to b conscientious?" Stein asks him. "Alive? We were living under a bridge, eating garbage." Ronnie recaps to their situation.

"I did not determine that it would be my mind that would dominate our existence, but thank god it was." Stein replies and Peter now regrets speaking. "I could feel your fear and panic, emotions that likely would have gotten us killed in that state."

"You kept me burried down." Ronnie states. "And I told you that I had told you countless times I had a friend who was nuclear resistant and a scientist, but you wouldn't listen." Ronnie remembers since he knew if he could tell Peter about the situation they were in he could've helped somehow, either as Peter Parker scientist or Spider-Man.

"Which is likely why he's still alive." Stein defends. "And now I believe you and I have spent quite enough time together. I'd like to go home and see my wife." He tells them.

"Mr. Allen will take you." Wells offers and Barry takes him home.

"I need some pizza." Ronnie tells them and Caitlin takes him out.

-

Later Barry comes back with news that the Flash was at his home the night his mother was killed. "Time travel." Wells breaths out in amazement.

"You know what? I'm not even surprised at this point." Peter states since the past few months he's seen crazier things (not counting himself).

"Well, the greatest minds in human history put their collective genius towards solving that puzzle." Wells states regarding the possibility.

"So is it possible?" Joe asks Wells. "Yes, it's possible." Wells replies and they're surprised. "But problematic. Assuming you could create conditions necessary to take the journey, that journey would then be met with thousands of pitfalls. The Novikov principle of self-consistency, for example." Wells explains and Joe doesn't understand.

"If you travel back in time to change something, then you could end up being the casual factor of that event." Barry tries explaining and it doesn't help.

"Think _Terminator_." Peter explains easily and he understands.

"Or is time plastic? Is it mutable whereby any changes to the continuum could create an alternate timeline." Wells explains and once again Joe is confused.

"_Back to the Future_." Both Peter and Cisco reply and Joe gets it. "Oh, saw that one too." Joe replies.

"Tremendous picture." Wells comments on the movie. "So what's the answer?" Joe asks.

"I might be a clever guy, Joe, but if you're asking for a working theory on how to travel trough time, I'm afraid I just can't do that." Wells explains but Peter remembers a talk he had with Stein when they first met.

"But I know someone who you can talk to." Peter tells Barry and he goes to talk to Stein.

-

At Jitters, Caitlin and Ronnie are catching up on everything that's happened the past year. "And the boomerang hoes flying through the cortex, smashing everything and Cisco's all, "my bad. This ones on me"." She tells him and Ronnie laughs at what he's missed.

"Sounds lik you had some crazy times." Ronnie comments on the stories he's being told. "Yeah, we have." Caitlin replies.

"Are you ready for life to get back to normal?" He asks her and she's confused. "I was thinking we could leave town." He explains and Caitlin isn't sure about that.

"Our lives are here. My job is here." She explains to him. "Yeah, hunting metahuman." Ronnie replies seeing it's dangerous.

"There's more to it than that." Caitlin states and remembers something. "And didn't you and Peter have the exact same thing going on before everything?" She asks him remembering that it was Ronnie that helped Peter stop Electro, Dr. Octopus, Lizard and others. "Yeah, and it was dangerous." Ronnie states.

"It can be. Look, I stayed at S.T.A.R. Labs because I believe in dr. Wells. But ever since Barry became the Flash and Peter told us about him being Spider-Man, we've been working to keep the city safe, I found a new way to help people." She explains to Ronnie and he understands the feeling when he used to help Peter build new gadgets to stop enemies and everything.

"Look, Cait, I'm not mad at anyone. Okay, I know the accelerator explosion was an accident and I told Peter to lock me in there. Buy that building tool a year of our lives. I don't want it to take anymore." Ronnie explains and Caitlin notices a red dot on Ronnie and sees army is outside and they get on the floor and start making their way out. Ronnie quickly grabs his phone and sets off the spider-alert Peter placed on his phone years ago.

It's basically a secret distress signal connected by their wave channels on their phones for in case an enemy learned Peter's identity or when they're put into danger like now.

On a rooftop, Peter is just hanging out when the alert comes on his screen and he almost forgot about it since it was exclusively for Ronnie. He gets a ping on his location and runs to help.

At Jitters, Ronnie runs out the back and runs into the military. "Ronald Raymond. Burning Man himself." General Eiling states to him. "Half of him anyway."

Ronnie knows Peter's on his way and just needs to keep these guys distracted, best way to do that, get them talking about themselves. "Who the hell are you?" Ronnie asks him.

"General Wade Eiling, United States Army." He introduces himself and stops and Ronnie sees Peter appearing on the rooftop nearby. "What do you want?" Ronnie asks hoping Peter has a plan.

"Firestorm." Eiling explains and Peter leaps down and shoots a web trip-mine and attaches it to one of his men's back and it webs him to the wall and then uses a taser web on the others leaving Eiling. But as he runs to knock him out, Eiling throws a device into the air and it releases a thousand needles and they seem to be magnetically pulled to Peter as he tries avoiding them all and it does nothing as they reach him. Peter drops to the ground in pain of the thousand of needles penetrating his suit and skin.

"Stings, doesn't it?" Eiling asks him. "Had those developed especially for you and Flash. Thought after all these years nobody considered taking you down?" He asks Peter and he considered nobody would try to deal with him seeing was a good guy.

"Micro fragments attracted to kinetic energy. And your swinging, acrobatics moves, just about anything you do makes you filled with it." Eiling explains to Peter as he tries moving and it causes needles to run into each other creating more pain. "Getting Firestorm was tonight's main objective. But getting someone as strong, flexible and powerful as you...that's just gravy." Eiling states happy, that is until Barry comes speeding in and grabs Ronnie and Peter and makes a run for it.

"Gentlemen, we are at war." Eilinh confirms.

-

Barry brings Peter back to S.T.A.R. Labs where Caitlin is pulling the needles off of him. "You need to hurry, he's starting to heal with the fragments still under his skin." Wells states and they have Barry remove them with his speed quickly, but for Peter, it was like having duck tape on you being ripped off and his screams fill the labs.

"That was like the time I stepped on a sea urchin." Cisco states and Peter just looks angry for the first time in a long time. "Only much worse." He corrects himself.

"Nobody's peeing on me, though." Peter tries lighting the mood and is just remaining still until his body heals. "You know that's a myth, right?" Cisco asks him.

"Let's hope Doc Ock never learns about this." Says Ronnie. "Why isn't your suit bulletproof or anything?" He questions why his friend wouldn't think of this as a possibility.

"It is. I wasn't expecting super-needles to be used against me." Peter states to his friend since he's been doing this for years and have seen everything from spheres to metallic limbs used to kill him and never considered needles.

"I'm so stupid." Caitlin tells them and they're confused at that. "Jason Rush, the grad student who was helping Professor Stein with the Firestorm research said the army took all of Stein's material when he disappeared." She explains and Peter remembers that's when she was kidnapped by Leonard Snart. "I should've known it was Eiling."

"Not your fault." Wells tells her. "He still thinks you hold the keys to the ultimate human weapon, both of you." He tells Ronnie considering Firestorm.

"Okay, I'll run to Stein's house, Peter you...don't even move. It looks painful." Barry replies.

"You think?" Peter sarcastically asks his friend when they turn and see Stein enter the labs.

"I don't think mr. Raymond and I are as distinctive as we had hoped." Stein tells them and Caitlin runs some tests and comes up with some interesting results.

-

"I'm still inside Ronald." Stein states seeing the brain activity.

"There has to be a better way of phrasing that, man. That sounds so wrong." Peter comments while watching from his bed, still healing.

"Beta, alpha, theta, delta, all your brain waves are perfectly in sync." Caitlin explains to Stein and Ronnie. "The chances of that happening are next to impossible."

"Impossible's just another Tuesday for us, right?" Barry asks them. "Yeah, but this is like some _Twilight Zone _level stuff." Cisco tells Barry. "You say that knowing you have a guy in your basement who can turn into poisonous gas?" Peter asks Cisco and that gets Ronnie's attention.

"You serious?" He asks Peter. "Man, that was, like, week three of everything." Peter explains to him.

"Look, if this Eiling is as dangerous as you say, then I need to warn Clarissa." Stein states getting ready to leave when Peter thinks of something. "What if we make him not dangerous?" Peter asks them and that gets their attention. "Look, our main concern is Eiling, we get him out of the picture, we get them in the clear." Peter explains. "Find his location, I'll take it from there." Peter says and they all leave to find it and Ronnie disconnects himself from the device.

"You doing okay, man?" Peter asks his friend.

"Yeah, it's just not the S.T.A.R. Labs I knew." Ronnie states looking at his friend.

"Ronnie, this isn't the world you once knew. Everything changed that night." Peter tells him.

"You mean like you?" Ronnie asks looking at his Peter. "I mean, last I saw you, you were a friendly neighbor Spider-Man, What do you plan on doing to Eiling?" He questions not seeing the reason of him doing this.

"I'm gonna do the one thing Spider-Man never does." Peter states and looks towards his ripped suit because of the needles. "I'm gonna send a threat." He states and Ronnie has never seen his friend like this before.

-

In the meantime before they can get the location, they need to put Ronnie and Stein somewhere safe and Peter brings them to his place. "Okay, make yourselves at home." Peter tells Caitlin and Ronnie.

"You guys know your way around. And to help, I called in some help should be here soon." Peter informs them when a knock comes from his door and he opens it to let in Joe. "Peter, you said you needed me to keep an eye on someone?" Joe asks Peter and sees Caitlin and Ronnie.

"Oh, Joe, you know Caitlin, this is Ronnie." Peter introduces Ronnie to Joe. "Ronnie as in...?" Joe asks remembering the story of his dead friend.

"Dead best friend, yes." Peter states easing him from thinking about it too much and his phone goes off that they got a location on Eiling.

"Try not to destroy anything like last time, Ronnie." Peter says as he goes to his room and grabs a case under his bed to interrogate him. The Negative Spider-Man suit. One of his first suits for stealth missions at night.

It's a complete dark design that glowed when he wanted it to and it brought fear into anyone, over time it started to strike fear into everyone, including innocent people and decided to drop the suit and stick with the red and blue. But he kept it just in case he ever needed it again.

-

Eiling was in his office with a dozen men guarding him while he's searching for Firestorm when the lights start flickering and downright explode causing everyone inside to freak out as Barry speeds in Peter and he starts fighting off the soldiers left and right while using his webs to hide his location as he fights off the last man and looks towards Eiling. And he has his gun out trying to find Peter and he lights his suit up and Eiling begins shooting but Peter dodges them all and rips the gun from his hands and breaks it.

**"General Eiling, we need to talk."** Peter says with his threatening voice, courtesy of the Arrow. "About Firestorm?" Eiling asks trying to hide his fear he's actually getting from Spider-Man. "I thought you were incapable of harming people, Spider-Man." Eiling states knowing he won't hurt him.

But that immediately gets forgotten as Peter grabs him by the neck and slams him into the wall. **"That was the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. You're dealing with the Negative Spider-Man."** Peter informs him and a sphere comes out of his web compartment. **"Here's the deal, if I ever see you in Central City, even hear rumors about the army being in the city, I will find you...and I WILL kill you." **Peter promises and Eiling looks into his "eyes" and sees he's telling him the truth.

**"So I'd start calling off your men."** Peter tells him and drops him to the floor. **"You've got 24 hours. If they're not gone, you'll never be seen again." **Peter explains and Barry speeds back in and grabs him.

-

He speeds them back to S.T.A.R. Labs where Wells, Cisco are waiting with Caitlin, Ronnie and Joe and they see Peter in the Negative suit. "It's done. He's got 24 hours, if you see even one soldier, tell me." Peter tells him.

"There still is the problem that Eiling has shown he has the weaponry to easily take down Spider-Man with ease so we need to make sure to stop that entirely, if he could stop one, he could possibly use the same technique to take down the Flash, or worse." Wells states and they agree.

-

After some consideration, Ronnie and Stein agree they should leave the city until they have complete control over their powers since they learn when they join they can speedster this time.

"Where will you go?" Caitlin asks him.

"Pittsburgh, maybe. Stein has a colleague he thinks can help us learn more about our abilities." Ronnie explains. "I mean, Eiling has proven he's not afraid to go to extreme measures to get us, so we need to stay one step ahead of him and Peter's threat will only last for so long before a war starts to create us into a weapon." Ronnie explains. "It's better for all of us."

"Godspeed, mr. Allen." Stein farewell to Barry. "As to our earlier conversation, I believe in second chances." Stein explains about their talk about time travel.

"Mr. Parker, thank you for what you did." Stein tells Peter while shaking his hand. "You know, when I first met you all those years ago, I knew there was something special about you."

"Yeah, you did." Peter remembers.

"And I'm not talking about your brain, I'm talking about how much you care for others." Stein explains to Peter and he knows it's his greatest strength. "Keep your heart in the right place and keep the threats to a minimum. I like Spider-Man because of how he never threatens." He states and Peter agrees with him on that. Spider-Man gives hope, not fear.

"Ready, Ronald?" Stein asks Ronnie. "Please stop calling me that." Ronnie says and gives Peter one last hug. "I'm gonna miss you, hothead." Peter tells his friend and he laughs.

"See you around, mr. Spectacular." He jokes back and follows Stein outside and they join back together and looks towards their friends. "See you all soon." RonnieStein says and they fly off.

-

Peter decides to take Caitlin to Jitters to do something calm after everything. "I had Ronnie, then I lost him. Then I found him again, but he wasn't actually Ronnie. Then I got him back but just for a day until I lost him again." Caitlin recaps the past year with her relationship.

"Still better than my dating life." Peter tells her and she laughs at his quip. "You guys are like Romeo and Juliet's story but PG'd." Peter tells her while taking a drink of his decaf.

"But, I'm not heartbroken this time." Caitlin clarifies. "I love Ronnie, I always will, but there's not this devastating hole inside me." She states to him.

"Sometimes all we need is to just have a chance to say goodbye. You remember who you loose and keep them a part of you but continue with your life." Peter tells her about how he goes on after everyone he's lost.

"You're right. I have a life, and it's a good one. And at least I still have your shoulder if I need it to cry on." She joes at him and he laughs at her now.

"Oh, I'm just your personal crying shoulder now?" Peter asks her when Iris sees them.

"Iris, hi." Caitlin greets her. "Hi, Caitlin. Where's your cousin?" Iris wonders. Peter learned Iris paid a visit to his place to talk with her dad and they had to say Ronnie was her cousin.

"Oh, he went home." Caitlin replies trying to keep up the lie and Peter sees she knows somethings up. "Where was that again?" Iris asks her.

"Midway?" She replies not remembering. "I thought you said Coast City." Iris states.

"Midway via Coast City. He moves around a lot." Caitlin tells her.

"All right, Well, enjoy." Iris says and leaves them be.

"I think she knows somethings up." Peter tells Caitlin.

-

Back at the army base, Eiling has ordered everyone out of the city as promised when the lights started flickering and he gets kidnapped by a flash of lightning and is brought to the Central City sewers.

"_It's good to see you again, General._" Reverse Flash tells Eiling. "Who are you? I already called my men out of the city." Eiling states to him thinking it's Spider-Man who's doing this.

"Who am I?" Reverse Flash asks and removes his mask. "Harrison. You're one of them." Eiling realizes.

"Yes, I am. And I protect my own." Wells says when Eiling hears a growl in the sewers. "And that...is an old friend of ours." Wells states and Eiling looks to see gorilla Grodd and gets dragged away.

—————————————————————————————————


	14. The death of Spider-Man

Today was just a layback day at S.T.A.R. Labs and Cisco, Peter and Wells we're together watching a movie after Caitlin went home and Barry had a date with a girl.

The three men were just enjoying some classic black and white movies laughing. "Oh, Buster Keaton. That guy was a genius." Cisco comments to the movie director.

"I still can't believe you have never seen this, dr. Wells." Peter states to him.

"Peter, I've been saying this for years, you can call me Harrison." Wells informs him but it's just something nobody does.

"We seriously need to get you a must see movie list." Cisco tells Wells.

"Please do. While I am more than happy to spend an evening watching old movies with you two, do you not have your brothers dinner to attend, Cisco?" Wells asks Cisco.

"Yeah. I was gonna ask Caitlin or Peter to come with me, but I got a much better idea." Cisco replies. "To not go at all." He explains the plan to them.

"So glad I was an only child." Peter mumbles to himself while eating more popcorn. "Things still not good with your family?" Peter wonders remembering how Cisco's family doesn't exactly appreciate him. "Things have been pretty fantastic...since I stopped seeing them that much." Cisco tells him when a alert goes off.

"Silent alarm went off at the Central City morgue." Cisco says and sees Peter's already in costume ready to go. "Why would anyone want to rob a morgue?" Wells wonders as Peter leaves to check it out.

-

At Barry's date, he was told by Eddie what's happening and Barry makes an excuse to go. While running down the street, Barry looks to see hi,self running next to him and vanishes.

Barry quickly stops to try to find that lookalike and sees nothing around. But he hears two dogs barking at each other, a guy twirling a sign and a woman shouting for a taxi.

_"Yo, Barry. You need to see this." _Peters voice fills in the speakers and he runs to the morgue.

When he makes it, he sees Peter standing over the coroner who's dead.

"The coroner's dead, guys." Barry informs the guys at S.T.A.R. Labs.

Later Peter leaves as the cops arrive and Barry looks at the water in the floor. "Did the sprinklers go off or something?" Joe questions.

"No, I checked all the sprinklers. They're all intact. But look at this. Ice." Barry says while holding it up from the floor. "The cornoner has multiple impact bruises on his torso, all the size of a tennis ball." Barry says while showing his stomach. "Judging by the amount of ice and water on the ground, I'm guessing he was killed by hail."

"Hail? In doors?" Joe questions. "You thinking Snart maybe?" Joe wonders.

"No, the cold gun couldn't have done this. Besides, it's destroyed." Barry reminds him.

"Joe, we got something. The coroner office has an automated dictation system." Eddie tells him when a recording.

_"Please, no more." _The coroner's voice begs someone. _"I'll stop when you tell me who killed him?"_ A second voice asks.

"I know that voice, that's Mardon." Joe tells them.

"Clyde Mardon's dead." Eddie tells Joe. "Not Clyde Mardon, his brother Mark." Joe corrects Eddie.

_"It was detective West._" The coroner tells Mark Joe killed Clyde and he swears vengeance before killing the coroner.

-

"So while I was in Starlight City, the city was almost destroyed by a man who could control the weather ?" Peter asks them now being told about this. "It's nice to know this, now!"

"So Clyde Mardon had a brother?" Caitlin asks Barry. "And both brothers survived the plane crash, and then the dark matter released when the particle accelerator exploded affected them both the same way." Wells tells them.

"Yeah, only Mark's powers seem to be a lot more precise." Barry says. "To be able to control the weather like that, indoors?"

"You'd have to be a Weatger Wizard." Cisco says happy to have a nickname for that and takes a drink from his slushee and gets a brain freeze.

"Trigeminal headache." Caitlin informs him. "What?" Peter asks not understanding that. "Brain freeze." She explains to Peter.

"Could've said brain freeze, much easier." Peter states to her and she rolls her eyes.

"So I'm guessing you running around a twister in the opposite direction isn't gonna work this time." Joe tells Barry.

"I just remembered. During our run in with Mardon, I was tinkering with something to help attract unbound atmospheric electrons." Cisco informs the team.

"You mean like a grounding mechanism?" Peter asks his friend. "Yeah, because the only way that Mardon can control the weather is if he can tap into the atmosphere's natural electrical circuit, and if we take away the circuit, clear skies." Cisco explains as Joe answers his phone.

"Sing's checking in. I gotta go." Joe tells him.

"Well, he's taking being targeted by a revenge seeking metahuman rather well." Wells states regarding the threat Mardon placed on Joe . "Don't worry, Barry, Joe will be fine." He tells Barry.

"Look, last night, on my way to the morgue, I saw something. I was running and I turned and saw myself. Or another Flash running beside me." Barry explains not understanding what he saw.

"Interesting. It could've been a optical illusion, mirroring effect caused by wind shear and light, a speed mirage, if you will." Wells tries some different theories.

"It's just...he seemed real." Barry explains to them.

"Let's focus on finding Mardon first, then we will find out what we can about what you saw." Wells promises and rolls away.

-

Over the last few hours, Joe and Barry had a run in with Mardon when he tried killing Joe using lightning and Iris tells Barry that she suspects Wells is hiding something, Cisco and Peter put together the device.

"I call it the Wizard's wand." Cisco tells the team. "How does it work?" Caitlin asks them.

"Think if it like a lightning rod that actually works perfectly." Peter explains to them. "You just need to point it at the sky, and it'll suck the energy floating around and stops Mardon temporarily." He recaps howw it works for them. "It's more than enough to stop Mardon."

Wells leaves to "stretch his legs" as he says and Peter sees Barry is acting strange, "You okay?" Peter asks him.

"Somebody at...somebody at picture news got into Iris' head that something suspicious is going on with dr. Wells." Barry explains to them and they're confused. "And that he knows what happened to Simon Stagg. Apparently, he hasn't been heard or seen since Danton Black."

Cisco starts thinking about that and Peter starts taking the wand to the prescient, but makes a quick detour to the basement with the Reverse Fash trap to check on something...and he finds something he couldn't believe.

-

"Keep this handy, it'll protect you from Mardon's powers." Peter explains to Joe at the prescient.

"Yeah, Peter, I got it." Joe states.

"Hey, Joe, I know you got some stuff going on, but I heard from Cisco you think Wells might have something to do with Barry's mothers death. Is there a particular reason?" Peter wonders.

"It doesn't matter, I was wrong." Joe tells him.

"But what if you weren't?" Peter asks him. "What do you mean?" Joe wonders when Peter's senses go off and he looks towards the elevator. "Oh no." Peter states and quickly while nobody looks puts his mask off and rips his clothes off to reveal his suit.

"Heard you were looking for me." Mardon says and they look at him.

"You get changed fast." Joe states seeing Peter back in his suit. "Mardon." Peter states walking slowly towards the wand while Mardon does the same. "Hey, Spider-Man." Mardon greets. "Never thought I see you again after that night you chased my brother and me." He says to Peter.

"You killed an innocent man, stole from, dozens of money from people and threatened more." Peter recaps everything he and his brother did.

"Clyde was my family. Now get out of my way so I can have my revenge." Mardon warns Peter as he stands between him and Joe. "I'm avenging my family."

"Nobody gets hurt on my watch." Peter promises and shoots a web at the wall ready to stop him when a blast of wind hits him backwards into Joe.

Eddie runs to help so does Singh but Peter calls them off. "I don't go down so easily, Spider-Man." Mardon informs him and everyone aims at him but he uses the wind to take them down and summons lightning at himself.

Peter acts fast and shoots and leaps in front of the blast of lightning to stop it from hitting Joe, and it shoots him into and even through the prescient wall sending him flying. Barry just makes it and uses the wand on Mardon and it stops his powers momentarily and he makes a run for it. Joe just gets up and sees the hole in the wall and doesn't see Peter.

"Spider-Man!" Joe yells and Barry runs to the hole left behind to see Peter hitting the streets and get rammed by cars while they slam their breaks, but weren't fast enough to stop them from hitting Peter.

"No!" Barry shouts seeing his friend brutally hurt and runs to the street to check on him.

Barry makes it to Peter and kneels down next to his friend. "Peter, can you hear me?" Barry asks seeing the damaged suit has a scorch mark where his heart should be and removes his mask to see his face is beaten in and he's barely breathing.

"Guys, Peter's hurt!" Barry informs them and they don't think they can help him fast enough. "We can't help him here, get him to a hospital!" Cisco tells him and Barry doesn't know if Peter will survive, but knows where to bring him.

"Get me directions to Central City General." Barry asks them knowing May works there and speeds off.

-

"Why would he bring Peter there?" Cisco wonders and Wells sees why.

"Because Peter's badly hurt, barely alive and there's a chance he might not make it." Wells states and they remember May works there.

"If there's a chance he doesn't make it, at least they get to say goodbye." Wells says and they run to meet them at the hospital.

-

May was doing her usual shift at the hospital when the Flash suddenly appears in front of her holding Spider-Man..without his mask. "_You gotta save him_." Barry pleads vibrating his voice so May doesn't recognize the voice and she sees Spider-Man's face.

"Peter?" She asks in shock and calls for help as more doctors help bring him and begin to try keeping him alive.

Barry decides to get changed from his suit so not to draw attention and speeds off, hoping Peter will make it.

-

After some time, the others arrive hoping he's okay. "Hey, how is he?" Joe asks Barry who's waiting for May to bring the news on his condition.

"I..I don't know." Barry tells them. "I haven't seen or heard from May since I got here."

"Wait, who we talking about? Who's here?" Eddie asks since he and Iris don't know about Peter and they can't keep it from him anymore.

"Eddie, Peter's Spider-Man." Joe bluntly tells his partner and he's shocked.

"Peter? The...Peter from the Christmas party?" Eddie asks clarifying it and they start explaining it to him leaving out Barry and Flash when May approaches to them with the news.

"Did you all know?" May asks quickly and they don't know how to answer that. Peter always wanted to tell her, but never knew how she would react and didn't want her worrying more than usual.

"He wanted to tell you, ms. Parker." Wells informs her. "He just didn't want to be a burden on you more than he was." He explains to May and she understands but wishes she knew sooner.

"How's he doing?" Caitlin asks hoping he's okay.

"We're not entirely sure if he's going to make it." May informs them and they're afraid for their friend. "His heart took most of the blast, that and counting the head trauma, we're lucky he was alive when Flash got him here." She explains to his friends. "He's awake, and wants to see all of you."

His three friends go first to see him and what they see is Peter looking better than he did before, but he still looks banged up.

"Hey, you okay, man?" Cisco asks his friend and Peter looks at him smiling.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just resting." Peter says and starts coughing. "Okay, that's probably not a good sign." He quips to his friends believing there's a chance of him not surviving.

"You think you'll be good after some time?" Barry asks hoping this isn't the last of Spider-Man or Peter Parker.

"Yeah. I always get up, you know me better than that." Peter replies knowing he's lying to his friends. "It's just Spider-Man took quite the beating. You guys still gotta stop Mardon, don't worry about me." Peter states to his friends and they don't want to leave him.

"We're not going anywhere until we know you're getting back on your feet." Caitlin informs Peter and he just smiles at her knowing she's telling the truth and takes her hand.

"You guys mind if I had a minute with Cait?" Peter asks his friends and they give them the room. Caitlin doesn't know why he would ask to keep her but kick them out.

"I don't have a lot of time, Cait. My chest hurts with every beat my heart takes, it hurts to breathe, I'm not gonna make it." He explains his situation to her and she doesn't want to hear him say that. After everything they've been through, she was not gonna let him die because of some criminal's lightning blast.

"Listen, Cait, I never found the courage to tell you something. And I know I'm gonna regret it if I don't tell you." Peter explains to her and Caitlin wonders if he's trying to say what she thinks he's saying. "I love you, Caitlin." Peter finally tells her and she's surprised but at the same time relieved he feels the same.

"I told you a few weeks ago, I needed to find someone new to be crazy about, remember?" Caitlin asks him while leaning closer towards him. "I'm crazy for you, Peter." She states to him and quickly kisses him on the lips and Peter returns the kiss happy that she feels the same as he feels for her.

Once they break apart, Peter just has a smile on his face. "Be careful, Cait...Wells...he does have a secret." Peter tries warning her but the words aren't coming out as it gets harder for him to breathe.

"What does that mean, Peter?" Caitlin asks seeing him struggling to keep his eyes open now.

"Where's the good in goodbye, Caitlin?" Asks Peter when the heart monitor flatlines and Caitlin states freaking out.

"Peter!" Caitlin cries and calls for help and doctors come in and try reviving him and there was nothing they could do to save him.

-

Iris gets home from work and turns on her tv and whatever was on was disrupted by a news report.

_"We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a special report. Sad news tonight, the hero known as Spider-Man...has died." _Once those words were said, all of Central City, all the people, young and old, came to a stand still after all these years of him protecting their home, he's actually dead.

_"After suffering injuries from an attack at the Central City precinct by a Mark Mardon. Multiple sources are confirming that Peter Parker, a 27 year old scientist from Mercury labs operated as Spider-Man for over a decade."_ The news tells them and the entire city doesn't know what to do now knowing their hero who kept them safe is gone.

Even the people who didn't like Spider-Man feel bad after learning he's dead. People all over the city are watching the report of the death of the web slinger. People are using either their phones, their TVs even the televisions in stores to hear the news themselves not wanting to believe the truth.

The next day the team had a funeral for him, free of everyone except for friends and family. Not many people hated Peter so it was mostly team Flash, May, Tina McPhee, and some of his coworkers. Ronnie and Stein send their regards since they couldn't risk coming back now that Peter's dead.

"He always said it could've been anyone wearing the mask, he just happened to be the one who happened to get bit." Caitlin says while holding the Spider-Man mask in her hands and tosses it down to the coffin knowing it should still be with him even after death.

In the city, the police are hiding their own ceremony for Spider-Man and selling Spider-Man merchandise. Barry was planning on attending the ceremony at the prescient and gets a Spider-Man shirt to remember his friend.

Once at the checkout the owner, who's also the cashier, looks at the shirt and looks sadly at it. He was an old man with glasses, his white hair was combed back. Most locals just call him Stan. "I'm...going to miss him." He states to Barry.

"Yeah, we all are." Barry replies sad to see that he died because he wasn't there to help.

"We were friends, you know. Always stopping by, really got business booming quickly." Stan states to Barry and Peter remembers that he and Stan were friends but he didn't know Peter was Spider-Man and he checks out the shirt.

"Thanks." Barry says and goes to the memorial service.

-

**Peter Parker**

**Loved by all**

**Missed by more**

**1985-2012**

Caitlin and Cisco are the only two left still looking at the grave that has their friend just six feet below them now. "He didn't ask for his powers..but he chose to be Spider-Man. He chose to be a hero." Cisco tells Caitlin knowing Peter would do anything from taking a bullet to helping someone cross a street if he could.

"Even when we didn't know it was him in the mask, he made us feel strong. That's what I loved most about him." Caitlin replies completely broken that she didn't tell him how she felt sooner.

At the prescient ceremony, they showed a casing they now have placed in the center of the main room that holds a replica of Peter's Spider symbol in a casing with a message.

**A hero with or without a mask**

-

Later on, the team went back to S.T.A.R. Labs to close everything down for the night not feeling like looking for Mardon. "All right, Cisco, I'm heading to May's, you want a ride?" Caitlin asks the engineer and sees him looking at Peter's computers.

"Cisco?" Caitlin calls him again seeing they were going to meet up with May at her place to help her through this tough time.

"Okay, I'll watch every episode of _The Walking Dead _with you." Caitlin promised and that doesn't get his attention and she just reaches for his shoulder.

"You couldn't have stopped Mardon from attacking the police station." She tells him and he stops what he was doing. "It want your fault." Caitlin states to him knowing he was going to bring the wand to the station but Peter talked him into letting him do it.

"No, that's not it. I mean, it's partially it." Cisco admits to her. "I just haven't wrapped my head around it...Peter actually liked you." Cisco states and Caitlin can't believe that's what he's focusing on.

"What do you think of dr. Wells?" Cisco asks changing the subject. "Do you think he's capable of doing something bad?" He asks Caitlin wondering why Peter was asking Joe about Wells before the attack.

"Is this because of what Barry said he heard?" Caitlin asks him not wanting to get into something like this after Peter's funeral. "Ever since the accelerator exploded, there's always someone who's got it in for dr. Wells." She tells Cisco walking through the cortex.

"No, it's more than that. Joe said that Peter was asking about why he considered Wells being involved in Barry's mothers death." Cisco explains what he was looking at over on Peter's computers at what his last activity was before going to the prescient.

"That's absurd." Caitlin states to Cisco about that.

"Yeah, I know, and that's what I said, and we proved that wasn't the case, but..I'm saying some things aren't adding up and I think Peter was onto something before he died." Cisco explains and opens up what Peter was looking at on the other monitors for Caitlin to see.

"Look at this. The night we captured the Reverse Flash in the force fiend, he escaped because the containment system failed, but Peter was looking over everything and even ran a schematics check several times before leaving, and it shows the super capacitors were still fully charged when he got out." Cisco explains to her and shows the data Peter was looking over. "What if Peter's powers we're telling him something was wrong and he did all of this? There is no reason that the containment system should have failed." Cisco says and sees even in death, his best friend is still helping them with problems.

"I'm sure Peter had a perfectly normal reason to be doing this and there's a good explanation." Caitlin replies to Cisco not wanting to believe Wells is actually a super villain, but remembers Peter warned her something was up with him.

"One perfectly good explanation is that Wells did something to the trap." Cisco tells her believing Peter was onto something big that could save hundreds of people.

"Are you suggesting that dr. Wells is in league with the Reverse Flash?" Caitlin questions him. "We all saw that thing nearly kill him that night."

"Yeah, nearly. Can you keep Wells out of the labs tomorrow morning?" Cisco asks her and is coming up with a plan to prove him right and she wants to know of this is what Peter meant and agreed to do it.

-

Joe and Barry were in the prescient while they watched some people from off the street leave some Spider-Man based objects around the symbol to remember Peter and Joe gets up and starts leaving while Barry follows him. "Joe, where you going?" Barry questions his father figure.

"I need to end this." Was Joe's only reply as he kept walking ready to stop Mardon alone if needed to.

"Not by yourself." Barry tells him.

"Yes, by myself! I know him! I can find him. I don't want anybody else getting killed trying to protect me, especially you and Iris." Says Joe and Barry sees he feels responsible for what happened to Peter. "Mardon said he was going to avenge his brother. That goes beyond me. It goes all the way to you and her." Joe informs Barry not wanting them to end up like Peter because they tried protecting him.

"You stay with Iris, and you keep her safe." Joe tells Barry knowing he'll keep her safe from harm and leaves.

Barry just watches him leave and looks at the memorial picture some officers are putting in knowing Spider-Man did more for this city than they'll ever know.

"I'm sorry, Peter." Barry apologizes to the symbol knowing it once stood for hope in this city, and now that's been passed down to him. Spider-Man was a beacon, a spark of hope, it's Barry's job to make sure that flame he started doesn't die out now.

-

Cisco is down in the basement at S.T.A.R. Labs looking over the trap to see what went wrong (or matter what didn't). "Let's see what you can teach me after death, Peter." Cisco tells himself and connects the trap to peters computer he brought down with him.

-

Joe is staking out a place he knows the Mardon's frequent a lot in the past and checks to see if he came back. And for a second, it would seem he was right as he runs into Eddie in the halls and raises his gun until he realizes who it is. "Eddie. You shouldn't be here." Joe informs his partner.

"And you shouldn't be chasing after Mardon alone, partner." Eddie replies to him.

"You find anything?" Eddie asks looking around to help. "Not yet, but this was an old Mardon brothers' hideout about six years ago so it's a long shot." Joe informs Eddie and tries making him leave and it doesn't work.

-

Back in S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco works on everything and sees its functioning properly. "What?" Cisco asks himself not understanding anything about this. "Come on, Peter, tell me what you were doing." Cisco bets his dead friend and powers up Peter's computer and attaches it and all the lights turn off and back in when Cisco sees the Reverse Flash appears in the cage. "Peter, what did you learn?" Cisco asks Peter again knowing he's not going to answer anytime soon.

-

Back at the hideout, Joe and Eddie were leaving no room unchecked and find a room that looks recently lived in. Joe finds a newspaper talking about Mardon's brother death when a blast of wind takes Joe out the window.

-

Joe wakes up sometime later on a boat in the middle of the ocean with his leg completely broken. "Small miracle you only broke the one leg, Joe." Mark tells Joe and he turns to see him.

"The night I git sucked out of my plane, I broke almost every bone in my body. It was excruciating." Mardon informs Joe.

"At least you now get a small taste of what that felt like. Still...I didn't mean to kill Spider-Man, you know that, right?" Mardon questions him while looking at Central City. "He just got in the way of you and he needed to be eliminated. And now the entire city is at a standstill, so nobody is gonna notice you're missing for some time."

"He didn't deserve to die trying to protect people." Joe informs Mardon wishing it didn't end the way that it did. "The difference is that I don't need these powers to end your life." Mardon replies to him.

"Then do it. That's what you're here for, right?" Joe asks him. "An eye for an eye?"

"Oh, Joe. I want so much more than an eye." Mardon says while holding duck tape.

-

At Jitters, Caitlin brought Wells to get him away from the labs like Cisco asked. "I often forget how important it is to step out of my every present routine. Thank you, Caitlin." Wells thanks her while she seems to be distracted. "This morning has been a refreshing change of pace."

"You can have more than two hard boiled eggs for breakfast, dr. Wells." Caitlin says getting out of her head.

"What can I say? I guess I'm a creature of habit." Wells tells her while a waitress brings their drinks. Caitlin's coffee and Wells ordered a Spider-Savior.

"Can't believe Peter got a drink named after his heroic-ness. I believe these were a to go." Wells tells the waiter. "Actually, I thought we could sit here and enjoy it." Caitlin explains to him and he agrees. "Why not?" He states happy to do so.

-

Eddie tells the captain what happened and they're ready to find Joe and get justice for Spider-Man. "We've seen what Mardon can do, but do not forget, he is not invincible." Singh tells everyone. "He is still a man, at best, a criminal."

"I can't believe this is happening." Iris tells Barry scared for her father.

"We'll find him, Iris." Barry promises her.

"Were gonna find this dirtbag, and get justice for the hero who died trying to stop him. I want everyone to scour the city until we find detective West. Move out!" Singh tells all the officers and they do so and Iris' phone goes off.

"Hello?" She answers. "_I have your father._" Mardon's voice tells her. "_He's a little broken, but he's alive._" He informs her and gives her a location. "_Come to the waterfront, south side. And tell the police, your father dies._" Mardon informs her and hangs up.

"He wants me to meet him at the waterfront." Iris tells Barry and he plans on going with her and grabs the bag containing his suit and he's ready to get vengeance for Peter.

-

"You know, Dr. Wells, I just..." Caitlin is trying to figure out how to keep him distracted. "I want to thank you again, for all you've done for Ronnie." She tells him.

"In all honesty, I thought there would be someone else on your mind." Wells informs her and Caitlin understands he's talking about Peter. "He was a great man and had a great mind to go with it. But the one thing he constantly tried telling himself is he didn't like you." Wells informs her and she gets confused.

"He was backing out. For Ronnie." Wells explains to her seeing she's confused and doesn't understand why he would do that. "He thinks you and Ronnie were destined to be together even when we thought he was dead, he thought it would be rude of him to approach you in such a way."

"I told him constantly I was over Ronnie." Caitlin tells Wells remembering their constant conversations about her and Ronnie. "You know Peter, he will never see the obvious, just the unclear. He loved you, just didn't have the chance to properly tell you." Wells explains to Caitlin and she understands.

"You know, Caitlin, if Cisco were to adjust the the radial velocity parameters on the S.T.A.R. labs satellite, we might be able to detect the vortex of a forming storm, and it we could detect those air updrsfts, no matter where they originate, we might be able to locate Mardon and get Peter justice." Wells suggests.

"So why don't we go to S.T.A.R. Labs and alert Cisco?" He asks her and she sees she can't hold him any longer and goes to change the cups to buy some more time. As she leaves to the counter and looks back to Wells, she sees the wheelchair but Wells is gone. Now she's completely shocked Peter was right, Cisco was right, Barry was right. Wells is the Reverse Flash.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco watches the newly discovered hologram of the Reverse Flash. _"_My goals are beyond your understanding." Reverse Flash says to nobody and Cisco realizes that it was a prerecorded message. Cisco works on Peter's computer and rewinds the hologram. "Dr. Wells, we meet at last. My goals are beyond your understanding." He repeats and Cisco is shocked to what Peter discovered and never had the chance to tell them.

"Oh, I'm not like the Flash at all." The hologram tells Cisco. "Some would say I'm the Reverse." A new voice says and Cisco looks to see Wells is standing and looking at him.

-

At the waterfront, Mardon sees that Iris and Barry are there and starts summoning a storm.

-

Wells starts clapping menacingly walking towards Cisco. "You're incredibly clever, Cisco." Wells tells him. "I've always said so. But I mean, following the footsteps of the man who discovered the secret first in less than a day." Wells states completely impressed by Cisco.

"You're him." Cisco realizes he wasn't working with Reverse Flash, he is the Reverse Flash.

"You and I have never been truly, properly introduced." Wells states. "I am Eobard Thawne." He tells Cisco and he's surprised.

"Thawne? Like Eddie?" Cisco asks not understanding anything about this.

"Let's call him a distant relative." Wells tries his best to easily explain.

"The night we trapped the Reverse Flash, you almost died. There were two of you." Cisco states trying to figure out how he did that and Thawne starts speeding back and forth and creates a double of himself.

"It's an after-image, a speed mirage, if optic will." He explains to Cisco as the second him vanishes.

"Joe was right." Cisco states holding his head to hold in this confusion as Wells starts closing down everything he found.

"You were there that night in Barry's house, you killed his mother." Cisco tells Wells seeing him take Peter's computer.

"It was never my intention to kill Nora. I was there to kill Barry." Wells admits to Cisco. "Why? You're his friend you've been teaching him." Cisco states trying to understand.

"To go faster, I know. A means to an end." Wells tells Cisco. "Because I have been stuck here, marooned in this place for 15 years too long. And the Flash, the Flash's speed is the key to my returning to my world. To my time. And no one is going to prevent that from happening." He promises and Cisco needs to know something.

"Was Peter supposed to die?" Cisco asks, if he's from the future he should know.

"Ah, Peter Parker. In all fairness, Peter shouldn't have even been in the city. In my timeline, he lived in New York with some Mary Jane Watson girl, and his children, grandchildren and so on are a nuisance to me. But I guess I brought a new hero to Central City to help the Flash. In all fairness, Peter turned out to be better than history books state, but once he learned my secret, he needed to go. And he took care of that himself." Wells states and that shocks Cisco.

"I can help you." Cisco offers not wanting anymore people to die like Peter. "You're smart, Cisco." Wells says and starts vibrating his hand. "But you're not that smart."

Cisco starts getting scared not wanting to go out like this, killed by someone he thought was a friend. "Do you know how hard it has been to keep all of this from you, Peter's senses, but especially from you? Because the truth is, I've grown quite fond of you." Wells admits to him as Cisco starts crying. "And In many ways, you have shown me what it's like to have a son." Wells tells him and stabs Cisco with his hand.

"Forgive me, but to me, you've been dead for centuries." Wells tells Cisco and he collaps to the floor dead.

-

"What do we do?" Iris asks as they look around th waterfront. "He'll find us." Barry tells Iris as they keep looking and they see a storm across the water.

"Iris, you need to get out of here, get as far away as possible." Barry tells her. "Iris, please."

"Listen to me, ever since the night you told me how you felt, I have not been able, to stop thinking about you." Iris confesses to him and Barry gets confused.

"At first, I was really mad, and then I realized the reason I couldn't stop thinking about you is because I didn't want to." She admits and Barry sees she loves him.

"I've never stopped thinking about you." Barry admits and pulls her into a kiss that gets interrupted by a tsunami wave that's approaching them.

Barry quickly calls Caitlin to get help.

"_Barry, I need to tell you something, dr. Wells, he's-"_

"Caitlin, there's no time right now, Okay? There's a tsunami heading for the city." Barry tells her. "How do I stop it?"

_"If you can create a vortex barrier along the coastline, a wall of wind, that will stop the wave." _Caitlin tells him.

"How fast?" Barry asks. "_I don't know if you can run that fast." _Caitlin admits and Barry hangs up and looks back to Iris.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want you finding out this way." Barry tells her and changes into the Flash. "Go!" He tells her again and starts running.

As he's running, the tsunami wave approaches the city and Barry is running faster than he's ever run before and wishes there was a way to restart the past few days. Peter's death, Joe's abduction, the city in danger. As he keeps running the wave keeps approaching and Barry reaches maximum speed he has ever run and it's stopping the wave but it's more speed than he can take and he sees a blue hole opening up in the street and he runs into it.

-

Barry exits the hole and sees its Central City at night and he looks to his left and sees flash running up next to him and he sees that version of him disappeared as he comes to a stop.

Barry quickly stops to try to find that lookalike again and sees nothing around. But he hears two dogs barking at each other, a guy twirling a sign and a woman shouting for a taxi. Barry realizes that he's back to the night that started everything and is completely confused.

"Oh, boy." He states seeing something's wrong and leaves him with one unanswered question. _W__hat the hell just __happened?_

—————————————————————————


	15. Do over

Barry is completely confused seeing that it's almost like he did get a reset of the past few days. He just looks around seeing the exact same things are happening as just a few days ago and is trying to figure out what happened.

"_Hey, what's going on_?" Cisco's voice asks Barry and snaps him out of his thoughts. "_What happened? Why'd you stop? Peter's waiting for you." _Cisco informs him.

"I just got a little disoriented." Barry informs him and realizes what he just said. "_Well, you better hurry, Peter said he saw something you need to see._" Cisco tells him and Barry's confused. "Peter? What do you mean?" Barry asks trying to understand since Peter's dead.

"_Yeah, man you better check this out, I'm at the morgue._" Peters voice fills his coms and Barry is shocked he's alive.

"The morgue? I was there yesterday." Barry tells him. "_What are you talking about? Dude, just get there." _Cisco tells him and he does.

-

Later, Barry is back with the police and is getting a serious case of dejavu déjà vu today. Barry walks in and sees the coroner dead again.

"Hey, Barr, what's with all the water?" Joe asks him again and looks to the sprinklers. "Did the sprinklers go off?" He asks.

"No...I checked the sprinklers. They're all intact. And the ice in the floor and the bruises on the coroner aren't just on his face." Barry says and removes his shirt to see the bruises.

"How'd you know about that?" Joe asks him and Barry doesn't know how to answer that himself. "He was killed by hail." Barry tells him not answering his question. "We have to listen to the recording." Barry tells Joe and he's confused.

"Recording?" Joe asks when Eddie approaches with said recording. "The coroner's office just installed an automated dictation system." He plays the same message and Barry is getting completely freaked out by what's happening.

"It's Mark Mardon." Barry tells Joe. "He wants revenge of what happened to his brother." He explains to Joe.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Peter and Cisco were just arriving. "And I seriously don't wanna go, man." Cisco states since they were having a conversation about his family get together.

"Come on, man. He's your brother, right?" Peter states, "I mean, I was born with no brothers or sisters, I would kill to have a sibling." Peter replies to Cisco.

"Trust me, everyone says that because they don't have siblings." Cisco tells him. "How bad can one birthday party be, bud?" Peter questions.

"My folks think Dante's stink don't stink. Doesn't matter if he screws up, or how many times he gets into trouble. In there eyes, he can do no wrong. Basically how you and May see each other. But in my family, they never fail to remind me that I can do no right." Cisco explains to Peter and he sees he's right about he and May.

"What if me and Caitlin went with you?" Peter offers to him.

"Oh, now turn my dilemma into a chance to ask Caitlin out?" Cisco asks, causing Peter to spit out his drink.

"What?!" Peter asks completely confused.

"Forget it, I'm messing with you. You seriously up to it?" Cisco admits to him.

"Sure, how bad could could it be?" Peter asks and decides to get payback for that earlier comment. "Besides, It gives me a chance to see little Cisco before hair." Peter mocks his friend and he doesn't like it.

"I'm rescinding your invite. But I will still take Caitlin." Cisco tells him and Peter knows he's kidding.

They make it to the cortex and get filled in on what's happening. "So while I was in Starlight City, the city was almost destroyed by a man who could control the weather?" Peter asks them only now being told about this. "It's nice to know this, now!"

"So Clyde Mardon had a brother?" Caitlin asks Barry.

"And both brothers survived the plane crash, and then the dark matter released when the particle accelerator exploded affected them" Wells says and Barry joins in "both the same way." Wells and Barry say at once. "That's right." Wells tells Barry.

"Only Mark's powers seem to be a lot more precise." Barry says. "He can do things you couldn't imagine." He tells them

"You mean he's some sorta..." Cisco was saying when Barry interjects again. "Weather Wizard." Barry says and Cisco agrees and takes a drink from his slushee and gets a brain freeze.

"Trigeminal headache?" Caitlin and Barry ask him.

"What?" Peter asks not understanding them. "You are starting to creep me out today." Peter tells Barry and Wells thinks of something.

"Mr. Allen, a word please." Wells asks Barry and they leave the room.

"You ruptured the time continuum, didn't you?" Wells asks Barry. "You're experiencing temporal reversion. How long?" He asks him.

"A day, and some change. It's like I'm living it all over again." Barry tells him. "That's good, that means there's not too much you could've messed up yet. How did it happen?" Wells asks him.

"I don't know, I mean, I was running faster than I've ever ran, and the first time I lived this day so,s horrible things are going to happen." Barry tries warning remembering Peter's going to die, Joe getting kidnapped, everything he can stop now.

"No. Don't tell me." Wells warns Barry.

"I do not want to know anything about the future you experienced, nothing. Time is an extremely fragile construct. Any deviation no matter how small, could result in a cataclysm. Now here's what you're going to do." Wells tells him coming up with a plan not wanting Time Wraiths to be coming after either of them. "Everything you did before. Every word you uttered, every step you took, you're going to do again. And you're not going to tell anyone this happed." Wells warns him to prevent changes in the timeline. Barry doesn't know if he can keep that promise knowing what's yet to come.

-

Wells goes into the time vault and talks to Gideon. "Gidion, show me the future." Wells tells her and he sees that the future hasn't changed at all.

"If anything changes, alert me immediately." He tells her hoping nothing changes.

-

Barry makes it to the prescient and sees no hole in the wall, no Spider-Man memorial, no sad faces, even the city seems to be light up again with Spider-Man not dead and Barry plans on doing something to preventing it from happening. No matter what Wells said, he knows it can't be worse.

"Hey." Joe greets seeing Barry. "What's going on with you? How'd you figure that stuff out at the morgue?" Joe asks Barry not understanding how he knew everything and Barry can't tell him he time traveled.

"Lucky guesses, I guess." Barry answers going with the most logical answer.

"Look, I promise you, I'm gonna get Mardon if it kills me." Joe states and Barry knows he's telling the truth and Barry wishes he could warn him, but gets a better idea.

"I gotta run an errand." He tells Joe and walks off leaving Joe confused.

Barry runs, in his suit, to the building where Joe was taken from and searched every room until he finds Mardon. "I didn't know there was anyone else like me." Mardon states seeing Flash.

Barry gets angry seeing the man who is responsible for Peter's death, Joe's kidnapping, and many more deaths. He quickly grabs Mardon and speeds him all the way to the pipeline.

-

"I'm gonna break out of here!" Mardon promises the team. "I'm gonna create a tidal wave that destroys your entire city!" Mardon keeps promises as Peter closes the pipeline.

"I'm still confused, how did you know where to find him, man?" Peter asks Barry not seeing how he knew where to find Mardon.

"I just had a hunch." Barry tells him happy to know Peter's future is now safe with Mardon out of the picture.

"Okay, but why didn't you call for backup just in case?" Peter wonders and Barry can't tell him about Mardon killing him.

"I just thought I could handle him myself." Barry states, hoping he buys it.

"That's gotta be some kind of record." Caitlin states to him.

"Well, there goes my excuse for bailing in my brother's birthday." Cisco states to them. "We're still going with you, man." Peter promises and Caitlin agrees and they leave Barry and Wells.

"Do you have any idea what you've just done?" Wells asks Barry hoping this doesn't change anything drastically.

"Yeah, I do." Barry replies and walks up closer to Wells. "I just saved a lot of lives." He states remembering Wells doesn't wanna know what happens.

"I warned you not to mess with the timeline." Wells sates to him.

"Dr. Wells, if you would let me tell you what was going to happen, you'd understand why I did what I did." Barry states knowing he couldn't live with himself if he actually allowed Peter to die this time around if he could've prevent it.

"Whatever tragedy you think you've just averted, time will find a way to replace it. Trust me, Barry, the next one could be much worse." Wells warns Barry and he doesn't see how it could've possibly gotten worse than everything.

-

Peter, Cisco and Caitlin make it to Cisco's brothers party and see his parents went all out, especially with the cake. "That cake could feed me for about a whole twenty four hours." Peter comments, them knowing about his fast metabolism.

"Well, it's Dante's birthday. The most important day of the year." Cisco comments and Peter looks around the house this being the first time he's seen Cisco's childhood home.

"_Mi hijo_ was invited to play Carnegie Hall when he was just 13 years old." A woman says.

"They invited the entire band, mama." A male voice replies and Peter realizes that's Cisco's Mom and brother.

"That doesn't make it any less worthwhile." She replies to him and they see them.

"Hey, what's up, man?" Dante asks Cisco walking towards them. "Glad you could make it. Hi, I'm Dante." He greets Peter and Caitlin.

"These are my friends, Peter Parker and Caitlin Snow." Cisco introduces them and they shake his hand.

"Happy birthday, Dante." Caitlin congratulates and Cisco hands him a present and he leaves them.

"That was most awkward position I've been in." Peter comments.

While they're here, Barry was at S.T.A.R. Labs trying to go as fast as he was that day but isn't able to.

Dante offered playing the piano to the party and even Peter admits, it was impressive.

"Well, here is one who was touched by god." Cisco's mother comments on her son.

"Okay, I see your point." Peter says remembering what Cisco said that morning.

"I was a little rusty, I haven't played piano In a while." Dante tells the group of friends.

"If that was rusty, I'd like to speak to Mozart." Peter quips.

"I wonder how you sound when you actually practice." Caitlin replies.

"For you, I'd practice morning, noon and night." Dante comments getting creeped looks from Peter not liking that and Cisco laughs.

"That means you'd actually have to get up in the morning." Cisco comments on his brothers statement.

"So mom says you stil work at S.T.A.R. Labs, huh?" Dante asks Cisco. "Guess it must've been hard to find another job, huh?" He questions him while Peter and Caitlin feel like a 3rd and 4th wheel in a argument.

"Oh, I wasn't looking. I actually like working at S.T.A.R. Labs." Cisco informs his brother.

"And we couldn't do what we do without Cisco." Caitlin tells Dante.

"Clarifying, I actually work at Mercury labs, not S.T.A.R." Peter tells Dante.

"Oh, he's loyal." Dante states. "Just like a dog." That comment was getting angry looks from Cisco.

"Come on, why so serious, _mi hija_?" Dante asks him not seeing an insult in that and cisco storms off.

"Very uncomfortable." Peter says and they chase after Cisco leaving Dante.

-

Peter decides Cisco needs to get a drink and knows Caitlin can't go another repeat of what happened last time and Peter promises to keep her from taking too much. Peter was sitting on the left with Cisco in the middle and Caitlin at the right side of them.

"Thanks for being here even you can't get drunk." Cisco thanks Peter happy to have a friend like him.

"Come on, man. You know how I'm always there for you. Oh, you hear Barry broke up with Linda?" Peter asks them and they're surprised to hear that.

"Really? I thought things were going well with them." Caitlin comments about being the first time hearing that.

"What can I say? The guys crazy. If I got a girlfriend, I'd suspect that the apocalypse was approaching." Peter states again thinking of how he can't even get girls to look at him except for people he's friends with already.

"Hi." A fourth voice says and they turn to see a beautiful blonde woman looking at the guys. "I don't normally do this, but I was watching you, and...can I buy you a drink?" She asks them and Peter points at Cisco and Cisco points at Peter since neither of them know what to do since this is the first time they were approached by a girl.

"The long haired one." She explains and Peter and Caitlin look to Cisco. "Uh, I'm..I'm sorry, you're saying you were talking to me?" Cisco clarifies, again being the first time this happened.

"Yeah, I just told my friends over there I thought you were cute and they dared me to come over here and talk to you, so.." she explains to him, "please talk to me." She begs him and Peter moves to the other side of the counter to let her and Cisco sit next to each other.

"Yeah. Yeah, I suppose I can talk to you for a little bit." Cisco agrees and Peter leans in close to his friend.

"Take as long as you need, me and Cait will make like a tree and leave. Make the nerds proud." Peter whispers to him and grabs Caitlin. "Let's get you away from the drinks." Peter tells her and Caitlin gets the hint and they leave.

"I'm Lisa by the way." She introduces herself. Cisco introduces himself to he to get it out of the way.

"I'm just in town for this symposium at Mercury labs." Lisa expains to Cisco and he's surprised. "Really? What do you do?" Cisco wonders.

"I'm a structural engineer." She explains to Cisco and he's surprised.

"Why do you look so surprised? Can't a girl be an engineer?" She wonders and Cisco apologies. "You just don't look like an engineer." He explains to her.

"I can't help how I look." Lisa states. "I mean, it's good. It's a great look." Cisco tells her. "You don't look so bad yourself." She says to him.

"Am I being pranked right now?" Cisco wonders since things are going to well for him with her and she just leans in and kisses him.

"What do you think?" She asks him and Cisco just looks in shock at his luck and quickly looks to see Peter and Caitlin just talking to each other on the other side of the bar.

-

Cisco and Lisa leave the bar laughing. "I can't believe this." Cisco states having a great time. "The day started out pretty terrible, but now it's turning out pretty damn good." He states happier than he has been in a long time.

He looks to see two motorcycles and realizes something isn't shaping up and turns to see Lisa was wearing a wig and reveals her brown hair and lights turn on behind him.

Cisco now regrets leaving Peter and Caitlin as he sees Leonard Snart. "Hello, Cisco." Snart says menacingly. "What exactly are your intentions with my sister?" Snart wonders.

Inside, Peter and Caitlin were having a great time when Peter's senses start going off sensing something's wrong and looks up to see a familiar figure.

"Cait, I need you to run." Peter tells her and tries fighting the man without showing his powers and the fight was short lived due to Peter not having that much strength on his own.

"On, come on." Cisco states about the sister deal. "I should've known better, I'm not that lucky, Peter has a better shot than me." Cisco admits and starts getting scared.

"Please don't kill me for kissing your sister." Cisco begs Snart. "You kissed him?" Snart asks Lisa.

"You're not dad, Lenny." Lisa tells her brother. "I know, dad's in jail. Sterling role model." Snart replies to her agreeing he's not their psychotic father.

"What do you want, Snart?" Cisco questions not understanding why they lured him away from his friends.

"Guns." Snart explains to the engineer. "Heat and cold, to be precise." He states and Cisco realizes he wants his weapons back.

"There's no way I am making weapons for you." Cisco warns Snart hoping Peter knows what's happening.

"Mick." Snart calls and Cisco turns to see Mick dragging a rope bonded Peter.

"I know I would do everything in my power to protect a friend." Snart tells Cisco as he starts fearing for his friend. "The question is, will you?" He asks Cisco and his choices is either to let them do what they want to his friend, or build weapons to harm people.

-

At their hideout, Cisco is working on making the weapons while Peter is handcuffed to the chair. He could break out easil, but he doesn't want Snart to learn about Spider-Man.

"I hope Caitlin finds Barry quickly and I can't believe I didn't see him coming." Peter states to Cisco trying his best to find a easily explanation way of escaping the ropes that Snart won't question how he escaped.

"Yeah, Well, all we can do right now is keep them happy and us alive." Cisco comments as Mick and Snart return.

"Ah, there she is." Mick states seeing his gun in working order. "I missed this baby." He says and holds the gun up aiming at Peter's face while he moves just to be on the safe side of Mick wanting to fire at him.

"All finished. You gonna let us go now?" Cisco asks Snart as he grabs his cold gun.

"You know, I took the first gun you made me apart dozens of times." Snart informs the two of them. "Learned how it ticked. What went where." He states and saw through Cisco's trap and takes off the tamper.

"Thought you could tamper with the firing pin without me noticing. Nice try, kid." Snart states and powers up the gun.

"Bad memories resurfacing." Peter says hearing the gun whirring to power.

"Lenny?" Snart's sister calls. "Where's my gun?" She questions and they don't like the sound of that. "Girl's gotta defend herself. Besides, why should you two have all the fun?"

"My sister needs a weapon." Snart tells Cisco agreeing with her. "Something that suits her personality."

"Make me something pretty and toxic, like me. How about something with gold?" Lisa questions and they completely don't like the sound of that.

"Next time a pretty girl walks up to us in a bar, Cisco. Ask for their full name." Peter advises his friend hating being the victim this time around.

-

Caitlin makes it to S.T.A.R. Labs and finds Wells in the cortex. "Where's Barry?" She asks the man.

"He just left, we heard Snart was back, what's going on?" Wells questions seeing her freaking out. "That's why I'm here. Snart kidnapped Peter and Cisco." Caitlin informs Wells and they see a big problem and Wells suspects Barry's messing with the timeline has something to do with it.

-

Barry makes it to the crime family casino and sees Snart and Mick and Lisa with her new gun and a man made entirely out of gold in the center of it all.

He quickly gets everyone out and leaves the three of them and comes back to them. "How many times are we gonna go through this, Snart?" Barry questions this being their third encounter.

"Until the best man wins!" Snart answers and tries shooting Barry and he grabs Lisa and holds her gun to her head. "Drop the gun!" Barry tells him and Snart lets the gun down and raises his hands.

"We both know you're not going to do anything to her." Snart states and Barry knows he's right. "Oh, by the way, meet my baby sister. Lisa, Flash. Flash, Lisa." Snart introduces them to each other.

"Cisco has been very, very busy." Snart informs Barry and he's surprised to hear he's captured. "And Peter, is it? His hands are a little tied at the moment. And unless you want me to mail small, frozen pieces of them back to their families, I'd take your hands off her." Snart warns Barry and he does so to keep his friends safe.

"Let them go, Snart." Barry commands him knowing he's a man of his word and when Snart said something he won't go back on it.

"I'll think about it." Snart replies and leave with Lisa and Mick.

Later Barry tells Joe that Snart kidnapped the two of them, followed by a punch from Eddie and a warning to stay away from Iris. Earlier that day, Barry confronted Iris about if she had feelings for him and she must've told Eddie about it for him to have learned about it.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry has an ice pack over the place where Eddie hit him while Wells reviews the footage of Peter and Cisco getting kidnapped. "There's Cisco getting into a car with Snart's sister, Peter being dragged by Mick." Wells comments and sees the license plate is iced over so they can't track the car itself. Barry just slams his fist against the table in anger of how things are just as bad as it was in the original timeline.

"All right, Wells, you were right. I screwed with time and now time is screwing with me." Barry says seriously hating himself today. "Cold is back, he kidnapped Cisco and Peter, and Iris is..." he goes on but gets interrupted by Wells warning.

"Stop right there before you cause another disruption to the timeline." Wells warns him.

"Please, dr. Wells." Barry starts begging needing to talk to someone about this and he decides to listen. "In the previous version of today, Peter gets killed protecting Joe from Mardon, the city comes to a standstill after his death, Joe is in danger, and before his death, Peter and Caitlin admitted they had feelings towards each other, and Iris said she had feelings for me." Barry lists a small number of things that happened from the past day.

"And now Cisco and Peter's lives are on the line, and Iris has no idea she confessed those feelings." Wells states to Barry.

"But she still has them, right?" Barry questions hoping she does.

"The unconscious mind, Barry, it's a powerful thing." Wells informs him. "It sounds like it took this apparent disaster to jar those feelings loose from both you and Iris, Parker and Snow. So without that disaster, those feelings remain deeper down. Unaccessed." Wells informs Barry and he's confused.

"I thought I was helping people by stopping Mardon." Barry states now regretting that this is happening. He brought his friend back to life only for him to be in unspeakable danger right now.

"Yes, But this new ability of yours, it's dangerous. You only traveled back a day. What if you accidentally traveled back decades?" Wells asks questioning if he sees that time travel has consequences.

"But I will have the opportunity to travel back in time in the near future and save my Mom. Or...you're saying I shouldn't?" Barry asks seeing what he means.

"I'm saying, how many more people can die if your mother lives?" Wells asks and Barry never took it into consideration. Going back before even Peter was bitten by the spider, he could erase Peter's powers, he could erase Spider-Man, Caitlin, Cisco, and even more.

Caitlin comes running in hoping for some good news. "Did you guys find Peter and Cisco?" She asks them and Barry wonders how he missed how Peter and her have feelings towards each other since it seems so obvious by how much she cares for his safety.

-

"Most people think the hottest part of the flame is the white part." Mick says to Peter and Cisco while looking at three flaming drinks. "They're wrong." Mick tells them.

"How long has he been staring at those?" Cisco wonders since he lost track of time.

"About half an hour." Peter replies to him still trying to get free and not get Snart's attention while Mick drinks the three cups.

"Remember that talk we had about me liking to have siblings?" Peter asks Cisco.

"Yeah, why?" Cisco wonders why he would bring that up again.

"I'm glad to be a single child again." Peter states seeing what siblings did to Lisa, Cisco, Mardon while Snart walks back in.

"Oh, I don't know, they have their quirks but they'd still be family." Snart says replying about his comment of being a single child.

"I like you, kids. You're both smart, pulled yourself up from humble beginnings. You both would fool me being brothers." Snart tells the two of them and they can't tell if he was threatening them or complimenting them. "Cisco, you answer one question for me, I'll let you and your fake brother here walk." Snart promises and Peter has a bad feeling about that one question.

"The Flash, Spider-Man. Who are they?" Snart asks Cisco and Peter was right about not liking the question.

"I swear...they always wear a mask." Cisco tried lying and Snart turns the cold gun on Peter and uses it on his hands. Peter screams in agony of the cold pain while Cisco begs him to stop.

"That is first degree frost bite. He can recover with proper treatment. If not, all his tendons, blood vessels, and nerves will freeze. His fingers will need to be amputated." Snart tells them and wonders something from the casino.

"And I have a feeling Spider-Man is going to need those fingers to climb walls, super strength and more." He states and see their surprised faces and see he was right. "I saw no Spider-Man helping the Flash when I was at the casino. So I had to figure he was either out of commission until I remember Mick said you gave him a fight in the bar. So I'm guessing one of you know Flash's identity, now one of you are going to tell me who is he?" Snart explains and asks agian.

Peter isn't talking through the immersion pain he's receiving from the frostbite and Cisco doesn't know if he should say or not.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs they're searching for their friends and aren't getting anything. "There is nothing appearing on the satellites." Caitlin states I gotta worried for her friends.

"You were right. This is seriously my fault." Barry states to Wells and Caitlin gets confused on what he means.

"We'll get Cisco and Peter back safely, Barry." Wells promises when they look and see Cisco and Peter back and Peter has his hands are covered while holding a hot cup.

"My god, Peter, what happened?" Caitlin asks seeing his hands covered and runs to check on her friends.

"Snart. He froze his hands." Cisco tells her and Caitlin quickly drags him to the medical room to treat it and prevent further damage.

"How did the two of you escape?" Wells wonders knowing Peter wouldn't risk Snart knowing his identity.

"He let us go." Cisco informs them and is mad at himself for what he did. "He...first froze Peter's hands, learned he was Spider-Man, he threatened to let Peter die unless..." Cisco stops and is seriously scared of how his friends will react to what he did, "if I didn't tell him who the Flash really is." He explains and they're shocked now Snart knows both of their identities.

"They could've killed me, Peter was in immense pain, I couldn't let them do it." Cisco tries explaining and Barry understands why he did what he did.

"I put you in that position, both of you." Barry tells them and forgives the two of them. "I'm the one who should be sorry." He explains to them.

"How bad is he, Caitlin?" Barry asks regarding Peter hoping the frostbite isn't terrible. "It would seem that his speed healing is taking care of most of the problems, but if you keep your hands warm long enough, you will be okay." Caitlin promises Peter.

"Good. I don't want to explain to May why I have frostbite in summer." Peter jokes happy that his hands will be okay.

Barry watches the two of them smile at each other and wonders if there is a chance he could get them to admit their feelings again seeing they'd be perfect for each other.

-

Later array interrupts Snart from doing another heist and runs him away from the others without his mask. "Good to see you...Barry." Snart says and Barry just looks angry at the man who almost killed his friends. "We have to talk." Barry states to him. "I know Cisco told you who I am to protect Peter." Barry states to Snart.

Snart just removes his cold glasses. "Can't really blame the kin for giving you up. You or his brother-like friend? Come on, I put him in a tight spot. Same kind I've got you in right now." Snart claims and Barry is confused. "You can't exactly stop me now I know who you both are. How's Spidey's hands?" Snart mocks and that agitates Barry.

"I could speed you to my own private prison where you'll never see the light of day again." Barry promises him seeing no way he could tell someone his identity that way.

"You could, But then I won't be around to stop my own uplink that'll broadcast your identities to the world." Snart explains the tough spot he put Barry in now. Barry knows his identity is one thing, but Peter's is a completely different one. "So the million dollar question, what to do with me now, Allen?" Snart asks him.

"I won't let you keep stealing whatever you want, whenever you feel like it." Barry tells him. "It needs to end." He informs Snart.

"I can't do that." He informs Barry and he asks why. "It's the same reason you people run after guys like me, the adrenaline. The thrill of the chase." Snart explains to Barry and he explains how he just loves the game.

"Then go play this game of yours somewhere else and never step foot in Central City." Barry tells him seeing there's gotta be some way of keeping him from the people he cares about.

"Can't do that either, I love it here." Snart tells him and Barry starts walking towards him.

"You've seen what I can do, what Peter can do. You know the two of us can stop you. You want to keep pushing your luck, go for it. But from here on out, no one else dies. If you're as good as you say you are you don't need to kill to get what you want." Barry claims finding a middle ground. "And if you, or anybody in your rogues gallery goes near any of my friends or family, or Peter's family again, I don't care who you tell my identity to. I will put you away." Barry promises and Snart agrees to those terms...for now at least.

-

Later wells paid Iris' coworker a visit regarding the evidence about him hiding something and destroys the evidence, including killing Mason himself. Barry just comes back to S.T.A.R Labs after talking to Snart and sees everyone's gone except for Wells. "Where's Peter and Caitlin?" Barry wonders since Cisco left before he went to deal with Snart.

"Caitlin took Peter to her place to make sure his frostbite didn't get worse." Wells explains to him and Barry wonders if it was the right decision what he did.

"Do you think I made a mistake letting Snart go?" Barry questions Wells, wondering if it was the right decision. "I think you did what you felt was right in the moment. And really, Barry, that's the best any of us can hope for. Now, let's be thankful the timeline remains intact." Wells states happy nothing drastic has changed yet.

"Oh, I keep forgetting. I've been meaning to ask you. It's about Simon..." Barry stops when he looks and sees a report of how Mason Bridge is is missing and Barry is starting think Wells is hiding something. "Nothing, Sorry." He tells Wells and leaves to find Joe, not believing that in the first timeline, Caitlin might've been telling him about that before he traveled.

-

Barry makes it to the prescient to talk to Joe, still not believing the man he worshipped for years might the man who murdered his mother. "Barr, what's up? Why did you want to meet up here so late?" Joe questions not understanding why he asked to meet here. "I think that maybe you were right about dr. Wells." Barry explains to Joe. "Which part?" Joe asks.

"All of it." Barry tells him.

—————————————————————————


	16. Tricked ya!

———————————————————————————————

Barry puts together everything in the prescient about Wells in the past years. "All right, this is everything that we know about Harrison Wells, which is not a lot." Barry admits since it's only a few news reporters on him.

"Didn't you once read a whole book about him once?" Joe asks remembering him talking about it a while back. "Yeah, 600 pages, and the big takeaway is, he's enigmatic." Barry answers him.

"Your Mom was killed by a speedster. Wells' machine turned you into a speedster. That's too many coincidences for this old cop." Joe explains to Barry and he's staring to understand what he means.

"Do you wanted me to become the Flash?" Barry wonders and starts thinking the possibility that he made it so Peter became Spider-Man so he could help Barry become a better hero. Or maybe Peter was in on the plan from the beginning or brought in later. "Everything he's done since that night you got struck by lightning, bringing you to S.T.A.R. Labs, giving you the suit, training you, it's all been to keep you safe." Joe answers him trying to figure out what Wells endgame could be.

"And to make me faster. Wells once said he needed more speed from me. Why?" Barry questions also trying to figure out his endgame himself. "I don't know, but he wants something from you, Barry." Joe states as a fact knowing he wants something and he's been patient enough to wait over ten years for it. "We just need to figure out what it is."

"Joe, you had your suspicions about Wells from the very beginning. You thought he might be the man in yellow." Barry states to him. "Except the blood from your house didn't match him." Joe claims to Barry.

"All right, so maybe he's not the Reverse Flash, but you think he knows what happened that night. He may have the key to getting my dad out of prison." Barry replies wanting to get his dad free.

"Whatever Wells wants from you, it started 15 years ago. He's been patient." Joe says seeing there's something big at play here. Whatever it might be. "We have to be just as patient."

-

Peter was just walking through the park enjoying the day for once and sees a bunch of children playing in a park, when his senses go off and he looks up to see presents come flying in from a skyscraper.

They get everyone's attention and they look amazed and Peter gets confused but steps forward to get a closer look when one of them hits a tricycle and it explodes causing the tricycle to go up in flames. Everyone starts panicking and runs for cover from them and Peter indistinguishably uses his web shooters to stop as many from hitting the ground hoping Barry can get here.

"Henry?" Someone calls and Peter sees a father looking for his son and Peter sees the kid reaching for a present. Before anyone could do anything, Barry comes speeding in and moves the child.

"Henry!" The father yells happy to see his son's okay. "Henry? Nice name." Barry says and sees Peter standing close and speeds them both to S.T.A.R Labs to see what happened.

-

Once there, they find a video has been broadcasted. "_Tricked ya._" The man with some strange double diamond mask covering his eyes with some really stupid looking outfit with spikes on his shoulders. "_Look who's back. My tricks. My treats. But I'll give you something good to eat. Today's special. A city in ashes. The Trickster proudly welcomes you all to the new disorder._" He tells everyone watching menacingly.

"Talking in the third person. That's never a good sign." Cisco states watching the footage.

"You're just mad because he named himself." Caitlin replies regarding his comment.

"Actually, he didn't." Joe informs them. "Twenty years ago, Central City was hit by a series of terrorist attacks. One man killed at least ten civilians, two cops. That guy called himself the Trickster." He explains and Cisco pulls up the file on him and gets a picture of the guy and he looks crazier than the new Trickster.

"Someone was rocking the unitard back in his day." Peter comments seeing the picture.

"James Jesse?" Caitlin questions seeing his name. "Like Jesse James, but twisted." Joe explains to her.

"Where is mr. Jesse now?" Wells asks Joe wondering where he could be. "He's serving several life sentences at Iron Heights." Joe answers since there was nowhere else to take him. "He was just about the most dangerous thing Central City has ever seen." Joe states to them.

"Dr. Octopus, mr. Negative, Scorpion, Rhino, Vulture, Electro, I'm just naming the guys on top of my head." Peter claims since Trickster is probably one if the top ten villains as of this point.

"And that was before the particle accelerator exploded." Barry also states and that puts some bad ideas in Peter's head of those said criminals could have gained with the explosion.

"Barry and I will go to Iron Heights to see James Jesse, see if we can get something from him to get about his groupie." Joe tells them.

"I'll analyzing the video and see if I can figure out the source." Cisco promises them and Peter decides to go on parole in case this Trickster ll wants to make another appearance.

"Hey, Joe." Wells calls out to the man. "Barry alright? He seems cranky." Wells questions seeing Barry. "Even the Flash wakes up on the wrong side of the bed some days. He's fine." Joe answers and Wells doesn't believe that.

-

The two of them make it to Iron Heights and are in a separate part of the prison. "Never seen this part of the prison before." Barry states being in a exclusive part of the prison for psychopath criminals.

"Yeah, has to have this cell specially built for James Jesse five years ago. Ever since then, it's been being filled up by Spider-Man's enemies." The warden explains to Barry.

"Why's That?" Joe questions seeing why not lock them in the same parts of the prison. "A criminal psychologist set up weekly visits with multiple of these people. James and Octavius talked the shrink into committing suicide." Warden tells them and that surprises them, and the warden hands them some candy for Jesse.

They are allowed into the room and see Jesse behind a glass window. His hair looks like it hasn't been combed properly and his prison outfit is worn out from usage. "Gentlemen. Please, be seated." Jesse asks them and they take the seats in front of him. "I'm detective Joe West. This is Barry Allen." Joe introduces them to him already wanting to get as far away from this crazy as soon as possible getting some strange vibes off of him. "We'd like to ask you a few questions."

"I can smell them in your pocket." Jesse tells Barry regarding the twizzlers the warden gave him. Barry walks up to the hole in the window to send things through the window to him.

"Yesterday, hundreds of these parachutes bombs were released throughout Central City." Barry informs him and sends them through. "Fun idea but not an effective delivery system." Jesse states jokingly. "How many died?" Jesse wonders with a whacky crazy smile appearing on his face.

"None, luckily." Joe states to the crazed maniac. "You know, when I was free and at my height, a day without casualties was like...well, like the Cubs winning the pennant. It never happened." Jesse states while laughing at his own joke.

"The explosives they found in all the parachute bombs are the same explosive composition as the bombs you set of 20 years ago." Barry informs Jesse and sees the shock expression that suddenly comes to light. "That's impossible. I never told anyone that formula." Jesse states to Barry not understanding how anyone could've made the same formula as him.

"The signatures are an exact match." Barry tells him and he gets even more angry. "He called himself the Trickster tool, just like you." Joe continues on waiting to get some answers. "He is nothing like me, detective." Jesse claims to Joe hating the new Trickster trying to steal his fame.

"Do you know who he is?" Joe asks Jesse while he grabs the pictures Barry sent through for him to look at. "Oh, if I did, I would tell you, so you could find him, cut off his head, and throw it right in his face." Jesse exclaims to the police. "No, this is obviously the work of a rank amateur at best." He informs the two men. "A nerd pretender angling for my throne."

"I hear you." Joe agrees with the man hoping to get some more answers. "So help us catch him. Prove there's only one Trickster" Joe says ad Jesse sees through him. "Trying to Rick the Trickster, Joseph?" Jesse asks him while taking a twizzler. "There's only one what this could've possibly happened. Whoever he is, he must've found my lair. I ask only one thing, when you find the schtck stealer, this pathetic wannabe fake, make sure your safety's off." Jesse asks of them and starts laughing maniacally while eating the candy.

-

They make it to his hideout and calls in Peter to make sure nothing crazy gets to them. They get to a Prop Warehouse which is where Jesse's hideout is and Peter is seriously creeped out by the crazy things inside the place. "This place looks as if Joker and Jigsaw decoded into interior decorate together." Peter states picking up a strange doll head with a dud explosive inside

"This looks like nobody's been here since the '90s." Joe agrees while Barry looks at Trickster's original outfit. "Look at this thing. You really think Jesse doesn't know who this new Trickster is?" Barry asks Joe while Peter keeps searching.

"He seems pretty agitated that someone was besmirching his bad name." Joe states and they look to see a storage place inside and it's lock. "Peter, you think spider strength can break us in?" Barry asks his friend and Peter does as he asks and breaks the lock off.

"Let's see what skeletons Trickster kept in his closet." Peter jokes and realizes it could be actual skeletons inside. Joe opens the door and Peter senses something and Barry uses his speed to move them away from the door as it explodes off its hinges. "You Good?" Barry asks as Peter is already back up and looking inside the safe.

"We've got a problem, guys." Peter tells them and they look to see it's all empty. "Trickster number ll took everything." Peter states and now they're scared on what could've been hidden here.

-

They decide to pay Jesse another visit, this tie bringing along Peter in his suit since he also wants answers to what the heck just happened. "What, no candy fellas?" Jesse asks and gets a look at Spider-Man. "Oh, here's the man all my new friends constantly talk about." Jesse states since he and the others get talk sessions. All except for the Rhino for obvious reasons of course. "What's your name again? Ant-Man?" Jesse wonders trying to mess with Peter.

"Spider-Man, first off." Peter corrects Jesse. What kind of name is Ant-Man? "Second. That storage you sent these two officers to was booby trapped." Peter informs the manipulative maniac. "You can never be too careful with your private things." Jesse states chuckling.

"You were protecting nothing." Barry says to Jesse. "Your secret Stacy was empty."

"What do you mean?" Jesse now asks and they hear the confusion in his voice. "No firearms, no explosives, except the one attached to the door, or anything of the kind." Peter explains to him. "Whatever you had in there, it was stolen, all of it is gone."

"No. He's stealing my legacy!" Jesse exclaims seriously getting more agitated by the second of hearing all of this. "Whoever he is, you need to find him. I will not let this..."

"Trickster?" Joe asks finishing his sentence. "That is my name! Mine!" Jesse states to Joe screaming as lout as he could. "What was in there?" Peter questions him. "What was so dangerous that you locked it up?"

"A bomb. A really big bomb." He explains to them and they start getting worried by that statement. "How big we talking?" Barry asks Jesse.

"Bye-bye, Central City." Was Jesse's only responde and now they're completely scared when Barry's phone goes off and they found another video and plays it for Jesse.

"_Citizens of Central City, or those of you who remain, welcome to Boom Day._" Trickster exclaims while laughing. "_I'm very proud to report my first trick was an exploding success. But I think you all deserve something much, uh, bigger._" Trickster says and Jesse is now gone full anger.

"No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No, take off my mask, you fraud." Jesse tells the new Trickster while he rants about his next trick he's going to pull pretty soon. "Pretender. Sham. Take off my mask!" He shouts and the three men see he's seriously upset now seeing it himself.

-

They go back to S.T.A.R. Labs to review the footage for anything that could help them track him down and found nothing. "This was posted a few hours ago." Wells informs the team. "Whoever this Trickster is, he's certainly not shy."

"Well, not every criminal likes to hide in the dark." Barry states and nobody but Joe understands what he means by that. "Cisco, Peter, could either of you trace where that video came from?" Joe asks the computer group.

"We tried, But this guy is using some crazy Felicity-caliber scrambler like I've never seen." Cisco explains to Joe and Peter agrees. "Yeah, he's even tricking our tracking systems." Peter quips and goes back on subject. "The origin of the upload is coming from hundreds of different locations. Unless he uploads another video, it's gonna be tough to crack."

"This psychopath has the capability to destroy the city." Barry states and looks to Peter. "Can't your six sense tell us where it is?" He womders remembering how it worked in the past. "My spider sense is an early warning system. The only way I could do that is if he sets it off, then it wouldn't do us any good." Peter explains to the speedster.

"Hey, I said tough, not gonna be impossible." Cisco states to the heroes. "We'll catch him. We always do." Caitlin agrees with Cisco and Wells calls Barry out to have a talk with him alone.

After a while there was another video posted and they inform Barry since he seemed to have left. "_Get ready for the games to begin!_" Trickster tells the watchers of his video and shows a crate with a cartoonish bomb painted on the side. "_I have...a bomb._" Trickster states to them all. "_Its a big bomb, it'll make a Big Bang and then a big hole and then a big drop in the pop...ulation._" Trickster warns them and Peter just moans at that.

"We get it, it's a bomb, move on already." Peter tells the video knowing he can't hear him, but it hasn't stopped him before. "_But never say the Trickster isn't fair. The bomb is somewhere between 52nd street and Avenue B._" Trickster informs them and Peter thinks of something while watching the footage. "Something doesn't seem right." Peter informs his team while Barry is already searching everywhere between the streets searching for the bomb.

_"Guys, I can't find it. I need your help." _Barry tells them and Peter uses his computer to look over any clues in the video and sees were he's uploading from. "Oh my god." He states knowing it's a trick.

"A bomb that large should be giving off some kind of thermal or chemical signature." Cisco says while searching. "It's a trick." Wells and Peter say at the same time.

"The bombs not there, Barry." Peter informs him through the speaker.

_"No, it has to be, I'm gonna keep looking." _Barry replies to them.

"Barry, that's what he wants. All of us focusing on the bomb while he plans something bigger." Peter tries explaining but Barry isn't listening and is still looking.

"Why isn't he listening to us?" Peter asks and they look at him. "What did you happen to find, Peter?" Wells asks and Peter shows the footage on th monitors. "Look, those bars, I recognized this area from one of my fights against Scorpion, when he was trying to bust out Doc Ock from his cell. The Trickster is somewhere around Iron Heights." Peter explains when Barry's voice comes back.

-

_"_Guys, I found the bomb_."_ Barry tells them and walks up to the box and finds it empty with a message **tricked ya!**

At Iron Heights, Trickster blows up the cell holding James Jesse and they run with a hostage.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs they get told what just happened. "Peter's right, there was just an explosion at Iron Heights." Cisco states and they see Jesse is free and has Barry's father as a hostage.

"This day just got a whole lot worse." Peter exclaims not seeing how it couldn't get much worse, then regrets even thinking that as Jesse breaks out Otto Octavius and he escapes from the others. "Okay, that was my bad. I said it." He claims to the team now knowing he has to track down Octavius later.

-

Trickster and Jesse make it to their hideout and tied Henry to a chair so he doesn't try escaping. "You have to admit, that was one hell of a trick." Jesse states to Henry happy to see that it worked to trick the police and escape Iron Heights.

"I cannot believe we're finally in the same room, I mean, you're my hero." Trickster tells Jesse as they work on something for Flash. "You need a better role model, kid." Henry informs him from his chair. "Can't you see? He's just using you."

"Why did we bring him along?" Trickster wonders not seeing a reason for him. Jesse owed Otto for helping him escape so he understood why break him out, but not some other prisoner. "Because his son works for the CCPD." Jesse explains to the new kid. "Should we find ourselves in a jam, a cop's dad makes for a excellent bargaining chip."

"I wouldn't worry too much about what the cops might do to you. If the police aren't able to find you, trust me, the Flash or Spider-Man will." Henry promises knowing the heroes will be able to save him.

"Here's hoping." Was Jesse's reply knowing they will eventually show and is bringing something to stop them. "So what's next?" Trickster ll wonders. "In your last letter you said you had something in mind for when you got out." He reminds him.

"I've had 20 years to come up with the perfect trick. It's gonna be my masterpiece. My Mona Lisa. My _Breaking Bad _season five." Jesse tells them and confused to how he knows about that. "They gave me Cable in prison so I'd stop killing the guards." He explains to the other two.

"There's just one thing I've been dying to ask." Trickster states since he's been wondering this for a while. "Why did you choose me?" He questions.

"Because I knew you had the strength to fulfill my legacy. Besides, it was in your blood." Jesse tells him and puts a hand on his shoulder. "The real reason I tracked you down and groomed you to be the best you could possibly be, Axel...I am your father." He informs Trickster ll and the newly announced father and son start laughing maniacally together.

-

"We were able to finally identify the other Trickster." Joe tells the team at S.T.A.R. Labs. "Meet Axel Walker, age 25. Apparently him and James have been corresponding through snail mail over the past few years."

"I should've been there, I should've seen this coming. This had Otto written all over it." Peter exclaims regretting not checking on his sinister villains while he was at Iron Heights so he knew they weren't going anywhere.

"Peter, there's no way you could've predicted that Ock was behind this." Caitlin comforts Peter seeing that now with doc on the loose, he could become a threat later.

"I guess I should've listened to you." Barry states to Wells regretting not trusting him and leaves to think about what's occurred.

-

Later, Iris was at a campaign party for mayor Bellows and Axel/Jesse are also making an appearance to pull off their trick. "Good day, Central City's finest." Jesse states at the microphone on the stage. "How about a toast to mayor Anthony Bellows? He doesn't just yell at his staff, he bellows!" Jesse jokes causing everyone to laugh. "You see what I did there with the wordplay and the...tough crowd." He states to everyone.

"Excuse me. Who are you?" One of the security men ask Jesse. "How quickly they forget. James Jesse, your honor, aka the Trickster!" He reveals and everyone looks either confused never hearing him before or scared knowing who he is. "And I'm here torelieve you fine people, from all your money." Jesse informs them all and it's true as Axel takes out a machine gun. "Because we know if you're in this room, you've got loads of it."

"What makes you think anyone in this room would give you a cent?" One of the guests asks the Tricksters. "Because That champagne they just slurps down like so much fruit punch. I added a little something special into it. Trimethylmercury 32. Poison." Jesse informs the guests and they start getting scared.

"Without the antidote, you'll begin feeling the effects in about an hour." Jesse states and one of the guests starts foaming from the mouth. "I remember you. You got to the party about an hour early." Jesse realizes as he falls to the floor dead. "I offered you the first glass of champagne. An hour is plenty of time for all of time for all of you to call your bankers and transfer everything to the account on the bottom of your glass. Once my young friend and I are rich, you'll get the antidote. And if anyone were to call 911 instead, we switch to lead poisoning." Jesse explains to them and Iris starts calling her father.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs they're searching for Henry and the Tricksters when Joe's phone goes off and he answers it and puts it on speaker hearing Jesse. _"How many of you feel the Trimethyline 32 coursing through your veins?" _Jesse asks the people on the other end of the phone.

"That's Jesse." Barry realizes now Iris is in trouble. "Cisco, Can't you ping where her call is coming from?" Peter asks his friend and he does exactly that.

"Trimethylmercury 32 is a relatively fast acting poison." Caitlin informs the team. "Is there a cure?" Barry questions hoping there is. "Yes, I know how to make it." Peter informs them and they're confused to why he knows.

"I have a villain who uses poison in a mechanical tail, of course I'm gonna know some antidotes for said poisons." Peter explains after seeing their faces.

"Cisco, you got a location?" Joe asks as Cisco gets a ping on her phone. "She's at city hall." He tells them. "Barry, don't underestimate the Trickster." Wells warns him hoping he'll listen this time.

"Let's get there." Peter states ready to take them down after writing the formula for the antidote for the team to finish for him and Barry speeds them off to city hall.

-

At city hall, they speed in while Jesse tried some strange flirtation with Iris and Barry speeds him against the wall and Peter takes care of Trickster jr. "Where's Henry Allen?!" Barry asks the deranged serial killer. "He's where you'll be soon. Heaven!" Jesse tells him and watches a device to his wrist.

"Are you familiar with the movie _Speed_?" Jesse asks the Flash as the device starts blinking. "See, you're the bus, and that's the bomb. A kinetic bomb, and if you go below 600 miles per hour, it'll explode. Same things happen if you were to try removing it, a present from dr. Octavius." He explains and now Peter understands why Jesse broke him out seeing some psycho like him couldn't build something so complex to stop a speedster without scientific help. "Run, run, run!" Jesse warns Barry and he does just that.

As soon as Barry leaves, Peter webs Jesse's hand to the wall so he doesn't escape while hoping Barry finds a way to remove it.

-

Peter just waits for something to happen when Barry comes speedingback in and everyone feels a pinch on their arms and Barry joins the Tricksters and Peter on the stage holding a syringe.

"It's okay. You've all been given an antidote." Barry informs the guests who are relieved they'll be okay. "That wasn't very sanitary." Jesse informs Barry and that was sadly the most logical thing he's ever said so far. "Now where's Henry Allen?" Barry asks him again seeing Jesse istrapped.

"You're going to prison either way, James." Peter informs Jesse seeing he doesn't win no matter what.

-

Henry looks up to see a rope slowly cutting with a dozen knives in a box hanging above his head when Barry speeds in and gets him out of there while Peter waits for the authorities to take away the Tricksters. Henry laughs seeing he was right about the Flash and Barry decides to let him in on his secret and removes his mask.

"You always did look good in red." Henry states and Barry laughs as they hug happy to see they're both okay.

-

Barry brings his dad to S.T.A.R. Labs and he's amazed to see everything and Peter decides his father was trustworthy enough to let him know about his identity also. "Half of this stuff didn't even exist when I was practicing." Henry states seeing everything around.

"Yeah, Well, I'd be happy to give you a crash course on all of it if you get out." Cisco says and gets mixed responses from everyone about that comment. "I'm gonna shut up now." He informs everyone and Henry laughs.

"Dr. Allen?" Caitlin calls out to him. "I'm feeling the need to give you a hug." She states and Henry does so happy to accept. "I will always accept a hug." Henry states to her and they break apart and Henry approaches the heroes.

"Spider-Man. _The child who turned into a man_." Henry states remembering some of the newspapers of him. "Spectacular, amazing, superior, just call me Spidey. Or Peter, whichever one works for you." Peter says to the man and he chuckles.

"I see everyone's right about you talking a lot." Henry states and Peter just laughs while leaving the father and son to talk alone. "You gotta tell me. What does it feel like when you're running down the streets like a bat out of hell?" He wonders and Barry thinks of a answer. "There's no feeling like it." Barry tells him and Henry's okay with that answer. "Actually, you're all heroes in my book, especially you, dr. Wells. Thank you for everything that you've done for my son."

"Well, your son is an extraordinary man, dr. Allen, and I will do everything in my power to ensure Barry's future." Wells promises and Barry is thinking about what Wells was saying about when he was helping him phase to get the bomb off his wrist. It was almost like he was talking from experience.

-

Joe calls in Eddie to Barry's lab to talk about the death of Mason Bridge and Iris looking into it will get her killed by Wells. "It's about Iris. She's looking into Mason bridge's disappearance. We can't let that happen." Joe explains when Barry runs in and removes his mask and Eddie is shocked to see it's Barry.

"Eddie, we need your help." Joe states as his partners still shocked to see Barry.

——————————————————————————————-


	17. Atom

————————————————————————————————————

Barry got a call from Joe and grabs Peter to give them a hand after they found someone running around without pants on in the park. Barry runs them all into the car.

"Hello." Barry and Peter greet. "18th and Olive." Joe tells them and they understand when Joe see the third man. "Who's he?" He wonders.

"Indecent exposure. Powell Park." Peter explains and Joe sees what was exposed. "That ain't something you should be showing people." Joe states and the heroes agree.

Joe and Eddie are still chasing after the car they've been catching. "They're getting away, guys." Eddie states to the other three. "They're Not getting away." Barry states and Joe hands the hero's handcuffs. "Let's get these bozos up ahead of us first, and then we'll worry about the idiots at the Shiny Diamond." Joe explains the plan and the heroes have a better one.

"We're gonna need more room, though." Joe states seeing they'll need more space for all of the criminals. "We can take care of that." Barry states and speeds Peter close to the Shiny Diamond and speeds Joe out of the car and replaces him with the driver of the second car.

-

At the Shiny Diamond, Peter is webbing up the criminals as they're trying to shoot at him, but he's too fast for them. "Come on, guys, it's been a long day for me, let's keep this going." Peter quips while flipping around the room and kicks one of them to the ground and gets them all webbed down.

Before he knew it, more men come out to shoot him when Barry speeds in and gets rid of their guns. "You guys missing these?" Barry asks them as Eddie and Joe come in and arrest the criminals who are webbed up.

"So I'm just curious, have you guys not heard of us, or what?" Barry questions since he's been around for a while and Peter's been around for at least over a decade.

-

The next morning, the police get called into a strange case on someone attacked and killed in her car. "Victim's name is Lindsay Kang, engineering professor at Hudson University. Just got tenure." Eddie tells Joe as they approach Barry and the body.

"So, her whole body's covered in these puncture wounds you see on her face." Barry tells them and they see what look like she was injected over and over again.

"Whatever it was, she must have gone into anaphylaxis. The blood sample should tell us everything we need to know.9. Barry explains to them. "I'll run tests back at my lab."

"You could do it fast at S.T.A.R. Labs, couldn't you?" Joe wonders and he explains he doesn't want to be around Wells knowing he's the Reverse Flash.

"Barry, if he suspected anything." Joe tries explaining to him and he understands, but doesn't like keeping a secret from the others. "I just think that we should tell Cisco, Peter and Caitlin." Barry explains to Joe. "They could help us."

"The more people who know, the more chance Wells is gonna find out we're on to him. I mean, what if one of them slips up?" Joe replies and there is also the worse scenario. "Or what if...what if they've been working on his side all along?" Joe questions and Barry doesn't believe that at all. "No. Absolutely not. They're not involved in whatever he's planning." Barry states defending his friends. "I mean, Wells is their boss, their mentor. They've been with him longer than either of us. I've seen plenty of people make the wrong choice for loyalty. Please do not include them until we can be sure." Joe asks of him hoping they can prove they're not on Wells side.

-

"Death by apitoxin." Caitlin states as she analyzes what Barry found at the crime scene. "Honeybee Venom." Wells clarifies while Peter and Cisco shudder at that. "Bees. It just had to be bees." Peter stating for how much bees freak him out.

"Y'all, I don't do bees. Ain't nobody got time for bees." Cisco also comments hating bees just as much (possibly even more) as Peter. "But when a honeybee stings, the stingers are literally torn from their abdomen, and they die." Wells informs the team. "But there were no stingers in the body and no dead bees in the car." Barry states to them.

"A honeybee can only deposit .1 milligrams of apitoxin when it releases its stinger." Caitlin informs them.

0and yet, ms. Kang was found with enough venom in her system to kill a heard of elephants. It appears not only is a metahuman controlling these bees but also increasing their toxicity." Wells says.

"Bees communicate by releasing pheromones. Maybe this meta's controlling them through secretion?" Peter theorizes seriously happy he actually made his suit able to withstand bee stings, since he hated getting stung while he was on patrol over th he years.

"Anyone wanna join me in getting a beekeeper suit?" Cisco asks them seriously hating bees just that much. "I'm pretty sure I can outrun a bee." Barry states to Cisco when Peter's senses go off and turns to see Felicity Smoak in the doorway. "Just don't run into a lake." She informs them and they all just noticed her.

"Bees will wait for you to do,e up for air and then they'll sting you." Felicity shares to them what she knows about bees. "Discovery channel, turns out there's a lot to discover." She states.

"Felicity, what brings you back to Central City?" Peter wonders since she's supposed to be in Star City with team Arrow. "Can you guys come outside for a second?" She asks them and they decide to do so.

-

While they're outside, they're waiting for something to happen when they see something coming in from the sky. "Is that a bird?" Caitlin asks Felicity, not knowing what they're looking at. "Is it a plane?" Peter asks when the figure comes flying down and reveals a human figure wearing a iron suit.

"It's my boyfriend." Felicity explains as the man removes the mask and shows Ray Palmer of Palmer Technologies.

"Hi, I'm Ray." Ray says, introducing himself to the team.

-

Inside, Caitlin decides to check on Ray to make sure he didn't damage anything of his while flying in. "Well, my ears popped, so that's something." Ray states while Caitlin finishes her checkup.

"You're lucky you didn't break your neck." Caitlin states to him, not understanding why everyone's going into the superhero business all of a sudden. "What is it with billionaires being superheroes?" She questions and Peter looks away from Ray's suit with a questionable look since he's not a billionaire, but is still a hero, neither is Barry.

"So have you picked a name yet?" Cisco asks hoping he hasn't because he really wants to name something. It's starting to get a little strange with him and the naming everything.

"I'm kind of partial to the Atom." Ray replies to Cisco. "You maeried to that, or...?" Cisco asks and Peter likes the name. "Please, Cisco, you'd probably call it something like Iron Man, or Rescue, or War Machine, those are just names at the top of my head." Peter states to his friend.

"Your A.T.O.M. suit is quite the technological achievement m mr. Palmer." Wells comments on the suit. "I'm impressed."

"Well, thank you, But I can't quite seem to keep it up." Ray informs them and they don't completely understand him. "He means the suit." Felicity says running up to him.

"Yeah, I mean the suit." Ray agrees with her. "I can attest that everything else works just fine." Felicity states and they go rambling on about what does and doesn't work. "It's like Felicity met her male self." Peter tells Caitlin who agrees with him.

"I know from Felicity that you have been very helpful with Barry and Peter with the Flash and Spider-Man suits, and I was hoping to get another set of eyes on my problem." Ray explains and they agree to help out.

"Any friend of the Arrow's is is friend of ours." Wells states. "Hell, Yes." Both Peter and Cisco say wanting to see exactly how the Atom suit functions. "Wait, guys, we kind of have a lot going on right now." Barry interjected regarding the bee woman. "There's the metahuman killer that's controlling a swarm of bees?" Barry reminds them all.

"I'm sure Caitlin and I will provide ample support, Barry." Wells states to Barry to calm him down. "And I will gladly sit this one out." Cisco informs them wanting to study the Atom.

"I still wanna look that over myself. Could give me a few ideas for a improved Spider-Man suit." Peter replies thinking what he could do with repulsive blasts on his hands on a secondary iron version of his outfit.

-

Later they're told there was another bee attack and the two heroes race to find the victim dead in his chair. "We were too late." Peter states seeing the man.

"But where are the bees? They couldn't get out without at least one of us seeing it." Barry asks and Peter knows he's right when his senses go off and they watch dozens of swarms of bees leaving the man's mouth.

"Found them." Peter says and Barry tries speeding them out, but has no idea how. "Cisco, how do we get out of here?" Barry asks him. "_Take the northeast crossway._" Cisco informs them and Barry speeds them into a new swarm. "Guys, were surrounded here." Barry says when Peter shoots web grenades to block them from the swarm, giving them time to think. Peter looks to see they're surrounded by windows and has a escape plan. "I've got an idea." Peter informs his friend and smashes the glass with his strength and they get out before anything could happen and they see Joe outside.

-

They make it to S.T.A.R. Labs happy to have escaped the swarm. "You're both lucky to have escaped the swarm." Wells tells the heroes while they enter the labs.

"I was very specific that you don't die." Felicity informs Barry. "I didn't die, though." Barry replies to her. "Near death counts." She states to him.

"Cisco, what exactly happened?" Barry wonders since they were led into a bad hallway. "I'm sorry. I lead you the wrong way. The schematics that we had, they weren't up to date." Cisco explains to them and Peter understands. "It's just a good thing I refused in web grenades yesterday. I think dr. McGee is getting suspicious about what I'm doing with all of these supplies." Peter thinks out loud wondering if Tina could possibly know who Peter is.

"Good news is there is no trace of apitoxin in either of your bodies." Caitlin informs them both. "Terrific." Barry states and speeds off and back in a fancy suit. "Ray, Felicity. We're gonna be late for dinner." Barry tells them.

"Are you sure that's wise, Barry?" Wells wonders after what happened. "You just had a near death experience." Cisco states to them.

"Buddy, if I didn't do something every time I had a near death experience, I wouldn't be out of high school." Peter states to him and he sees what he means.

"I'm fine. I'm alive. Hungry. All right? Let's go." Barry tells they two and they leave. "That was weird." Peter states regarding his behavior to wanting to get out of S.T.A.R. Labs.

"Yeah. Why didn't we get invited to dinner?" Caitlin wonders and Peter sees she doesn't see what he saw.

Peter's senses then suddenly goes off and he sees there's a bee on Barry's suit. He acts quickly and webs it to the wall and moves towards it.

"Hello, nature's most scariest creature." Peter greets the creature and the others see it and place it in a container to see what makes these bees so special when Joe comes in.

"Hey, I've got some info on the second victim. Name's Bill Carlisle. He was recently hired at Folson Tech to beef up theirs robotics division." Joe tells them while handing the file to Cisco.

"Robotics you say?" Cisco asks making sure he heard him correctly and remembers that's the same as the fist victim.

"Did you say robots?" Peter asks from the labs. "Yeah, why?" Joe asks and joins them in the labs to see the bee being enhanced on the screens.

"Because our bees aren't real bees." Peter explains and they see it's a robot. "They're miniature robots." He states surprised, but all still terrified.

-

What they didn't know was that the bee was also a camera and was transmitting the footage to computer monitors in someone's own labs.

-

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, they called Barry, Ray, and Felicity back to show them what they found out. "This bot's got a 360-degree vision system, I mean, we're talking multiple micro-cameras all coming from various angles at the same time." Peter says while reading what the computers tell him after running some tests on the robot.

"Which means it can see all around the room at once." Ray states finishing Peter's though. "That's awesome." Ray and Cisco way at the same time.

"It's also next-gen hardware that's nowhere near the market." Wells states since nothing like this has been released publicly.

"Which means this isn't a metahuman, just another mad scientist." Peter realizes while thinking of Otto and what he would kill to bet his tentacles on teach like that.

"Detective, you said the second victim was a robotics engineer. Let's cross reference his previous employers with those of Lindsay Kang." Wells suggests and Felicity offers to do it for them. "Mama's been away from a keyboard for far too long." She explains and runs a search and finds a connection.

"They both worked for Mercury Labs." Peter states never seeing them so they must've been either after him or he just never met them before. "Let's call Joe, we gotta see my boss." Peter tells them and they agree.

-

Barry, Joe and Peter goes to Mercury labs to talk to Tina McGee. "Twice in one year, Harrison." Tina states seeing his return so soon. "You really Are vying for comeback scientist of the year."

"Always a Please, Christina." Wells replies to her as she reaches her desk. "What is it this time? Did you finally find our tachyon prototype or you here to blackmail me for another one?" Tina asks and Peter sees she's being sarcastic since they don't have another one. "Do you have another one?" Wells asks curiously.

"We came here for information." Joe explains to her. "Bill Carlisle and Lindsay Kang. Former employees who were recently murdered." Joe explains while handing her the case files. "My god, I wasn't aware." Tina exclaims to them.

"They were stung to death by robot bees, ma'am." Peter informs her and she knows who's behind it. "You're looking for Brie Larvan." Tina tells them happy to help.

"That roboticist who developed those small mechanical b es for agricultural use." Peter realizes since she once worked here and was kinda strange. Even for Peter's standards. "Kang and Carlisle warned me that Brie was weaponizing the bees for military use, so I terminated her." Tina tells them and if that was the case, she could be on her hit list next.

"You've got to let us keep you safe." Wells asks her and she doesn't believe him. "I'm all too familiar with your inability to protect things, Harrison." Tina informs him, remembering that was his promise to protect the tachyon prototype. "I can take care of myself." She informs them and they leave her office.

"Okay, She is most likely going to be targeted, we can't just leave her to be attacked." Joe states to the three of them and they come up with a plan. "Why don't I stay behind, if I see or senses anything, I'll call you. Besides, I work here." Peter offers and they see it's the best plan they could think of so far.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Caitlin and Felicity watch as Ray and Cisco are working on the Atom suit on the monitors. "It's so fun watching grown men play with toys." Felicity comments while continuing to watch them.

"You're so lucky. Ray is so nice and smart and hot." Caitlin states about Ray as they walk away from the computers. "Yeah, it's kind of like I'm dating Barry but in Oliver's body." Felicity says and realizes what she just said.

"A sentence you will never repeat to anyone." She begs Caitlin and she agrees not to. "So when peter was visiting Starlight City, were you two..?" Caitlin asks wondering if Peter and Felicity were dating.

"What? God, no. I only worked with Peter, he just wasn't exactly my type, except I think he might've turned into my type. Besides, he was actually dating Oliver's ex for a few weeks, Laural Lance." Felicity informs Caitlin and she's surprised Peter never mentioned her. While they were talking, they watch a stud bee starts moving on its own. "It seems to have reactivated, and if it's being controlled wirelessly, we can track its signal and figure out where it's trying to go." Felicity states and gets into the computers and tracks it to Mercury Labs.

"The swarm is going after Tina." Wells states and Caitlin is afraid for Peter now that it's an entire swarm coming at them.

-

Mercury Labs, Peter's senses start blazing again and he knows the bees are coming and takes off his clothes to reveal his suit. In Tina's office, she looks to see the swarm outside her window. "_Hello, dr. McGee._" Brie greets the doctor. "_You gonna open the window, or should I buzz myself in?_" She asks her when Peter comes walking in.

"Hey, I do the quips, missy." Peter states to the swarm ready to protect his boss.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs, they're trying to figure out what to do to stop the swarm. "She's got to be remotely piloting those bees from somewhere." Wells explains as Ray and Cisco join them in the cortex. "We need to stop this bug-eyed glasses woman." Cisco states to them.

"And her mini bandits." Ray replies and they both have the same idea. "Bug-eyes bandit." Ray and Cisco say naming the criminal.

"Got her, she's in an abandoned greenhouse." Felicity tells them getting her location. "Barry, you had to take out Brie." Wells states to the hero. "What about dr. McGee and Peter?" Barry asks them not wanting to leave his friend to die. "Peter will be fine. His suit was updated so if something from needles to bees tries stinging him, it'll send out an electric shock, stoping the bees. I can't say anything about McGee though." Caitlin states to them.

"Bees can't penetrate my suit, I'll fly by and help him." Ray offers looking at his suit. "Wait, we haven't tested out the new power source yet." Cisco informs the man knoingnthey don't know if it works or not. "Then we do it now." Ray states ready to help.

"I'm following you." Cisco states getting out. "I'm driving." Caitlin replies wanting to make sure Peter's okay just to be on the safe side.

"Mr. Palmer will protect Tina and mr. Parker, go." Wells tells Barry knowing to stop this, she needs to be stopped and Barry speeds off.

-

In the air flying towards Mercury labs is the Atom. At Mercury Labs, Peter and McGee are stuck listening to Brie's monologue. "_You fired me, destroyed years of my research. You took everything from me._" Brie states to Tina. "What you were doing was wrong. You wanted to harm people, not help them." Tina defends and Peter knows that's exactly why he came to work here, they were doing things to help, never harm. "I did what I had to do."

"_You mean ruin my life?_" Brie asks her while Peter's looking for a way out she wouldn't see coming. "_Now I'm doing what I have to do._" Brie states and the swarm starts trying to break through the glass. Peter shoots a impact web to make the glass more sustainable from the bees. "That should hold them. Who knows for how long." Peter tells McGee hoping the team has a way of stopping them.

Outside, Ray is flying and gets a reading from Peter's suit and McGee's heat signature. "Found them." Ray tells the team in the van.

"Felicity, can you jam their frequency?" Cisco asks. "I already tried, but I might be able to redirect them onto a new target." Felicity tells them and has the swarm targeting Atom.

"Ray, get ready for incoming." She warns him hoping this works. "We have the technology." Ray quotes and he makes it to the windows and the swarm starts chasing after him.

Inside, they watch through the webbing to see Atom flying off. "Friend of yours?" McGee asks Peter never seeing him before. "More or less." Peter's answers was, trying not to give too much away and makes his leave knowing she'll be fine.

-

At the greenhouse, Barry speeds in and sees Brie at the computers. "It's over, Brie." Barry tells her. "I know you're trying to kill dr. McGee. You think she betrayed you. I can imagine how that feels." Barry tells her regarding how he felt learning Wells was the enemy he was looking for.

"You think you understand the sting of betrayal?" Brie asks Barry, obviously using a pun. "I'll show you what it means to be stung." She tells him and a swarm of bees come at him, but they could reach him, they suddenly stopped.

"_Barry, I hacked into the bees frequency, I'm controlling them_." Felicity tells Barry and Barry finally gets Brie.

-

Outside, Ray is still flying away from the swarm behind him. "Okay, Cisco. Now what?" Ray asks them, not knowing what to do now. "_Ray, get to the ocean._" Cisco tells him since the bees aren't waterproof.

"Got it. Wait, but my suits not waterproof either." Ray informs them but goes through with the plan and dives into the ocean and the bees destroy themselves and he flies away while his suit starts malfunctioning.

"Cisco, I'm fried. I'm losing propulsion control." Ray informs them as he sees the van ahead of him and the back doors open for ray to enter and he does and removes his mask taking a breather after all of that. "The Atom lives." Cisco states loving the name.

-

After they get Brie taken in, Ray and Felicity left Central City to head back to Starlight City and Joe and Barry have decided to let the rest of the team in on what's going on.

Peter, Cisco and Caitlin arrive at the prescient to where they thought they were heading out for karaoke, Peter had to talk Caitlin into it after the last karaoke night she was part of. "All right, all right, who's ready for some.._karaoke_?" Cisco asks arriving into Barry's lab and they realize that's not what's happening.

"This is everything we know about my mothers murder and the Reverse Flash." Barry says and they look to see everything on his board. "I've been gathering information on it for years. And this is everything we know about dr. Wells." Barry shows and it's even less.

"I don't understand. What does dr. Wells and the Reverse Flash have to do with each other?" Caitlin asks them and Barry struggles to find the right wording.

"They're the same person." Barry tells them and she doesn't believe that. "It took me a long time to believe it too, but it's him." Barry tells them and Peter remembers all the times after the Reverse Flash beat him up that his senses were alarming him every time Wells was around. "Dr. Wells a speedster? He's paralyzed." Caitlin informs the officers and Peter wonders something.

"Is he, Cait?" Peter asks her and she's surprised he's believing them. "I mean, have any of us actually been told he was paralyzed from anyone other than him?" Peter asks her. "Okay, and why would he kill Barry's mother?" She questions them seeing no sense in it while Cisco is staring off into space.

"Cisco. Say something." Caitlin asks of him to set everyone straight. "I've been having these dreams." Cisco tells them and they don't see why he's changing the subject but go with it. "Mostly at night, but sometimes during the day." He tells them and Peter remembers that he has been very distant recently.

"What happens in these dreams?" Peter asks his friend. "Dr. Wells is the Reverse Flash. And...he kills me." Cisco states and they're shocked to hear that since Wells has treated him like a son. But one things for sure, they're all in on it except for Caitlin.

——————————————————————————————


	18. New faces

———————————————————————————————————————————

After what happened with Bug-eyed Bandit, Eddie was let in on everything, including Peter being Spider-Man. They've all met up at Joe's wild berry went to get food.

"Where's Barry?" Eddie asks them all. "He should be here any second. I sent him out for..." Joe was explaining when Barry came in with boxes of pizza.

"Pizza! From Coast City." Barry tells them and they all dive in while Caitlin is just sitting on the stairs. "Supposedly the best in the West." Barry tells them as they spread the boxes out on the table. "Why did I not think of this before?" Cisco questions while taking a slice.

"Cait, you not eating?" Peter asks her while taking a slice from the boxes. "I'm not hungry." Caitlin tells him and he's okay with that seeing she's still trying to figure everything out.

"Okay, six months of investigating Harrison Wells has led us nowhere, so we're going back to the beginning to see what we can find out." Joe tells the team. "What does that mean? Going back to the beginning?" Peter wonders not understanding.

"Joe and Cisco are going to Starlight city." Barry explains to them. "To investigate the car accident that dr. Wells was in with Tess Morgan 15 years ago." Joe replies finishing him.

"I don't understand, why?" Caitlin asks them, not seeing why. "Dr. McGee did tell me once that after Wells' accident, he became like a complete stranger." Peter says remembering his talk with Tina once. "He became someone completely different."

"Because someone he loved died?" Caitlin clarifies and Peter knows she's right, technically. "You of all people, Peter, can understand how grief can change a person." She states to him and he does know how it feels, loosing his parents, loosing his uncle, when he thought he lost Ronnie. All things that have encourages him to be Spider-Man.

"Caitlin, we believe that dr. Wells is the Reverse Flash and killed Barry's mother, and he may have done the same thing to Tess Morgan. We have to learn everything we can about that night." Joe tells her, trying to show her what they see.

"Oh, can you guys cover for me for dr. Wells?" Cisco asks his friends. "You mean lie?" Caitlin clarifies to Cisco. "Sure, we can do that." Peter agree since he's done it himself constantly. "I need some air." Caitlin states and leaves the house.

"Doesn't look like Caitlin's with us." Joe says seeing her reaction. "No, I can get through to her, it's just a lot to take in. I trust my instincts about Wells, I just didn't have a reason to trust them until you guys filled us in. I'll have a talk with her." Peter offers to them and they know Caitlin will listen to Peter more than anyone else in the room.

"What should we do with you gone?" Eddie asks Joe. "Business here as usual." Joe answers and Eddie understands. "Well, I want to wish you good luck over there, but also scared what you might find." Barry tells Joe.

-

The next day, they've been getting reports on a jewelry thief committing theft but has a solid alibi. "No priors, no arrests, not even a speeding ticket. And everyone who knows this woman, coworkers, neighbors, say that she's the kindest, nicest, most honest woman they've ever met." Eddie tells army trying to figure out what's happening.

"So, unless she woke up this morning and out for nowhere decided to become a criminal, it must be a metahuman. Possibly able to control minds." Barry replies and Eddie wonders if that's possible, but after everything, that's not a real question.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Peter heads in and hands Caitlin some coffee. "Hey, can we talk about what went down last night?" Peter asks her hoping to help her see there's something wrong. "There's nothing we need to talk about." Caitlin states to him and starts walking away.

"Come on, Cait, look, I know after everything dr. Wells has done for everyone, it's hard to wrap our heads around this, but even my six sense has been warning me for months something isn't right with Wells." Peter tries explaining to her.

"Wells saved you and Barry's life multiple times. And before I can believe anything about all of this, I'm gonna need a form of proof." Caitlin states when his senses warn him Wells is back.

"Proof?" Wells asks them and they try to stay cool. "Proof of what?" He wonders and they have to think of something fast. "Barry called, said we might have another metahuman on our hands. People committing crimes, doing things completely out of their character." Peter makes up since Barry told him on his way, on the phone.

"Ah. We are always happy to help, as you know." Wells tells Peter and looks around for Cisco. "Have you heard from Cisco? He hasn't arrived." Wells asks the others.

"He has to help his brother, Dante. He might need a few days off." Caitlin explains when Peter's crime system alert goes off. "I've gotta go, crime." Peter says and runs for the exit while changing.

-

Few seconds ago..

The man who stole all of the diamonds is trying to sell them and the buyer knows they're stolen and calls the police while buying some time. Eddie makes it since he was in the area and Barry had to run to S.T.A.R. Labs to get his suit.

Eddie starts following the man as he seems to have made Eddie and Peter comes up and webs his leg down and Eddie tries tackling him and he tries escaping.

Peter drops in and chased him while Barry showed up to help. "You can't outrun the two of us!" Barry tells the man as he looks at the heroes. "I won't have to." He states while touching a passer and runs down the street corner, they go down the same corner and he disappeared.

"This could be harder than we thought." Peter states and Barry agrees since this something they haven't seen this before.

-

They make it to S.T.A.R. Labs and fill them in on what they saw. "A shapeshifter?" Caitlin questions surprised. "We literally saw a grown man, like, morph into a teenage girl." Barry states to them still getting his mind over what he witnessed.

"Interesting. Today's physicists have always regarded programmable matter as nothing than a theory, but I guess your shape shifter probes it can be done." Wells states to them.

"So, this guy/woman can actually transform into anyone they touch?" Peter clarifies hoping he couldn't copy powers. "So if you are touched while you're the Flash or Spider-Man, and he transforms into you guys, we run the risk of him either exposing you guys about who's under the mask." Caitlin explains to them both.

"Because at this point we don't know if they're capable of absorbing more than just your physical characteristics." Wells states what Peter was thinking. "Like, he could possibly copy my speed or Peter's abilities." Barry understands. "That would be even worse than Venom." Peter states to them.

"Got it, if we confront him, leave Peter to web him up. Simple." Barry states to them and they see nothing wrong with that. "So how do we find someone who can transform into anyone?" Caitlin questions not seeing a way to do that.

"Well, like any problem, you just go back to the beginning. In this case, finding the first person the shapeshifter transforms into." Wells tells them and Barry gets an idea. "Can you pull up the CCPD records of cases where the perpetrator plead innocent, even though they were caught on camera committing the crime?" Barry asks the team and they do just that and get dozens of results.

"This guy's been extremely busy with his powers. And they all go back a month after the particle accelerator explosion. "And who was the first one?" Peter asks and Wells pulls up the case file. "Jacob Fisher. A teller at the Federal Credit Union, claims to have been framed by his best friend, Hannibal Bates." Wells reads and Barry tells them he'll head to the prescient and tell them what he learned.

-

Staring City. Joe and Cisco go to the police station and meet up with detective Quentin Lance and gives them the case on the crash 15 years ago, and it's not as big as Joe could've hoped. "This is all you have?" He asks Lance.

"Well, It was a pretty cut and dry case, Detective. Harrison Wells, Tess Morgan are out on a Sunday drive, tires blow, Wells loses control, and sadly Tess dies on the scene." Lance recaps what they were able to discover themselves. "So, What are you two hoping to find?" He wonders.

"We're not exactly sure what we're looking for yet." Joe confessed to him. "You come all the way from Central City, you don't know what you're looking for?" Lance questions not seeing exactly what they're doing.

"Just following a hunch." Joe explains to him and Cisco asks if they could be taken to the site when Laurel Lance comes up to them. "Captain, I need those witness statements for the Joshua Brown trial." Laurel tells Lance. "Heal, Well, ole I told you, end of the day." Quentin replies to her.

"Sorry, Detective West, disco Ramon, this is A.D.A. Laurel Lance." Quentin introduces them to her. "Related?" Joe asks him. "Daughter." Quentin responds and Laurel greets the two of them.

"You work at S.T.A.R. Labs with Peter Parker, right?" Laurel asks Cisco remembering when Peter talked about his friends. "Well, he works at Mercury Labs, but yeah I know him." Cisco corrects her and she asks to talk to him alone.

"How do you know Peter?" Cisco asks as Laurel leads him into a back room. "You guys friends or something?" He wonders and she closes the door. "Not exactly the case. We dated a while last time he was visiting Starlight City last year with my friends. John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, and Oliver Queen." Laurel explains and Cisco's shocked to hear Peter dated someone from Starlight City and never mentioned her before.

"Three people who have absolutely nothing in common." Cisco clarifies about what she said about team Arrow. "Cisco, I know Peter's Spider-Man, I know Barry's the Flash, and Oliver's the Arrow." Laurel tells him and is shocked to hear that.

"How do you know all of that?" Cisco asks her. "Because I'm the Black Canary." Laurel whispers to him and is shocked to hear that Peter was dating Black Canary and stated he didn't have luck with women and decided to leave _this_ out. "That liar said he didn't have luck with women and decide to leave out he dated the Black Canary. Wait, why are you telling me this?" Cisco asks not seeing why she's telling him.

"Because I need some technical expertise." She explains and shows him a device. "I've been using my sister's sonic device. I was hoping you could modify it. Peter always said you were clever." Laurel explains and Cisco looks over the device and gets a few ideas on it.

-

Back in Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs, Caitlin is doing her own research on Wells trying to figure out what the others see when Peter approaches her. "Hey, Cait, What are you doing here so late?" He woders since everyone called it a night earlier.

"I was looking into Wells, trying to get some answers of my own." Caitlin explains to him. "I mean, am I really supposed to just stand by and watch all of you ruin this man's life?" Caitlin asks him and Peter understands and just walks closer to her and holds her shoulders. "I mean, through everything we've done, Harrison Wells stood by my side. Especially when you left the city and basically dropped all contact. He told me everything was going to be okay." Caitlin explains to him and Peter understands where she's going.

"Cait, If what they say is true, everything he's done for us, he's been doing it for his own benefit. But if they are right about everything, and he learns, he will hunt down everyone we love and know." Peter explains to her and holds her tight.

"I know, he meant so much to all of us. But we need to wait and see what Joe and Cisco found, and if they found nothing, we'll see what else it could be. Just promise me, Cait." Peter asks her and she decides to trust him.

-

Barry and Eddie went to visit Hannibal Bates grandmother to see if they could learn anything anything about him, but instead it ended with them learning Hannibal was impersonating his grandmother and framed Eddie for shooting two cops, luckily they weren't killed but Eddie was arrested because of it.

Now they're doing what they can to prove he's innocent and that he didn't do it. Peter was just walking home to see if he could enhance his suit maybe to scan for molecular changes, or anything he could to help Eddie when his senses go off and he spots said Eddie walking down the street and follows him.

Eddie starts walking faster seeing he's belong followed by someone and leads them down an alleyway. Peter follows him, getting his web shooters ready, remembering he can't touch him and suddenly gets punched in the face by Hannibal, knocking him out.

Hannibal-Peter makes it to Peter's house and drops the unconscious Peter in his closet and ties him up. He then searches Peter and finds his wallet, keys and phone, he just didn't notice the web shooters being covered by his jacket and the suit under his own clothes when there's a knock at his door and he closes the closet with Peter inside.

"Peter, it's me." Caitlin calls as she enters and sees Peter, not suspecting anything is wrong. "Hello...you." Hannibal-Peter greets Caitlin, having no idea who she is.

"Listen, I think I figured out a way we can stop this shapeshifter from morphing into people. What if I create a serum that will terminate the polymerization reaction, essentially forcing the bonds to revert to their original form stopping him from being able to control his power." Caitlin theorizes and Hannibal-Peter gets worried if she could.

"You think you could do that?" Hannibal-Peter asks her. "Yeah, I believe I can." She tells him and they get ready to head to S.T.A.R. Labs. "Is something wrong, Peter?" Caitlin wonders since he seems to be acting strange.

"Nothing, I'm good." Hannibal-Peter assures her and she doesn't believe him. "Look, about what you said last night, I just wanted to thank you. I mean, you brought up some things that made sense and I should know by now to trust your instincts after everything they and you've done for me." Caitlin tells him, still believing it's the real Peter.

"So let's just bury the hatchet, and we'll go back to S.T.A.R. Labs. Figure out a way to stop our Everyman." She states trying out a name. "Everyman?" Hannibal-Peter asks liking the name. "That's a pretty good name." He tells her and she smiles at him. "Then let's get going." She tells him and they leave his apartment and head to the labs.

-

Hannibal-Peter is looking around the labs as Caitlin is working on the serum for Everyman. "Good to go, just need to give it a spin." She tells him and he realizes he's blocking her way."So, this serum is it a temporary fix, or will it stop him permanently?" Hannibal-Peter asks her.

"No, not permanently, just long enough so he can be stopped." She tells him while watching it, waiting for it to finish. "And how long will it take?" Hannibal-Peter asks Caitlin as she removes the serum. "Not long." She clarifies and turns to see him standing behind her. "What are you doing?" She asks knowing Peter has a sense of humor, but it's starting to get strange with him and she is just too close to his face. What she wished she could do, she knows he doesn't feel the same way as she feels about him and quickly moves to the other side of the lab. Hannibal-Peter notices her reaction then decides to take it further and walks back over to her.

"Something I think I should have done.." Hannibal-Peter says and spins Caitlin so her to face is facing his, "a long time ago." He states and quickly kisses her. Caitlin has to take a minute to realize what's happening right now. After everything she's been through, she started developing feelings towards Peter, but just assumed he never felt the same. But as of now, Peter is right in front of her and is kissing her, but she breaks it to get a explication, which is met with her automatically going back in and kissing him again when the alerts go off and they see Barry is in the elevator.

"Oh, it's just Barry." Caitlin says, relieved that nobody was here to see what just went down since she doesn't know how they would reacted. Since she herself hasn't figured out how to react to what just occurred. I mean, Peter Parker, the man that she has fallen in love with after everything just kissed her. And it felt better than she could've ever dreamed it would feel, it was more than what she felt with Ronnie. It was a kiss that a teenage girl would gossip with her friends just how great it was that made her weak to the knees.

"Hey, Peter, Cait, what's going on here?" Barry asks them and Caitlin is slightly blushing. "What's wrong with you guys?" Barry wonders and Caitlin studders to get something out. "Nothing. I didn't do anything." She state sto Barry and he wonders if they were actually getting together like the previous timeline where Peter and her told each other how they felt and he just walked in on a bad time.

"Well, anyway, we have a way of stopping Hannibal. Did you find anything else?" Caitlin wonders and Barry gets serious again. "Well, I was reviewing the footage for Hannibal shooting the cops and I realized that he's left handed, that's not entirely enough to get Eddie out even though he's right handed, but it's a start." Barry tells them while Hannibal-Peter takes the gun he still has when a taser hits him in the back and sends him to the ground.

They turn to see Wells with a taser. "What did you do that for?" Barry asks Wells, not understanding why he would do that. "Hannibal is indeed left handed, mr. Allen...as is this man." Wells tells them while pointing to Peter. "And mr. Parker is right handed. Besides, if this were Peter, his senses would've warned him I was planning on tasing him." Wells states and they realize it's Hannibal and Caitlin sighs realizes she wasn't kissing Peter. "I knew it." She states causing both men to look at her. "Wait, if this is Hannibal impersonating Peter, where's Peter?" Barry asks and Caitlin is starting to get worried again.

"We've gotta go find him." Caitlin tells them both. "Caitlin, retrace his steps staring off where you found mr. Hannibal, find if Peter's alright. Mr. Allen, Get mr. Bates to the pipeline and get some evidence for the police to get everyone who he's framed cleared." Wells tells them and they got the plan and head out to do what they need to do.

-

Caitlin searches Peter's apartment getting more worried as she can't find anything, and searches the closet and finds him tied on the floor. "Oh, Peter." She states relieved to see he's at least alive and just unconscious. She turns him to face her and slaps him across the face and his scream is muffled from the duck tape covering his mouth.

Caitlin rips the tape off of his mouth so he could talk again. "For real, Cait?" Peter asks her as she helps him get free from the ropes as he tears himself free with his strength. "Why did you slap me?" Peter asks her as he gets back up.

"Because you were unconscious in your closet." She states to him. "Smelling salts gets the same result, you know." Peter replies to her. "Sorry, are you okay?" She apologizes and asks him.

"Wait, Bates, he was here." Peter states to her. "Yeah, don't worry, we already have him in custody." Caitlin reassured him and he's happy with that repose.

"He didn't do anything embarrassing with my face, did he?" Peter wonders and Caitlin questions if she should tell him about the kiss that she shared with Hannibal-Peter. "No, he didn't do anything that can't be fixed." She tells him, not wanting him to know about her feelings towards him yet.

-

Barry was able to get Eddie and was able to get everyone Hannibal framed cleared. Now, Hannibal has woken up and he's not angry being in the pipeline. "Let me out of here!" He yells wearing Eddie's face and Caitlin, Wells or Peter don't react to that. He then transforms into Caitlin and looks to Peter.

"Hey, cutie. Wanna let me out of here?" He asks Peter who just laughs. "Who would ever be dumb enough to fall for that?" Caitlin questions, still a little worried Peter might find out about the kiss.

"We've seen a lot of things you can become, but who are you, Hannibal Bates?" Wells asks him and he transforms into a man with no hair, eyes, just a mouth and normal clothing. "I...can't remember." Bates admits to them and starts mumbling about how he can't remember anything.

"Well, let's lock this up, that's going to be a face to remember." Peter jokes and Wells leaves the pipeline leaving them both alone.

"What about dr. Wells?" Caitlin asks and Peter brings her to the prescient.

-

Once there they're shown the body that Cisco and Joe discovered at Starlight City. "This isn't possible." Caitlin says seeing that this body belongs to Harrison Wells. "Caitlin, we ran the DNA test twice. It's a perfect match." Cisco tells her while looking at the computers.

"This body is the real Harrison Wells." Joe states while looking at the body. "If this is the real dr. Wells, who have we been working for this whole time?" Peter wonders swing this is bigger than he could've thought.

"Peter, didn't you say. Dr. McGee said that Wells became a completely different person after his accident?" Barry asks remembering what Peter said at the beginning of all of this. "Yeah, She did." Peter confirms with him. "What if it was because he did is a different person?" Barry asks and this brings up a whole new question.

Who is Harrison Wells?

-

The four of them head back to S.T.A.R. Labs to check on something, Cisco is looking over schematics for the labs, while Peter looks over security. "After the accelerator exploded, I built a 3-D model of S.T.A.R. Labs so I could pinpoint exactly what caused it to malfunction." Cisco tells Barry and Caitlin as he continues to look over it and Peter finds something interesting about what happened with Hannibal and Caitlin.

"And you never ran this test?" Barry asks Cisco who assures him he in fact did. "I just never had any other reason to look outside the pipeline or around the cortex." Cisco states and he finds something. "Wait, what's that?" Peter winders, shutting the footage of Caitlin and Hannibal-Peter kissing and looks at it.

"That shouldn't be there." Cisco says and they know where to look. They head into the halls and Cisco uses his tachyon tracer to find a hidden room in the halls. Peter and Barry feel around and they were able to open it and they see the Reverse Flash suit on display and Barry pushes a button and a newspaper being shown from a projection. "**Flash missing v****anishes in Crisis. April 25 2024**".

The team looks shocked, but Peter looks below the top headline and reads the second headline.

**"Parker Industries and Wayne Enterprises merged"**. "What the hell?" Peter questions, never hearing of Parker Industries and is left to wonder if this is real.

———————————————————————————


	19. Getting some answers

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"_Flash_ _missing. Vanishes in Crisis. After a epic street battle with the Reverse Flash, our city's very own scarlet speedster disappeared in an explosion of light._" Barry reads what the newspaper reads, completely confirmed. "It's from April 25th, 2024." Peter states shocked to how this could be from the future.

"Guys, when I fought the Reverse Flash at Christmas, he said that we'd be fighting for centuries." Barry states and they realize it's true, the Reverse Flash is from the future.

"That would mean whoever Wells really is, he's also from the future." Peter tells them and they're shocked. "I have to say, I'm digging the brighter red suit." Cisco comments on the picture the newspaper has on it. "And the white on the Symbol? That's dope. Wait a second, what if we changed the color on your suit. Will it be because we got the idea from this picture? That would mean we're living in a casual nexus." Cisco wonders, trying to figure this out.

"That's not as weird as the name on the byline." Peter states and they see who wrote the article. **"I****ris West-Allen"**

"Mazel tov?" Cisco says, not completely sure what to say. "**Hebrew.**" A woman voice fills the room and they all jump back in shock. "**Ancient language of the Jewish people**." The voice informs them all.

"Okay, who's there, where are you?" Peter asks when a face appears where the newspaper once stood. "**Good evening, Peter Parker.**" The hologram greets him.

"Uh, hi." Peter greets the face. "You know who we are?" Barry interrupts them, asking the face. "**Of course. Barry Allen, director of Central City Police, CAI Division. Also known as the Flash." **She informs them all and they're surprised to hear that.

"Looks like you're in for a promotion, man." Peter states and the face looks to him. "**Peter Parker, owner, director and CEO of Parker Industries, once known as Mercury ****Labs.**" She tells him and Peter is shocked that he's going to own the place that he currently works soon. "Wait, what are you?" Peter wonders seriously confused now.

"**I am Gideon, an interactive artificial consciousness.**" She introduces herself to them. "She's an AI, Cisco." Peter states to his friend who are both shocked by this fact. "You know dr. Wells" Barry tells her understanding he owns her. "Do you know who he really is?" Barry wonders, hoping to get some answers.

"**I don't understand the question.**" She tells them an they see She probably knows just as much about his identity as they do. "Okay, Hey is he here? What is he planing?" Barry asks Gideon. "**To kill the Flash and Spider-Man.**" Was Gideon's answer and that shocked Barry and Peter.

"Why does he want to kill Spider-Man?" Peter wonders, knowing he has beef with Barry, but not him. "**To stop the Spider-Gene before it begins.**" Gideon says and Peter never took into account that his abilities could be passed down genetically to his kids and so on.

Cisco's phone goes off and he checks it. "Wells is in the building." Cisco warns the team. "How do you know?" Caitlin asks her while Barry and Peter take in the new information they were just told.

"I put a tracker on his wheelchair. Which, if he were actually paralyzed, I would be going to hell." Cisco explains and sees he's in the cortex.

"Why did he kill Nora Allen?" Barry asks Gideon. "**Because he was angry that you escaped.**" She explains to him and Cisco warns that Wells is in his way to the time vault.

"What does he want from me?" Peter asks, trying to figure this all out. "**For you to help Barry Allen become the Flash.**" Gideon answers his question.

"That's probably why dr. Wells constantly wanted you to visit the labs before the explosion, so you and Ronnie would make sure it worked perfectly, so when Barry got struck he'd become the Flash." Caitlin puts together but they don't understand why he needs the Flash. But they know he's almost there so they need to go.

"Wait a second. How do we know that GLaDOS here won't tell him we were here?" Peter asks them and they're now worried she would. "If I can get into its operating system, maybe I can disable the memory core." Cisco offers and they turn back to Gideon.

"Gideon, can you show us where your operating system is?" Barry asks the AI and she reveals part of the wall that just shows bars and a line going through it.

"Ha, forget that. That's not gonna happened." Cisco states to them, seeing it won't work. "Gideon, could you just not tell him we were here?" Barry wonders, hoping that will work. "**Of course. I will accept any command given to me by you.**" Gideon promises and they start leaving. "Wait, why would you accept my commands?" Barry wonders, not seeing a reason for it to do so.

"**Because you created me.**" Gideon tells Barry and he's shocked to learn he creates her in the future and speeds everyone out of the room, before Wells noticed them.

Wells just comes into the room and activates Gideon. "Is everything all right, Gideon?" Wells asks her. "**Everything is fine.**" She tells him, keeping her promise to Barry.

-

They make it to Joe's place and fill him in on what they found out. "Really? For four very smart people, that was really stupid." Joe states to them. "Okay, I know we've seen a lot this past year, but time travel?" Eddie asks, not believing it.

"I did it." Barry confesses, thinking back to when he traveled back a day during the Weather Wizard incident. "Or I will do it." Barry says, not wanting to talk about how Peter died, he and Caitlin confessed their feelings, and everything else.

"Excuse me?" Eddie asks, not understanding. "One of the two speedsters in Barry's House the night his mother was killed was Barry." Cisco explains to them.

"Which means that in the future, Barry will travel back to that night while battling the Reverse Flash." Peter finishes Cisco's thought. "Actually, I wasn't talking about that." Barry says, thinking it's time they all knew the truth. "I kind of already time traveled. I was running to stop a tsunami from hitting the city, it was a few weeks before Cisco started getting the dreams." Barry explains to them. "Oh those dreams where Wells uses his super shedding hand to shred apart my heart?" Cisco asks him and that puts mental images into the others they didn't want.

"What if those dreams were actually memories?" Barry questions them. "What if that day, coach found out that Wells is the Reverse Flash and then Wells killed him? But when I ran back a day, changing the timeline stopped that event from happening." Barry explains to them, but that leaves a question unanswered.

"If it never happened, then how is it that Cisco remembers it happening?" Peter asks and Joe agrees wondering the same thing. "I think the important thing here is that he does remember. I think I've got a really bad idea." Barry tells them and they know they're gonna go along with whatever he says.

"We have to access Cisco's memories somehow. Somewhere in his subconscious could hold the key to everything." Barry explains the plan. "Okay, I know this is gonna souls strange coming from the guy who has a six sense, can lift ten times his own body weight and swings on rooftops, but how on earth do you plan on achieving that?" Peter asks, not even knowing where to start on that.

-

Despite what Peter said, they actually easily found a way to create a device to help Cisco see into his memories. "Okay, I was wrong. It's fairly easy, who knew?" Peter states to them while they're building a pair of glasses with green lenses and a blackout outline.

"So this will allow Cisco to see into his dream?" Barry asks them while working on it. "I got the idea from a journal article on lucid dream therapy. They think it can e used to help people suffering from PTSD." Caitlin explains and that makes sense since Peter doesn't read those kind of articles. "Traumatized, stressed? Check and check." Cisco states since he is both of those things as of now.

"The theory is that it will allow people to objectively enter their dreams and face their fears. Still working on the talking part." Caitlin explains. "Are you sure this isn't gonna like destroy his brain?" Peter wonders, not entirely on board with this. "The amount of electricity required to trigger lucid dreaming is harmless." Caitlin tells him, trying to ease his fear when Wells comes in.

"Who's going to b lucid dreaming?" Wells asks them and they have to quickly come up with an excuse. "With all of the metahumans in Central City, people have been seeing strange things, things they can't understand. And it's really just a matter of time before psychological issues develop." Caitlin tells him and Wells moves to look over the glasses.

"And lucid dreaming will help the doctors better understand their fears. Intriguing. Of course, you still need to guide the patient from the outside. When we dream, the middle brain lights up with electrical activity, whereas the higher brain remains dormant. Once we find a way to make both parts of the brain active, then it's just a mater of finding the frequency that will stimulate the language center. Then the dreamer could speak to the outside world." Wells offers while working on the computers and shows them what he means.

"I would try a frequency of 45 hertz to start." Wells offers to them and leaves them and Peter is left wondering if he knows what they're planning and is just helping because it's part of his plan.

Since it's taking them a while, Peter just thinks back to what that AI said comes back in his mind about how his place of work is supposed to become Parker Industries in time.

-

They take everything to the prescient so Wells doesn't walk in on them doing it. "Okay, can we go over this one more time?" Cisco asks them, even though they went over it at least a dozen different times.

"Okay, you put the glasses on, fall asleep, start dreaming. Not exactly that difficult, man." Peter states to his friend. "Yeah, except I'm pretty sure I die in this dream." Cisco replies to them. "I mean, is this like _Inception _or _Dreamscape_?" He questions them all and Joe hands him a glass of milk and he gets ready.

"The glasses are emitting a low-level delta wave which should help you fall asleep." Caitlin tells him while placing the glasses in him as he lies down and as he's talking about how it's difficult for him to go to sleep, he imminently passes out mid-sentence. "Oh, so that's how you get him to shut up." Joe jokes and Peter laughs.

"He's entering REM. It's working." Caitlin tells them and they're shocked to what that. "Cisco, you hear us, man?" Peter asks his friend.

-

Inside Cisco's dream, he's in S.T.A.R. labs with Caitlin holding a newspaper and she's sad at what she's reading. "Okay, I'll take dr. Wells to Jitters So you can do whatever it is you think Peter was on to." Dream Caitlin tells him and she drops the newspaper and leaves.

"Guys, this is mad freaky." Cisco states while looking around the labs. "_Okay, where are you?_" Barry's voice asks him. "In the cortex. It feels so real." Cisco states when he looks at the newspaper and is shocked. **Spider-Man/Peter Parker is dead. City memorial made for the fallen hero**

"Peter's dead?" Cisco asks shocked to hear that.

-

Outside at the prescient, they're shocked to what he told them, all except Barry. "Wait, I'm dead?" Peter asks his friend. "Yeah, man, there's an entire article dedicated to you and Spider-Man." Cisco tells him. "Okay, Cisco, What is Dream you doing?" Barry asks, getting back on topic.

-

"Uh, Caitlin just left. I asked her to take Wells to Jitters so I could look into something Peter discovered before his death. I think Peter discovered that Wells tampered with the trap. I need to check." Cisco tells them while grabbing Peter's computer, uncontrollably and walks through the halls and looks at his shirt. "Oh, man, I love this shirt. I thought the dryer ate it." He states and hears Joe and Peter laughing in the real world.

Cisco looks and he's in the bunker with Peter's computer hooked up. "Okay, now I'm running tests on the containment system that Peter already ran, and this data doesn't make sense." Cisco explains to them seeing nothing wrong with the trap. "All the supercapacitors were all still fully charged. There is no reason Reverse Flash should have escaped." Cisco states as he boots up everything that Peter did and the Reverse Flash appears inside the trap.

"My god. The Reverse Flash was just a hologram. He tricked us." Cisco tells them when the elevator shows up. "Hello, Cisco." Wells greets him and Cisco starts feeling out.

"My name is Eobard Thawne," Wells tells Cisco in the dream. "Eobard Thawne." Cisco says and they hear that. "_Thawne? Like Eddie?" _Joe asks him. "You killed Nora Allen." Cisco says as Wells closes down Peter's laptop. "It was never my intention." Wells confesses to him. "_What's happening?_" Barry's voice asks Cisco. "He's confessing. He didn't want to kill her. He was trying to kill you, Barry." Cisco tells him while Wells starts vibrating his hand and they just wake him up.

-

In reality, Cisco gasps awake in fear after experiencing it while his friends try calming him down while Barry takes in what was said. "My mom. This was my fault." Barry states when Wells calls him.

"What's going on?" Barry's asks and gets told there's a fire and he rushes with Peter in his hand to put it out knowing Peter has some spots web foam grenades for situations like this.

-

Barry and Peter speed in and quickly see the dozens of people trapped by the fire. "Do your thing, man." Barry tells Peter and he shoots a web grenade and it explodes and puts out small portions of the fire. "Okay, this isn't helping." Peter says seeing they need some improvement.

"_You need to rotate your arms at superspeed, that'll create a vacuums to suck the air out of the room._" Wells tells them and Barry starts trying it and needs to work faster and he takes a minute and was able to put it all out.

-

They come up with a plan for Wells to once again confess to Nora's murder. So they go to the bunker and show Eddie the hologram. "So Wells set up a fake showdown with a fake opponent who was never really here?" Eddie asks them.

"He figured if we saw them in the same room together it would prove that he wasn't the Reverse." Peter explains to him. "This all just keeps getting crazier and crazier." Eddie states. "What I've been telling myself ever since the accelerator exploded." Peter jokes as Caitlin joins them.

"I just talked to dr. Wells, he's attending a lecture downtown, won't be back for a few hours." She tells the team. "Okay, Cisco, when he gets here, you need to be working on the trap so he sees you set off the hologram." Barry tells them the dream and that gets them concerned.

"But didn't he die in the dream because of that?" Peter asks him. "Yes, But this time I'll make sure I don't get _Temple of Doom'_ed." Cisco says and walks up to inside the trap. "I originally designed this to keep a speedster from escaping. But I reversed it, now it won't let one in." Cisco explains and turns it on. Barry decides to test it out and speeds up to the trap and is thrown back.

"It works." Barry tells them obviously. "As long as I'm in here, Wells can't touch me." Cisco says and Caitlin explains she'll be in the cortex recording everything. "As soon as we get what we need, I go in and stop him." Barry says his part.

"What about me and Peter?" Eddie wonders what their role is in all of this. "Wells threatened Iris and aunt May, so if something here were to go wrong, he might go for them. I'm gonna be staying with May, she thinks it's just another all night movie marathon we do all the time, while you keep Iris safe." Peter explains what they're doing.

"I'll always keep Iris safe, guys." Eddie promises and they don't know that it was directed to Joe who refused Eddie when he asked Joe to propose to Iris.

-

Later, they put the plan into affect, Peter's keeping May safe at her place, Eddie is with Iris and Caitlin is in the cortex recording as Wells makes his way to the bunker. "Hello, Cisco." Wells greets while standing and Cisco is acting shocked. "You've been busy." Wells states laughing.

"You're really incredible, Cisco. I always said it." He says walking closer to Cisco.

"You're him, you're the Reverse Flash." Cisco states, still trying to play his part while still being scared of what has to almost happen. "Joe was right this whole time, wasn't he?" He asls Wells as he closed the computers (not Peter's computer this time).

"Joe West had his doubts all along. Even from that first night in the hospital. Joe knew something wasn't right." Wells says while Barry and Joe are waiting on the other side of the room. "Cops, the same as they will be in a hundred years. Sadly, the same goes for Spider-Men. Always saving people, always quipping, I think it's in their genes." Wells states regarding Peter's relatives.

"You killed Barry's mother. Why?" Cisco asks, getting it out of the way to get it over with. "It was never my intention to kill Nora." Wells tells him and they know that's not a confession. "But from my perspective, she was already dead." He tells Cisco while raising his hand. "It just happened sooner than it was supposed to."

Cisco backs up into the trap and activated it, keeping him out. Wells just laughs at seeing it. "Oh, you're smart, Cisco." Wells says and steps into the trap and they see it failed. "But you're not that smart." Wells says and Joe pulls out his gun and tries shooting him, Barry shouts and speeds to stop the bullets and grabs all but one of them as he runs into the trap and the bullet kills Wells.

"He didn't confess." Barry says as he gets back up and sees that there's no way to get his dad out of prison. When they suddenly watch as Wells transforms into Everyman.

"_I told you this before. I am always one step ahead...Flash._" The voice of Wells fills the labs and they see he knew about everything. "_Allow me to reintroduce you Rome. Hannibal Bates and his incredible ability to transform into any person he touches. I knew that ability would come in handy. I did not expect it to be this soon, though._" Wells states to them.

"You used him!" Barry shouts, happy to finally say everything he kept inside for the past few weeks. "Like you used all of us!" Barry claims, hanging every bone in his body.

"_It didn't take much convincing. Just the simple promise of his freedom._" Wells tells them. "You ruined my life! All of our lives!" Barry tells Wells. "We stood by you after everything that happened." Caitlin states, joining in.

"_I can see how this must be difficult for you to understand, but trust me, your lives now are so much better because of what I've done._" Wells states since he changed everything over the past 15 years from Barry's mother being killed, to Peter having to leave New York.

"You don't have to hide any more, we know you're not Harrison Wells." Joe states to him. "Just tell us who you are."

"_A confession will get you nowhere. You've seen who I am. You knew what I can do._" Wells tells them loving every second of this.

"You want to kill me, go ahead. I'm not gonna fight you. But just tell the police what you did. Let my dad out of prison." Barry pleads with the psychopath.

"_I don't want to kill you, Barry._" Wells admits to him. "_I need you. And...I also did not anticipate as difficult as the past 15 years have been for me, how much I would come to love working with you and the Amazing Spider-Man._" Wells admits to them. "_And yet, the doesn't change what needs to happen. We will face each other again." _Wells assures them when Cisco gets a ping on his phone.

"He's in the time vault!" He tells Barry and he runs to catch him.

When Barry gets there, he sees the wheelchair is there, but the RF suit is gone and the hologram is showing footage of everything from Joe's house all the way to May's home. "It was all a setup." Barry realizes, Wells was always watching, he always knew. And Iris was the only one that isn't being protected by a hero.

-

Iris and Eddie are strolling across a bridge and Eddie is planning on proposing when the Reverse Flash comes speeding in and kidnaps him. Barry comes speeding up to see them vanish. "Hey, Iris. It's okay." Barry reassured her.

"He took Eddie." Iris tells him. "I promise I'll find him, okay?" Barry says and promises to bring him back and speeds off, but hit before Iris felt a jolt of electricity, something she only felt once in the hospital with Barry.

————————————————————


	20. Why I hate Gorillas

———————————————————————————————————

It has been a day since Wells has vanished and everyone is still on edge after he kidnapped Eddie for who knows what reason. They're doing everything they can so they can find Eddie and stop Wells and the first step was to remove all of the cameras well placed.

Peter and Cisco were just looking over them when Barry came in. "You guys planning on keeping those cameras Wells used to spy on us?" He asks the two seeing all the cameras. "That's kinda creepy, don't you think?"

"You talking to the guy who crawls up people's walls and they tried suing for being a peeping Tom. Besides, you can never waste good tech like this." Peter states to Barry when another gold thief is in the process.

"It looks like duty calls once again, team." Cisco tells the heroes and they speed off to stop them.

-

At the site, one man is shooting a machine gun at the trucks holding the gold as Barry and Peter show up to stop him.

"You picked a bad day to mess with us, pal." Peter states since he needs to let his anger out on something, when suddenly images start emerging in the hero's minds and they see the same happening to the man as he just walks off and leaves them alone.

-

The both of them go back to Star Labs and get checked on by Caitlin. "Your eye movements are normal. There's no signs of neurological damage in either of you." She tells them.

"You think the thief might have been a metahuman who put the whammy on you guys?" Cisco wonders to them. "I don't know. When Rainbow Raider got in my head, all I felt was anger." Barry tells them as they remember that day. "But this was not that. This was just overwhelming fear."

Cisco watches the footage and watched as the thief does the same thing as they did. "Maybe we all got whammied." Peter offers as Caitlin checks him up.

"Then you know how it feels." A new voice says and they turn to see Iris and Peter tries to put his mask on, but realizes he's a little too late.

"Is anyone able to just waltz in here?" Peter asks them wondering why they don't have security doors, or anything to keep people from just walking in and out when they feel like it.

-

Later, Barry and Iris walk into another room to talk alone while the others just stay out of it, but are tempted to listen in. "This is one of the few times I would not want to be Barry Allen." Cisco says to them as they see the cameras are on mute.

"I wonder what he's gonna tell her." Caitlin replies to his thought.

"We should...definitely not listen in. We have nothing to do with it." Peter states to them and they're still curious.

"But the Flash is our business." Caitlin tells them.

"And Iris just find out Barry's the Flash." Cisco continues her thought.

"So by transitive property, Barry and Iris are our business." Peter finishes and they activate the speakers to listen in on the conversation and just hear about how she learned he was the Flash after touching the Flash the other night.

Then he goes on filling her in with what's going on and how she's angry about not being let in after everyone else knew and she storms out.

As she storms out, the three of them get busy with other things as she leaves. "I believe that had nothing to do with us." Cisco tells Peter and Caitlin and they agree with him.

-

Later Iris had a talk with Joe and she just got more upset and Barry returns with more news. "Just got a call from Joe. The Central City Gold Reserve is about to transport three hundred million in gold bars to heir Coast City vault." Barry tells the team and he explains how they think the man in the iron mask is gonna make another attack.

"Okay, But we still don't know if he's responsible for those weird images you two saw." Caitlin tells them as they get into their costumes.

"How are they transporting the gold?" Cisco asks and Barry explains its by a disguised ice cream truck.

As they're talking, they get an alert that the truck was stopped by a land mine and is immobilized the truck as the heroes approach. The man in the mask starts firing at the guards as Joe was able to get a shot on his shoulder and threatens him off when Barry speeds into him and Peter webs him onto the side of the truck, immobilizing him for now.

"Let's see who's behind the mask." Peter says and pulls off his mask to reveal a familiar face. "General Eiling?" Peter and Barry ask seeing his face and are confused to why he's doing this.

-

They bring Eiling to the pipeline after Caitlin removed the bullet from his shoulder and he just stares at them. "What is wrong with this dude?" Peter asks, getting really uncomfortable with his staring.

"I pulled a bullet out of his shoulder, and it didn't even seem like he cared." Caitlin tells them and Joe intersects.

"Something like that should hurt like hell." Joe informs them and Peter agrees remembering the dozens of times he pulled bullets out of himself when he was in it alone.

"I did a compete body scan, and otherwise, General Eiling is perfectly healthy." Caitlin finishes explaining while Peter waves his hand in front of Eiling's face through the glass, and he doesn't even notice him.

"If he's normal, why does he act like he was turned to stone by Madusa?" Peter wonders, seriously getting freaked out when Cisco comes in with news.

"I got off the phone with Argus. Officially, Eiling is on a administrative leave. Also spoke with Diggle's wife, Lyla, and she said Eiling's been missing for the past three months and Argus is covering up for it." He explains to them and that explains some things.

"Makes sense." Peter says and looks back to said General. "Last time I saw him, was when I threatened him to leave Ronnie and Stein alone." He states to them and they're wondering where he's been since.

"General Eiling, why were you trying to rob the gold reserve?" Joe asks the General as he once again says nothing.

"Maybe he's been hypnotized, or something?" Caitlin wonders when Peter starts sensing a familiar presence is near now.

"General, do you know who I am?" Peter asks him while the presence grows larger.

"Peter Parker." Eiling speaks in a menacing voice.

"He knows who you are, Peter." Barry realizes and that gets them worried since Eiling didn't know he was Spider-Man the first time.

"How does Eiling know it's you?" Joe asks them and they don't have an answer to that.

"Eiling not here. Eiling bad." Eiling tells them and that gets them confused.

"Maybe it's a psychotic break presenting itself as dissociative identity disorder." Caitlin suggests and Eiling looks towards Caitlin.

"Caitlin good." Eiling states and that gets them even more creeped out and confused.

"Peter Parker. Bug-man." Eiling says and now they're really confused.

"Forget multiple personalities. You guys have seen The Exorcist, right?" Cisco asks them.

"You and your movies." Joe replies to him.

"Keep talking to him. He seems to respond to you, Peter." Barry informs his friend who removes his mask since there's no need for it.

"Why is Eiling bad?" Peter asks him.

"Eiling hurt me." Eiling tells Peter and that serious doesn't narrow anything down since Eiling probably hurt multiple people.

"I hurt Eiling." Eiling explains to them and Peter asks the most important question.

"Okay, then who are you if you're not Eiling?" Peter asks him, hoping to get an answer.

"I...am...Grodd. Fear...me." Eiling tells them and that shocks Peter, Caitlin and Cisco since they haven't seen the gorilla since the particle accelerator explosion.

"What's a Grodd?" Barry asks them, since he never met him.

-

They bring the to the cortex and show footage of Grodd in a cage and Caitlin feeding him. "Oh, Grodd is a gorilla." Barry clarifies now getting annoyed at these metas.

"Five years ago, Eiling and Wells were working on a project to expand soldiers' cognitive abilities during battle." Cisco explains to them.

"What we didn't realize is that Eiling was trying to crate soldiers with psychic abilities." Caitlin finishes his thought.

"What do you mean exactly by psychic?" Joe asks, wanting that clarified.

"Eiling was trying to create these super-soldiers with telepathic and telekinetic capabilities. And he also spent a good part of my high school years trying to hunt me down, this guy's obsessed with enhanced." Peter states remembering the nights he was afraid to sleep, wondering if he did something wrong and Eiling was able to track him.

"But when dr. Wells found out about the terrible experiments Eiling was doing, he shut down the entire project." Caitlin tells the two.

"So our psycho killer has a soft spot for animals." Joe clarifies regarding Wells.

"What happened to Grodd?" Barry wonders since nobody ever mentioned the gorilla.

"Yeah..." Peter starts off, but doesn't wanna finish since he was kinda afraid of Grodd.

"We don't know. After the particle accelerator exploded, we went down to check on him and his cage was empty." Caitlin tells them since that's what she and Peter did after Ronnie died.

"So he could have been affected by the same energy that created the metahumans?" Joe asks them.

"When the dark matter hit Grodd, all the drugs and serums that Eiling injected him with could've activated." Cisco tells them and they realize Grodd's now a meta-gorilla.

"And we know what happens when a intelligent ape who hates humans escapes captivity." Peter says, thinking of all the Planet of the Apes he and May have watched over the years.

"Cisco's right about what he said, not so much about what Peter said." Caitlin replies knowing what Peter was thinking.

"This is the first brain scan that I did on Grodd." She says while pulling up the pictures. "His primary motor cortex and Broca's area are lit up like a Christmas tree." Barry states seeing the photo.

"All from Eiling's experiments." Peter says and Caitlin pulls up a photo of Eiling's brain and they're exactly the same. "So Grodd and Eiling are connected somehow?" Joe asks them, seriously not liking the thought of a psychic controlling gorilla out there.

"What do we think Grodd wants?" Barry asks them. "I do not like the fact that Wells rescued Grodd. And I don't think it's a coincidence that this gorilla shows up at the same time we're looking for Wells." Joe tells them and they agree this has to do with Wells.

"So if we find Grodd, we might be able to find Wells. We find Wells-" Peter was saying when he gets interrupted. "We find Eddie." Iris tells them and Peter starts shaking his head wondering why his senses aren't alerting him anymore.

"And I'm gonna help." Iris states to them, and they wonder why she wants to but decides to let her, since it's her boyfriend in trouble.

"Know anything about gorillas?" Caitlin asks her and she pulls up news sightings of a gorilla.

"There have been reports of some sort of animal down in the sewers." She explains while they look over it all. "Alligators. C.H.U.D.s. R.O.U.S.s." Cisco says and they're confused, except for Peter. "Are we the only two who watch movies around here?" Peter asks his friends.

"A few months ago, two sewer workers went missing. The search party reported hearing strange animal like noises down in the tunnels." Iris explains to them and Peter runs an algorithm to track all the sightings. "Looks like we can get in two blocks east of the intersection they went missing." Peter tells them and they start coming up with a plan.

Barry, Peter and Joe go in, locate Grodd and stop Grodd. They had to get Cisco to come with to help track their monkey since Grodd hates all of them.

-

They go through the sewers with Joe carrying a flashlight and Peter uses his lenses to see in the dark. They walk to the point and are seriously creeped out since all of them have seen at least one horror movie and this is how they all end.

"I have been in these sewers fighting my greatest enemies, and it never looked like this before." Peter informs them as Joe places a flare on a pipe wanting a trail to lead them back.

"Give me that banana." Joe says and takes the banana from Cisco.

"You know Grodd hates bananas, right?" Peter informs them and they just toss the banana away, not wanting to upset the gorilla.

"Stay close." Joe tells them as Peter has his arms out, ready to shoot his webs, knowing it's strong enough to hold back Grodd for a while.

"After this, I'm giving this suit on super cycle." Peter comments since his suit is going to wreak after this.

"I can't believe I'm down here looking for a supernatural gorilla. I'm terrified of regular gorillas." Joe tells them and they agree with him. They hear a noise and Peter spins and fires a web and they see it was a rat.

"Sorry. I'm on edge. I'm starting to think Grodd is messing with my senses with his powers." Peter tells them and since that makes sense since his six sense are mind based and so is Grodd's powers.

"Hey, guys, you should see this." Cisco tells them and they look to see writing of the word Grodd everywhere.

"Grodd's getting smarter." Peter warns them, not liking that they might become slaves to intelligent gorillas.

"Somebody wanna tell me what we're looking at here?" Joe asks and they see more showing Grodd is getting smarter. They keep walking and they hear growling from down the tunnel. "If I hadn't seen Jurassic Park, I wouldn't be nearly as frightened right now." Cisco informs them as Peter starts trembling at the fact the same gorilla that hated him for some reason is free and is in walking distance.

"So if he's getting smarter, you think he might be getting bigger too?" Joe asks and that thought never occurred to them when they keep hearing growling and it's getting louder.

"That must be a truck passing overhead, right?" Joe hopes and they know it's Grodd when the hearthe growling coming at them and Peter's senses start going crazy as Grodd comes behind them and throws Barry down the tunnel.

Joe tries shooting Grodd but doesn't know where he went.

"We have to get out of here." Joe tells Cisco as he's checking on Barry as Peter's screaming as all of his senses have been dialed to 20, making even the slightest water droplet unbearable. And his friends screaming, shooting, and yelling isn't helping. Especially from Grodd.

"Barry's our cold." Cisco says when Grodd grabs Peter and everything goes silent when they realize Peter's gone. "Peter!" Joe and Cisco shout seeing him disappearing with the gorilla.

-

Peter finally comes to after some time and sees lights buzzing on and off. Peter tries keeping his head as he realizes he doesn't have his mask so he can't call for help as Grodd approaches him. Peter aims his web shooters at him when his hands starts slowly turning to aim at him.

"What are you doing, Grodd?" Peter asks in more fear than he's ever felt when he sees just how big Grodd has gotten.

"No help here." A voice fills Peter's head and he knows it's Grodd.

"Hi there, Grodd. It's been a while." Peter greets while still trembling in fear.

"I guess since I just heard your voice in my head, you are telepathic now." Peter says trying to calm him when Grodd comes into the light and he gets seriously afraid.

"Father hate Spider-Man." Grodd informs him and Peter realizes Grodd could've known he was Spider-Man this whole time and that's why he hated him.

"Father? You mean Wells." Peter says and decides to get some answers while trying to get his strength and calm himself down. "Where's Wells?" Peter asks the telepathic gorilla.

"Not here." Grodd informs him and Peter wonders if Wells isn't with Grodd, where is he?

-

At Star labs, they're checking in Barry after he was thrown across the room. Joe took Iris to talk about everything that's happened and Caitlin is looking over the information they got from Peter before he went offline.

"Grodd was somehow able to take Peter's six sense and dial his enhanced senses from regular 11 all the way to a 23. Even a drop of water would have the equivalent of hearing the Krakatoa eruption to Peter's ears." Caitlin informs them explaining why Peter couldn't sense Grodd or defend himself against him and she starts getting worried about Peter since Grodd never really liked him.

"We're gonna save Peter, Cait. I promise that." Barry promises and he wants to save his friend from the clutches of that ape.

"Hope up, I put a tracker in the Spider-Man suit just shortly after Peter told us his identity, Peter also knows about it. We just have to wait for him to activate it." Cisco tells them and Barry can't wait.

"No, Cisco. I can't wait for that. I will search every inch of that sweee if I have to, to find Peter." Barry promises them and they still don't have a way of fighting him against his psychic abilities. "Can you guys build something to make it so he can't get in my head?" Barry wonders hoping they can and they get some ideas.

After a few trial and errors they finally get something to help Barry. "An anti-telepathy strip." Cisco as he shows the device that's similar to what climbers use to hold the cameras on their helmets. "It uses magnetic resonance to neutralize any foreign neurological stimulus." Cisco tells him and warns they don't 100% know if it'll work or not.

As they're talking, Peter's suit comes back online. "We've got Peter's coordinates." Cisco states and runs to the computer and Barry reads it and flashes into his suit and hurry's to save his friend.

-

Barry speeds into the sewers and places the device on his head so Grodd doesn't control him. Cisco activates the gas they hid inside the flares they placed in the sewers and Peter watches them go off and knows it's them, but it's also making Grodd mad. Peter tries getting away as Grodd leaves.

While he's distracted, Barry speeds in and moves Peter out of the tunnel so he can get into position. The plan is to use the same super sonic punch that Barry used on Girder on Grodd, stopping him.

Barry waits for Cisco to give him the all clear and runs through the tunnel right at the gorilla, Barry gets closer and Grodd starts running at him and was able to toss Barry across the room.

"Here we go." Barry states when Grodd tries messing with his mind and nothing happens so he does odds to uses his speed to fight him off and Grodd grabs him by the neck and raises him to his face.

Before anything else cloud occurs, Peter comes swinging back in and drags Barry free and Grodd gets angry. "I didn't think of step 2, just a long FYI." Peter warns Barry as Grodd kicks the hero into the wall onto a train track.

"You know, what? Octopuses, scorpions, rhinos, vultures, now a giant gorilla. Do I have one villain who isn't based off of a animal or is an animal?" Peter wonders when Grodd starts messing with his head again as Barry's fighting him off.

"Peter, can you hear us?" Caitlin asks and that brings Peter's ears excruciating pain again. Everything from Barry's lightning crackling, Grodd's roaring and the approaching train..wait what?

There's a train coming in close and Peter can't fight back as he can barley stand on his own two legs and every time Barry tries to run and help, Grodd stops him.

-

At Star labs, Cisco is helping Barry fight off Grodd while Caitlin is trying to help Peter get back on his feet and thinks of something when people are suffering from sensory overload. "Peter, I need you to listen to me." Caitlin tells him in a calm voice, trying not to cause his ears to bleed while hearing him scream.

"Focus on my voice. Pretend there is nothing there beside the sound of my voice." She tells him and it seems to be working as his vitals are calming down little at a time. "What you're feeling right now, you have to fight it. You're feeling fear, Peter." She informs him since she knows he doesn't like to admit when he's afraid.

"I know how strong you are. After everything you've been through, loosing your parents, loosing your uncle, you still find ways to see light in the darkness and lead others towards it. Let me be you're light for once after everything. Stand up and fight. You can do this, Peter." Caitlin promises him and sees he's actually fighting it.

"You can do this, Peter. After all, who are you?" She asks him and hopes it works.

-

In the tunnel, Peter starts remembering everything he's been through and the light that has come of it. He lost Ben, but got to know his amazing aunt, got the chance to be a hero to the city and met Ronnie, Caitlin, Cisco. Everything that happened after the darkness. Everything that happened since that day he became who he was always meant to become.

Peter starts rising, fighting Grodd's mind control, focusing on Caitlin's words and gets ready to fight as the train approaches.

"I'm Spider-Man." Peter answers her and comes up with a plan. He moves out of the way by leaping onto the ceiling as the train passes making and Grodd finishes off Barry and leaps into the tunnel to fight Peter, when a second train comes by and hits Grodd.

"Peter?" Caitlin calls out, hoping he's okay.

"I'm here. Looks like I'm dragging a speedster back with me." He states jokingly and hears Caitlin laughing and he loves hearing that sound.

-

At Star labs, Barry lets Eiling out of the pipeline since he's been cleared and he tells him what he's done will come back to bite him and Eiling makes an oath to stop Grodd.

In the medical wing, Caitlin is struggling to keep Peter down while he is put on bed rest after everything. "I keep telling you to be still. You have three fractions in your arms and leg." Caitlin tells him. "I can't believe Grodd became so violent." She says since she spent so much time with him before everything.

"What was his lair like?" Cisco asks Peter trying to figure everything out. "Does he like King Kong?" He wonders and Caitlin pushes him out, so Peter and her could talk alone.

"I'm just glad you're okay, Peter." She states glad they were able to stop Grodd for now.

"Well, I'm just adding Grodd to animal crazy enemies I have. Yet again, if Otto learned about him, I don't wanna know what would happen. Yet again, Grodd would probably turn him into calamari." Peter jokes and Caitlin can't believe he's still about to makes jokes after everything he went through.

"You're voice helped me out there." Peter informs her and she's glad she was able to help.

"You know, maybe it's a good thing we didn't catch Grodd. I mean, there's nowhere we could possibly keep him." Caitlin tells him jokingly.

"Oh, now you're making jokes? I don't know what I'm bringing now if you start taking that from me." Peter tells her and Caitlin's happy that he's obviously okay and wonders if she should tell him how she feels, or should she just keep these feelings locked up?

————————————————————————————


	21. Evacuation

—

After Grodd, Cisco decides to look into everything about Wells as Peter is still healing from Grodd's attacks on Caitlin's orders. After a while Cisco discovered something about his wheelchair and called everyone back.

"I kept asking myself, why would Wells pretend to need a wheelchair?" Cisco states and shows them his wheelchair.

"Sympathy, Maybe? I mean, the last person we would suspect is the Reverse Flash would be someone who couldn't walk." Peter answers his friend.

"That's what I thought at first, which is why I started messing around with the wheelchair." Cisco explains and puts the wheelchair on its side to show them the bottom of it. "And that's how I found this." He says and shows them a device underneath the surface of the chair.

"You can't get that from Radio Shack." Joe states seeing the device.

"It looks like the tech we found inside Gideon." Barry states seeing it closer.

"I measured the output, and this thing is kicking off serious juice. We're talking enough power all of Central City." Cisco informs them and Peter looks as close as he could at the device.

"Now that's just selfish. All that power and he uses it to charge his wheelchair." Peter jokes and looks back to Cisco. "What do you think Wells was doing with it?" He asks Cisco.

"I think that's thing is some sort of battery. As in, Wells was using it to power himself. To gain speed and that's why he's constantly faster than you, Barry." Cisco explains and now everything makes sense. Wells sitting on a power source to gain speed almost 24/7 it's a question how he wasn't able to outrun the sun.

As they're thinking, the alarms go off and they see that someone reactivated the accelerator. "How on earth is that possible? That entire place was destroyed." Peter states confused to who could've rebuilt it without them noticing...Wells.

"Even if he did rebuild it, now did he turn the accelerator back on?" Caitlin asks them when Peter's senses start working and senses the Reverse Flash.

"He's here." Peter tells them as he starts running towards the pipeline with Barry and Joe following with Cisco and a drink in hand. "That's why we couldn't find him, or Eddie, he's been hiding under our noses." Peter explains as Caitlin stays behind for safety as they reach the accelerator doors.

They slowly walk towards the doors and they notice Cisco and his drink. "Cisco, why did you bring that soda?" Joe asks him. "Whenever something happens with th Reverse Flash, liquid floats in the air. You know, Barry's kid fish tank, Wells' champagne, Lance's coffee, remember that?" Cisco asks and Tethys we He's right, but Peter realizes something else.

"Wait, you guys talked to Lance? Which one?" Peter asks them and they don't see why that's relevant. "Detective Lance and his daughter." Joe says not understanding why he needs to know.

"Don't worry, I won't talk about how you're actually good at getting girls." Cisco promises and that confused Barry and Joe as they open the doors to the accelerator.

The doors open and they see the metas in their cells and wait for something when Cisco's drink starts floating and they see they're right. Suddenly, a flash of yellow lightning passes them and Barry chases him.

"What do we do now?" Cisco asks, since they can't help him when one of the cells open.

"Peekaboo." Peter states as her cell opens and she teleports away. But since Peter's senses are working perfectly again, he was able to sense where she was heading and knocked her out quickly before she could get Joe's gun. "I saw you." Peter jokingly says, regarding when he called her.

Suddenly, Peter's ears catch a faint cry for help. "Wait. Eddie?" Peter asks recognizing the voice, Cisco and Joe don't hear it as Peter runs to check it out. He finds a compartment where Wells was hiding and finds Eddie tied.

"Eddie?" Peter asks and runs over to untie him.

"I'm glad you're okay, man." Peter says happily when he notices a ring box on the floor probably meant for Iris and he decides to grab that for him as he helps him out.

Caitlin checks him over and sees that he's okay, just dehydrated as Iris came to see him and Barry returns after trying to catch Wells.

"Wells got away. He's just too fast." Barry tells them and noticed Eddie and is relieved he's okay and Iris brings him back to their home. While they leave, Peter slips the ring into his pocket so he cloud find it.

As they leave, Cisco gets another alert of something foreign in the pipeline and runs to check on it.

"Are you seeing this?" Cisco asks them as they watch him stream footage from his phone to the computers showing a device that looks like a small spherical container and some blue liquid inside.

"This is some sort of future power source." He explains to them.

"It's what's charging the accelerator." Peter states and they agree with that.

"Cisco, can you shut it down?" Barry asks and he goes on how there's no instruction manual on it and how it's beyond him.

"How long until it's fully operational?" Peter asks him, hoping they can come up with a plan to stop Wells.

"If that's a _Star Wars_ reference, nows not the time, if you're actually asking...Best I can tell, about a day and a half." Cisco tells them and they know that's when Wells will return.

"Why would Wells want the accelerator turned back on?" Joe asks them and they don't know what good could possibly come from it and they realithey still have four criminals locked up inside the accelerator.

Weather Wizard, Mist, Peekaboo, and the metahuman that Oliver came across in Starlight City named Deathbolt.

"So what happens if the particle accelerator turns on again with them inside?" Caitlin asks them.

"My best guess? It'd turn into the ending of _Raiders of the Lost ark_." Peter answers her and they know that they have to move them somewhere.

"Oliver has an island in the north China sea, named Lian Yu. It's where Oliver was stranded for five years and Argus now puts his most dangerous enemies." Peter explains to them all. "It's completely isolated and is an actual prison, they won't be able to escape, or hurt anyone." He tells them and they seem okay with that plan.

"How do we move them to Oliver's private Alcatraz?" Joe asks them and Peter says he'll call maybe Oliver can supply transport, Cisco offers to rig up the van with a containment field.

"Peter, we still need to be here to stop Wells, we can't be at two places at once." Joe informs him not seeing how this will work when Peter explains he's going in alone. "You're one guy, if something goes wrong, your toast."

"Mist, my suit is gas proof to prevent sleeping gas and other toxic chemicals from entering. Peekaboo, my senses tell me where she's going to be, preventing her from escaping. Deathbolt, I fought off Electro who was exactly the same. I'll be fine." Peter reassures them, knowing he could handle the metahumans.

"Okay, you two can do that and we'll be prepared for Wells when he gets here." Barry informs them and they like how this plan is coming together.

-

Cisco shows everyone the truck he rigged with power dampening components for the metas.

"This is sweet. Where'd you get the truck?" Peter asks Cisco.

"It's my uncles, the one I told you who hails frozen food cross country?" Cisco reminds him and Peter does remember when they talked about their families.

"Okay, I retrofitted the cooling system with the wheelchair power source to create the energy damper. So the entire back of the rig is flooded with so much power that it's creating a transient pulse strong enough to disrupt the metas power, so we can get them to the airport and on the plane without them trying anything." Cisco tells him.

"Did you get in contact with Oliver?" Barry asks Peter who doesn't exactly know how to answer that.

"I did get in contact with John, apparently Oliver is somewhere called Nanda Parbat. Wherever that is, but I was able to get back in contact with John's wife, Lyla, she's sending us a plane." Peter informs them all. "But we better hurry, we've got two hours before the plane gets here."

"We've got an hour before Wells shows up. So we might be fighting without you." Barry warns Peter and Cisco gets into the driver seat to make sure the controls are working.

"If something goes wrong, I won't be able to help you." Caitlin states to Peter as he starts making the Spider-Man symbol on the back of the truck so people know it's him after he called Singh so he knows not to pull him over.

"Don't worry, I'll have Cisco watching my back. I'll be back in perfect condition." Peter tells her and quickly hugs her and she starts heading inside to get prepared for the fight with Wells and Peter leaps on top of the container so cops see him and to keep an eye on the metas.

-

They make it to the landing site with some close calls with some cops, but nothing else extremely inconvenient.

"Ferris air. This place has been closed since one of their test pilots disappeared." Peter informs Cisco as they watch a plane coming in for a landing. The A.R.G.U.S. plane finally lands and Lyla steps over to them.

"Peter. It's been a while." Lyla states to him and Peter removes his mask happy to see a friend. They start loading up all of the metas and the truck and they know how dangerous these people are and are ready to deal with them if they escaped.

"Let's get back to Star Labs and hope Wells isn't there yet." Peter states and Cisco agrees happy to finally be rid of those criminals.

-

At Star labs, they haven't heard from Peter or Cisco but heard over a A.R.G.U.S. radio that the metas were picked up when the accelerator becomes fully charged.

"Guys, Wells is here." Caitlin warns Joe and Barry and they see him outside and speeds out to fight him.

He speeds into his suit and meets up with Wells.

"Well, I heard your prison transfer went well without a hinge." Wells states also hearing that Peter and Cisco got them to Lian Yu.

"Sorry to disrupt your plan." Barry states happy to have stopped that at least.

"Actually, I didn't factor this into my plan at all, but I'm impressed you went to such great lengths to keep those people from harm." Wells states to him.

"You've already hurt enough people." Barry states to his once mentor. "I know, you see me as the villain, but if you were to look back, and I mean carefully, at everything I've done, you would realize I have only done what I had to do." Wells states back to him.

"And restarting the particle accelerator? Why did you do that?" Barry asks him, since none of them can figure out why he would want it back on.

"Why don't you go back inside, and I'll show you." Wells tells him, knowing that it turning on is a win-win situation.

"I've shown you time and time again you can't beat me, Barry." Wells states when they hear flames and look up to see Firestorm coming down to help.

"Wow. You brought yourself a friend." Wells states when two strings come down and one of them is attached to Peter and the other is an arrow from Oliver Queen.

"Welcome, mr. Queen. Peter, it's always a pleasure." Wells greets the two late men.

"Sorry it took so long, wanted to make sure they left Central City without a problem." Peter explains his long absence as Cisco is already back inside.

"You're right on time." Barry reassures him and they're all ready to stop Wells. "I don't care how fast you are. There's no way you can fight off all four of us at once." Barry states to Wells who raises his fist and releases his suit from his ring.

Barry shoots lightning through his eyes, Oliver gets an arrow ready, Ronnie burst into flames, Peter gets into a spider like stance that's ready to attack. Wells speeds at them and Barry is the first to respond by speeding into him and they watch them run in circles not knowing which streak is Wells or Barry.

"Hang on, I've got an idea." Peter tells the two and shoots a web grenade into the middle of their fight and Ronnie sees his plan and shoots off into the air.

The grenade goes off and immobilized the speedsters and Ronnie takes the opportunity to shoot an fire ball at him, but Wells spins his arms around to send Ronnie flying away.

Oliver still takes the time to shoot a arrow while Wells tries breaking out of the webbing. "Nanites, courtesy of Ray Palmer. They're delivering a high frequency pulse that's disabling your speed." Oliver informs Wells.

"Which means you're not gonna be running for some time." Peter recaps and webs Wells hands to the wall.

"It's over, Wells." Peter states to him as he starts trying to vibrate his way back out when Barry comes speeding in and punches him, which caused the webbing to expand, then shoot Wells back into the wall, knocking the Reverse Flash out cold. They watch as Ronnie files back in and lands.

"Four heroes versus one and we win. If we get two more people, I know who to call when all of my enemies plan a breakout. Speaking of which, I should've thrown them on that plane to Lian Yu." Peter tells them and Ronnie laughs to how that could save them a lot of promises.

"Hey, Ollie, nice haircut." Peter states realizing Oliver changed his look a bit.

"Abandoning the tradition green I see." Barry also comments on his suit.

"Thought I'd try something different for a change." Oliver tells them and they look back to Wells as the other two leave.

"We won." Barry realizes happy and they start moving him to the pipeline.

—


	22. Back in time

The team allows Barry to have a talk with Wells he has been waiting to have for years. "What? No Big Belly Burger?" Wells wonders and he goes on about how in the future, there are no cows. Barry just goes straight to the point and asks the biggest question he has been wondering for over fifteen years.

"Why did you kill my mother?" Barry asks him and waits for the response. "Because I hate you. Not the you from now, the you years from now. In _a _future. We're enemies, rivals, opposites, reverses of one another. But that doesn't matter anymore. What matters was that neither of us was strong enough to beat the other. Until I learned your secret, your identity. Barry Allen. And finally, I knew how to defeat you once and for all. Travel back in time, kill you as a child. Wipe the flash from the face of the earth, except the future you followed me back, and we fought." Wells goes on and explains how the two speedsters were in fact Barry and Thawne.

Wells also explains how when future Barry saved his younger self, Wells was so mad he killed his mother so he would never become the Flash. But in changing the timeline, he erased his speed from existence stopping him from being able to return to the future. He lost his connection with the Speedforce and that caused him to create the Flash again.

And he needed the Flash to get fast enough so that he could disrupt the time barrier so he could return home. Barry asks why he would allow him to leave and Wells gives him a choice he could never refuse, a chance to go back. A chance to return to that night his mother was murdered and stop it all from happening.

-

He informs the team on what he's offeri and they don't know what to do. "The rare opportunity to go back in time and right a wrong and save your mother's life...quite the paradox Harrison has presented to you, mr. Allen." Stein states to him.

"The chance to save someone you wish you had more time with?" Peter asks since he knows how Barry feels about loosing his parents. "But there are still consequences, aren't there?" He states since he knows every time travel movie to exist since he has no real life and an aunt who loves movies.

"Of course, mr. Parker, this gift has an unparalleled risk." Stein agrees with Peter. "Barry, the night your mother died,the night you saved your younger self from death, that event altered the timeline you were already on and changed the course of history." Stein explains and they never realized that before.

"So it's like _Terminator 3. _We're living in an alternative world, part of an alternative timeline. A parallel universe." Peter states and wonders what his life would've been like in the previous timeline.

"But Barry changed one day once." Joe remembers when Weather Wizard was supposed to kill Peter, kidnap Joe and everything else.

"Yes, now imagine 15 years of compounded experiences. One different decision, no matter how big or small, impacts everything that follows. In physics, it's referred to as the domino effect. Moments upon moments, choices upon choices. New relationships, nothing would be as it is today, and you'd never know the difference because you'd never remember any of it." Stein explains to them and now it's up to Barry, it's his decision.

"So if I go back and save my mom, my dad doesn't go to prison. I never live with Joe and Iris." Barry lists some of the pros and cons. "You might never meet me. Or Caitlin or Ronnie. Peter might still be living in New York, he might not even become Spider-Man." Cisco lists some of the bad things to come with it.

"There's no real way of knowing what will happen until you do it." Peter explains as he seriously doesn't want to loose his abilities or what he's done to be erased from the world.

Joe and Barry leave to talk in private and the others just give them some space, and Barry decides to let his father in on the decision as well.

Stein and Peter just go into a private conversation about how the physics of time travel actually would work. Peter believes that once Barry changes the timeline, he'll create a new branch of time and once he returns to his time, he'll be part of the new timeline. Stein believes that once changing the past, it'll ripple throughout the timeline, the original timeline, causing everything to change.

Caitlin is checking on Ronnie to make sure he's okay. "98.6. Normal." She states taking his temperature. "I'm not sure I know what that means anymore." Ronnie replies to her and she agrees.

"I know Barry and Peter appreciates you coming back to help stop Wells." Caitlin tells him and he explains that's not the only reason he returned and he's back to stay this time.

"Once upon a time and a particle accelerator or so ago, you agreed to marry me. What do you say we do that?" Ronnie asks her and Caitlin doesn't know what to say.

Caitlin just looks to see Stein and Peter are still discussing time travel while borrowing the chalkboard explanation Doc Brown used to explain to Marty McFly in _Back to the Future ll_ and she remembered that the Caitlin Snow that agreed to marry Ronnie a year ago isn't the same one she is now_._ She has changed, she's moved on. She's fallen in love with somebody else. She can't deny it anymore, from herself at least. She's fallen in love with Peter Parker.

"Ronnie, you know that I will always love you. But when I thought you died, I was moving on. When you left, I finally found a way to move on. I'm sorry, Ronnie, but I don't love you the same way as I once did." Caitlin tells him and he's shocked at first but Ronnie starts thinking of everything he put her through the past year. He died, then he came back, and then he left her again. He understands why she needed to move on, besides he doesn't know when Eiling will track them down.

"I understand, Cait." Ronnie tells her and she's relieved that he isn't freaking out like she thought he might.

-

Barry comes back and has made his decision. He's going back in time to save his mom. Wells explains that in order to do this, they need to turn on the particle accelerator. Except Wells redesigned the accelerator to work as it should have the first time, except Barry has to inject one particle and Barry has to collide into it and needs to go at the right speed in order to go back.

In doing so will create a wormhole that'll connect each timeline from past to the future. Except if anything goes wrong, Barry will die along with the city.

"According to Wells' calculations, Barry super speeds inside the accelerator ring. Once Barry reaches optimum speed, we then launch a hydrogen proton into the accelerator." Stein explains going over the calculations himself and shows a presentation to explain his point.

"So once the collision happens, a wormhole will be created, sorta like the _Star Trek_ reboot, and it'll open a gateway into time itself." Peter finishes, seeing what the professor is saying.

"It's at that moment I plan on shouting something along the lines of "eureka" or possibly "excelsior". I'm uncommitted." Stein finishes to them.

"What do you guys think?" Barry asks, looking to Cisco and Peter, knowing they're not onboard with this.

"I mean, on the one hand, it does make the kind of sense." Cisco tells him.

"On the other hand, Here's a simple question. Why?" Peter asks, since he doesn't understand this anymore. This isn't just one life, this will effect the lives of everyone. "Why are we considering this?" He asks Barry.

"Peter, you know why." Barry informs him.

"Barry, there are four moments that have effected my life forever. My parents dying, getting bit by that spider, my uncle dying, and becoming Spider-Man." Peter recaps every moment that changed him. "If you change those moments, if you find that Peter Parker, you won't know that man." Peter warns him not wanting to change who he is because of his friend.

"For this to even work, how fast would Barry need to be going?" Caitlin asks Stein, hoping for some good news.

"By my calculations, Mach 2 at a minimum. And if he doesn't reach that, it's unimaginable how gruesome it'll become." Stein answers her and they know Barry has never went that fast before.

"I'll worry about the speed, but I need the two of you to work on something." Barry tells Peter and Cisco. "Really? And what's that?" Cisco asks since the two of them have shown no interest in this project. "I need you two to build a time machine." Barry tells them and they become very interested.They go into the labs to start working on the machine.

"So if Wells is as fast as Barry, what's he need a time machine for?" Ronnie asks them as he decides to help his friends. "Apparently, when he changed the timeline, and unsurprisingly, it changed him and he lost his speed and only gets it back sometimes. It's like when your tv starts fizzing in and out." Peter explains to him. "Which means I was right about the wheelchair. He was using it to charge himself." Cisco states to them happy he was right.

"And that just means that after Barry opens a wormhole, he's gonna need a ship to send him back to the future. He's been hiding the parts around the labs, and it juts needs to be put together." Peter tells them and now they know they need to talk to Wells about the dust the pieces have collected over the years of being hidden for years.

Cisco is with Wells as he looks over the blueprints as he realizes something is bothering Cisco.

"Something on your mind, Cisco?" He asks him wondering what's bothering him.

"Yes, how did you fit your Reverse Flash suit in that ring? Is it some compression micro tech?" Cisco asks and realizes it's not important.

"Ronnie's right. I should've accounted for the temporal shearing. I never underestimated your contribution, Cisco. Or Ronnie and Peter's. As a matter of fact, do you know how many times I wished you all were there with me as I rebuilt the accelerator, it would've been more fun with you and Peter." Wells tells him.

"Well, doesn't change the fact that you're Time Sphere is gonna blow." Cisco tells Wells and he tells them how to prevent the explosion and Cisco leaves to try it.

"Is that all you wanted?" Wells asks as Cisco walks off and turns back to him.

"Well, what do you want me to say?" Cisco questions the mad man.

"I thought of anyone, you'd be a little more understanding of my predicament. I don't belong here. These barbaric times. It's like living amongst the dead." Wells explains since everyone here is dead in the 53rd century.

"Is that what you told yourself when me and Peter died?" Cisco wonders and Wells is confused by that statement. "It was an alternate timeline, one Barry fixed. One where Peter was killed by Mardon and where you called me a son and crushed my heart with your fist." Cisco expains and Wells is shocked to hear this.

"Cisco. I'm sorry you're able to retain traces of another timeline. You're able to see through the vibrations of the universe. That means when the accelerator exploded, you were effected, too." Wells tells Cisco and it's his turn to be shocked that he has powers. "Don't be afraid, Cisco. A great and honorable destiny awaits you." Wells promises Cisco and he doesn't want a destiny.

-

Later they have everything ready for Barry to go back. Barry is just saying his goodbyes to his friends and they know that everything changes when he saves his mom.

Barry says goodbye to Joe, Iris, Caitlin and Cisco and moves into Peter. "I will never forget what you did for me. All the nights we spent training, you helping me see things through a different persons perspective." Barry promises Peter and hugs his friend.

"I'll never forget you, padawan." Peter tells him even though if this does happen, he'll never have met. "I hope what life you have it was worth the risk." He says and they separate and Barry runs.

Barry remembers that Wells said he has one minute and thirty seconds, before a wormhole opens and destroys the universe so he has to move fast.

He starts reaching Mach speed and Wells tells him to remember that night, the night his mother was murdered. A portal is opened and Barry vanishes.

"I believe it's time to say goodbye to Harrison Wells." Stein states and they agree. They make it to the pipeline and release him and show him the Time Sphere.

"It's beautiful. Rip Hunter would be impressed. He built the first one of these things." Wells tells them when Peter's senses go off and watch as a metal helmet with wings on the side comes flying from the portal. "What the hell is that?" Peter asks what they're all wondering.

"That's my que to leave." Wells tells them and gets into the time machine and starts it up. "You do realize that we're the first people to actually build a time machine, right?" Peter asks Cisco and he just now realizes the same thing. "That makes some of this worth it." Cisco informs him when a flash of light exits the portal and destroys the Time Sphere. They look to see it was Barry, he's returned to their timeline.

"You didn't save your mother?" Peter asks, confused to how nothing changed. "Why?!" Wells asks, getting back up. "You could've had everything you ever wanted!" He states to Barry as he also stands up.

"I already do." Barry states to him when Peter realizes they need to shut down the portal before everything explodes and the speedsters begin to fight. He reaches up top and helps Caitlin and Ronnie who have the same idea in mind and shut down the generators.

Barry and Wells continue to fight as the portal closed.

"Just so that we're clear, after I kill you, I'm going to kill them, even your father. I always win, Flash." Wells informs Barry when a gunshot is heard and it shocks everyone as they see Eddie committed suicide to stop the Reverse Flash.

"Eddie!" Joe tells and questions his partner as they watch Wells shaking.

"What's happening?" Barry asks his team.

"He's being Marty McFly'ed. Eddie is his ancestor. If Eddie dies now, there will be no future bloodlines and...he's being erased from existence." Peter tells them and watch in shock as Wells turns into a older man with blonde hair revealing to the the real Eobard Thawne.

"I controlled your lives for so long. How are you gonna do without me?" Thawne asks before he let's out a nightmarish scream as he completely vanished.

"That image's gonna haunt my dreams." Peter promises when the portal opens back up and raises from the labs.

"It's reopening. The portals reopening!" Cisco warns everyone as they all begin running for it as the portal grows larger.

They all run outside and see the wormhole destroying earth. "I believe the end is near." Peter states to them as they hear citizens screaming and running from the portal. "What's it doing?" Caitlin asks them.

"Feeding." Stein starts explaining. "The singularity won't stop, not even after the earth is gone." He tells them.

In the distance, Snart looks up to see the portal, Curt Conners from Mercury labs sees it, Captain Singh notices it. Even Barry's dad in prison notices it.

"I'm afraid the accretion disc has already assembled. The diffuse material that's in orbital motion around the singularity." Stein tells them and then an idea enters Barry's head. "We have to disrupt the motion." He tells everyone. "Basically it's kust like the tornado, only in the air." Barry explains and they don't like that idea.

"Buddy, that thing has an energy level of Maybe at best 6.7 Tera Electron Volts." Peter informs his friend there's nothing they can do to prevent it. "I have to try." Barry states and is prepared to stop it and raises his mask.

Peter sees there are people being sucked up and he needs to help. "Good luck, Flash." Peter says and runs off and puts on his mask to save the citizens.

Barry begins running and leaps into the air and runs across the debris to use it to keep himself in the air. Everyone is grabbing on to everything they could to not get pulled in as Peter swings in and helps them stay on the ground or get them to a safer distance.

In the air, Barry keeps running as fast as he can to keep the singularity from destroying earth.

"He's contained the singularity by adding to its angular momentum." Stein tells them happy that its working, but it will only work for so long. "Now what?" Cisco asks Stein. "We have to merge the inner and outer event horizons." Stein explains the next part.

"How do we do that?" Ronnie asks him. "By separating in the eye of it." Stein explains and that means they have to get up there themselves, and there's a chance they could not make it back.

Ronnie and Stein merge and are ready to save the city. They fly off into the air into the eye of the storm. Barry keeps speeding around and sees them entering.

Peter is swinging around, helping the citizens when he also notices Firestorm flying into the eye. "No!" Peter and Barry shout when they separate, and the storm closes.

Peter sees Stein falling and leaps to catch him and swings him to the labs and hops Barry found Ronnie. They quickly make it and see Barry speeding up to them, but with no Ronnie. Stein starts waking up and looks around for his other half. "Ronald?" Stein asks the speedster and he's sad to say he's gone.

The team meet up and have the same question in mind. "I'm so sorry." Barry says and Peter moves to comfort her since they both lost someone special to them.


	23. Sinister forces

It's been a month since the singularity and everything has changed since then. Cisco is working with the CCPD to work on a way to stop metahumans without needing to depend on the Flash, Caitlin has gotten a job at Mercury Labs recently as Barry has isolated himself and Stein has been with his wife since.

Right now, Peter is showing Caitlin around the rest Mercury labs. "On this floor is where we have protein structure, rDNA, chromatography, transgenic testing, that's dr. Conners labs with X-ray video." Peter explains to her when she notices something.

"What's that?" Caitlin asks and sees a device kept behind glass. It just looks like a enhanced version of some sporting t-shirt cannon with electronic applications.

"Oh, that's something me and Conners worked on my first year here. We call it the Ganali device, it's basically a simple idea. We first load it with any antigen, then it will be shot up into the atmosphere turning into a cloud that could cover from a neighborhood to all across the city. Theoretically, it could even cure polio in an afternoon." Peter explains to Caitlin and it surprises her.

"That's incredible." Caitlin states to him and Peter disagrees.

"Well, It was. But then when it was finished, we were putting together pros and cons, and then we realized that it could be loaded with a toxin, or if you wanted to back out. You can't exactly run from a cloud, so we just keep it here. Just in case something were to come up one day." Peter explains when an alert goes off in his phone.

"Action time?" Caitlin asks him. "Looks like there's an attempting breakout happening at Iron Heights." Peter says and she runs off to her lab to get everything set up.

-

Peter swings towards the prison as Caitlin is in comms. "Talk to me, Cait." Peter tells her as he lands on a police car to get him there faster.

"_Okay, It seems like someone planned a coordinated attack. All of the cell blocks have been breached, but the police have them handled, but the cell with your enemies..." _Caitlin tells him and he sees this is bad.

"Okay, I'll lock down the psycho's in costumes, hopefully I'll get reception down there." Peter tells her and makes his way down to where he knows they're holding his enemies.

Peter enters the sewers and looks around. "_Hey, Everything going okay?_" Caitlin asks him as he's not getting anything so far.

"Yeah, everything okay so far." He tells her when his senses go off. "Oh no."

He quickly moves to dodge a mechanical tentacle and looks to see Otto. "Look who we have here, it's Octopus." Peter says as he exits the shadows to reveal his new mechanical arms he must've been working on ever since he escaped with the Trickster.

"Do not call me that!" Otto tells Peter.

"Hey, if the tentical footwear fits." Peter quips and gets ready for action. "So why did you return here if you already escaped?" Peter asks, not understanding why he's back here.

"I have a few associates to reunite with." Otto explains when more figure come from the corridors.

Martin Li, mr. Negative. Name explains most of it, he uses his dark energy power to fight.

Mac Gargan, Scorpion. An entire suit of armor with a tail with poison inside.

Adrian Toomes, Vulture. A small arms weapons dealer who was Peter's fist enemy when he started out.

Max Dillon, Electro. Peter's first powered enemy before metahumans started appearing everywhere.

Kraven the Hunter. Basically a psycho hunter who thought Peter's head would look good on a pointy stick.

"Well look at this, you let all of my past enemies out of their cells." Peter jokes and wonders how he plans on fighting all six of his greatest enemies at once.

"I give you the Sinister Six!" Otto introduces his team to Peter.

"Wow, that's a terrible name. All that build up for so little." Peter states when Rhino charges at him and he easily dodged it.

"Get him! All of you!" Otto tells his team and they all run at him one at a time. Kraven tries hitting him with his sphere and Peter dodges it like nothing and lands on the roof. What he didn't expect was Vulture flying at him and grabs him. "Toomes?!" Peter asks hating birds now.

"Long time no see, pest!" Vulture states and Peter just webs his mask and drops him. He then dodges a blast from Electro and Rhino charging at him.

Mr. Negative sends a blast at him and sends him into the wall. "Okay, that was a good one." Peter compliments when Electro blasts at him again sending him across the room.

Kraven grabs him and throws him into Otto's clutches. "You guys give up yet?" Peter asks them knowing this isn't a fight he's going to win in this environment.

"I applaud your bravado even as I question your intelligence. Coming here without a team, Flash dump you after the singularity?" Otto asks since Flash has only been seen once in a while and is likely dealing with the breakout upstairs.

"_Pe-er? I -re y-u.." _the signal starts breaking and Peter can't hear her.

"And I'm blocking all communications from getting out. Rhino! Remove his mask and show me who this nuisance is." Otto tells the living tank and before he had the chance, Peter leaps back up and runs back into the tunnel he came from.

"Cait, can you hear me? I'm gonna need you to call Arrow, maybe Flash. I'll even take Vixen if you can get her." Peter states not being picky on who to contact as the six super villains keep following.

"Looks like Ock was right. I guess I'm on my own. Caitlin is going to kill me." Peter states as the enemies are trying to track him and gets an idea.

The team chase Spider-Man to a corridor that separates into different places. "Which way, fearless leader?" Negative asks mockingly.

"Sinister Six, come out and play!" Peter calls them out.

"Kraven, you have superior tracking skills, don't you? Where is he?" Otto asks Kraven.

"I can't tell. It's like an echo chamber in here, and his scent seems to be everywhere." Kraven responds to him.

"Hey! Is he saying I stink? Yet again, I never did wash this suit after my run in with Grodd." Peter realizes and gets back on topic to mock these guys.

"Here's a question for you. How many members of the Sinister Six does it take to change a lightbulb? The answer is six. Four of them to hold down Electro, and one of them to screw the lightbulb into his mouth!" Peter mocks them and Electro laughs at that remark.

"You guys wanna see that? It actually does work." Electro asks his team members and gets angry stares from all of them. "Sorry." He tells them, apologetically.

"Enough! There are six tunnels and six of us. If we each take one, he cannot possibly escape." Otto tells them and they each take a tunnel to find him.

Rhino is searching when he suddenly gets webbed into the wall.

"It'll take even you a minute to get out of that webbing, big guy." Peter informs him when a mechanical tentacle gets him.

"I'm seriously hating my luck today." Peter states as the other members show up and Kraven frees Rhino.

"Someone captures my quarry." Kraven states to the other members. "But the fun isn't over yet. I can still spark things up, and him." Electro responds to them. "Let me fill his entire body with venom." Scorpion states, ready to finish him off.

"No! Let me absorb all of his energy, killing him." Negative states, seriously wanting to feel Peter's strength and will power.

"No. Let me squish him." Rhino informs them when Otto stops all of them.

"The only prize here will be his unmasking." Otto states and Vulture agrees since they both have been waiting over fifteen years to learn his identity.

But Peter acts quickly and leaps at Rhino to take down their biggest weapon. "Stop him!" Otto tells Electro and he aims at Spider-Man, but accidentally hits Rhino as Peter got out of the way.

"Watch who you're zapping!" Rhino states and runs into Electro, sending him flying into Vulture.

"Stop fighting each other and stop him!" Otto commands the team.

"This is like the Six Stooges instead of the three." Peter jokes at them. "I mean, I thought you all broke out of this prison to destroy me. It seems like you're all trying to destroy each other to kill me. Did none of you realize there's only one Spider-Man and six members?" Peter wonders.

"I mean, I know some of you are too stupid to remember that, right horn head?" Peter asks Rhino.

"Are you talking to me?!" Rhino asks probing Peter's point.

"Well, is there anyone else in your team zoo with a horn on them?" Peter asks him.

Rhino gets seriously angry and charges at Peter again and runs into the pipes in the sewers. The pipes then burst and the water hits all of the members, including Electro shocking everyone.

"Water and electricity, they never mix." Peter informs to them all and makes his escape.

Peter makes his getaway when suddenly Rhino comes out of the ground and the rest of the sinister suddenly follow afterward.

"Did you really think you'd get away that easily?" Otto asks as the citizens start running for it.

"To be completely honest, yes." Peter states honestly to him and starts fighting off all the members yet again. But luckily for Peter, they're not well with working together. Rhino then comes charging at him from behind and Peter's senses warn him ahead.

"I'm gonna squash you like a bug!" Rhino promises Peter and he just dodges him as he runs into Otto instead.

"Come on, man, how many times have we had this conversation? I'm an arachnid. Not a bug!" Peter informs Rhino for the dozenth time and webs his head into the ground.

Vulture comes flying up behind him and shoots his weapons at him. "Hey, since when did you have those?" Peter questions since Adrian is usually just using his wings, never weaponry.

"You know, for a Vulture you sure fly like a chicken." Peter jokes as the weapons just hit Electro and Rhino.

Mr. Negative goes in to fight, but Peter quickly equips a web grenade to his back, stopping him and as it explodes, it also traps Kraven.

"That should be all of them." Peter states as he looks over the villains and sees two of them missing.

"Hey, Spider-Twerp! I'm still here!" Electro informs Peter and shoots a blast of lightning in his direction.

"You see?! Now that's one I haven't heard before, and was clever." Peter states while dodging all of the lightning blasts and Scorpion's sting attacks.

"This time, you loose, Spider-Man." scorpion tells him when a flash of lightning comes in and knocks the Scorpion to the ground. They look to see the Flash.

"Hey fellas. I don't think we've been properly introduced. Names Flash." Barry introduces himself and speeds to help Peter back up.

"You okay, big man?" Barry asks his friend he hasn't seen in a while.

"You know, a broken this. Might've bruised that. Normal day in the office. Now it's just the matter of defeating the six of my deadliest enemies at the same time." Peter informs Barry.

"Well, I already took out the Stinger." Barry states since Scorpion is out cold.

"Okay, that's one, then there were five." Peter responds as they all stand back up.

Otto sends a tentacle at them, but Peter quickly stops it and uses it to run up and kick Otto in the face. Barry speeds off and starts fighting mr. Negative.

"So, if you're mr. Negative, is there a Mrs. Positive?" Barry wonders as Peter starts fighting off Kraven.

"Come on, man. I used that one years ago." Peter states to him and webs Kraven to the wall. Rhino comes up and slams Peter into the wall.

"Your failure is sublime." Otto states to him.

"Even with the Flash, you're nothing against my Sinister Six!" He informs them both.

"Wait, Sinister Six? That's what you're calling them?" Barry questions him. "I mean, I could've come up with something better." Barry states and speed up on him and Peter does the same thing from behind. They combine their strengths and knock Otto out and Peter rips his mechanical limbs off of their placements.

"Not so sinister anymore." Peter states as all of their members are down and accounted for. But once he turned around, and sees Barry has vanished.

-

Back at Mercury labs, Caitlin is helping Curt Conners with his research to grow back people's limbs that have been lost by using Lizard DNA.

"What you see here, dr. Snow, is a computer model of a lizard. Now, many of these wonderful creatures have so brilliantly adapted that they can regenerate entire limbs at will." Conners informs her and she understands why he would be interested in doing so since he lost his right arm.

"Me and dr. Parker are trying to harness the capability and transfer it into our host subject, Freddy the three-legged mouse." Conners explains to her and uploads the algorithm that she put together to help them. **"System ready for gene insertion."** The computer informs them.

"It's preempting the proteins." Conners tells her and they wait to see if it's working and after a few trials and errors, the peptide algorithm was accepted and the computer Freddy regrew his missing limb.

"It worked." Caitlin states and chuckle.

Conners shows to her the two mouse subjects as Peter was able to join them after cleaning himself up from the fight. "Meet Freddy and Wilma, our three legged mice." Peter introduces Caitlin to their mice.

Conners picks up Freddy and Peter takes him out of his hand and Conners has the serum ready for injection. "Let's be careful. We don't want to begin human trials just yet." Conners jokes as they inject Freddy and place him back in his cage and they just have to wait and see if it worked.

———-


	24. The Lizard

Tina McGee has heard about their accomplishments and was called by someone from Oscorp to have a talk with him. Since they're the ones who supply their equipment. "Cross species genetics is finally working." Conners tells the Oscorp visiter, Ratha. "We've used the lizard DNA to help Freddy regrow that limb." He explains to Ratha.

"It's a miracle." Ratha states seeing it himself. "No, it's hard work and promise and a step closer to the primate lab." Connors corrects him.

"But he doesn't have time for every little step. He can't wait." Ratha informs them referring to Norman Osborn who is dying. "He's going to have to. We won't just forget procedure for anyone." Conners states.

"We have to start human trials." Ratha states to them, ignoring him.

"It's not happening." Conners informs him. "Then he is going to die."

"Where are you going to find the people to volunteer for something like this?" Conners questions him.

"As far as anyone's concerned, it's a winter flu shot. The veterans hospital is a nice place to start." Ratha tells Conners and takes the formula.

"Say goodbye to that arm you always dreamed of." Ratha states and leaves him.

-

Peter is in the middle of fighting off Shocker in the abandoned subway. "You just never learn, do you spider?" Shocker asks him while trying to shoot him with his shockwaves and Peter just dodges them all while trying to web him to the tracks.

"It's one of my issues." Peter states to him as he keeps dodging his blasts around the subway.

Shocker uses his soundwaves to break free of the webbing. "I think it's finally time I teach you a lesson, and class is now in session." Shocker informs Peter.

"Oh, come on, Shocker. You're got no class, let alone a whole school worth of class." Peter states to Shocker and he hears Caitlin laughing while he webbed Shocker's leg and flips him upside down and webs his hands together so he won't be stupid enough to blow his hands off.

"Don't worry, in about half an hour, the police will find you and save you." Peter promises Shocker and leaves him hanging around.

-

Mercury labs, Conners decides to do something drastic and takes the lizard forula himself to see if it will work or not. Once injected, he statrs feeling his DNA changing. His body morphing all too well, he's becoming something entirely different.

-

Peter makes it to Caitlin's apartment and sees her still watching the police scanner and walks up on her. "Paging, dr. Snow." Peter calls out and she just rolls her eyes at her friend.

"Looks like Shocker is taken into police custody as of this moment." Caitlin tells him when Peter sees she has a paper out about Flash and Spider-Man day. It's supposed to be happening in a few days and Peter doesn't know if he should attend or not. After all, Peter and Barry weren't the heroes, Ronnie died to keep everyone safe.

"You still think you won't make an appearance?" Caitlin asks him, seeing through him as she always does.

"I don't know, I mean, I know everyone is expecting me, but do you think I should?" Peter asks her, wondering how she feels.

"If I go, will Spider-Man be making an appearance?" She questions again.

"Okay, I'll think about it for now. I'll tell you a day before if I decide to do it or not." Peter promises when they hear there's a disturbance on the Central City Bridge.

"Looks like duty calls." Peter says and puts his mask back on and heads for the window again. "I'll have something here for you if you want to eat." Caitlin promises as Peter is already out the window.

-

On the bridge, everyone is running away from the creature that's approaching. Peter comes landing on the high point of the bridge and sees the creature storming across the cars. "This is a new one." Peter states to himself never seeing something like this before.

He watches as the creature throws empty cars over the landing and starts destroying the car holding Ratha and he throws it over the edge. Peter comes swinging in and sees someone inside it and pulls him out as the car hits the water.

Peter climbs back up with Ratha and sees the creature has already disappeared. "_Peter? What was it?_" Caitlin asks him since she doesn't have eyes on anything over there.

"I know I'm gonna sound crazy, but I think it was a giant lizard." Peter tells her and hearing it out loud, it sounds even crazier.

-

The next day, Peter decides to check with Conners to learn how to fight something like this since he's the biggest expert on lizards he knows.

"Dr. Conners, you in?" Peter calls and doesn't get a response when he notices one of the containers for the lizard formula and it's been used.

"Mr. Parker, what may I do for you?" Conners womders seeing him.

"Oh, Doc, I wanted to ask you a question. How would a predator track a reptile?" Peter asks him, knowing if he can figure that out, he can find where this creature is hiding like with Grodd.

"Oh, they don't. Most reptiles are at the top of their respective food chain, kings of their domain." Was Conners response to the question.

"What about vulnerability?" Peter questions.

"Why the sudden interests in the cold blooded?" Conners wonders since Peter has no interest in the past. Peter quickly comes up with the first thing that came to mind.

"I was just watching this documentary last night, I only caught the last few minutes, it got me interested." Peter lies hoping he buys it. "So because of their cold blood, would they react to sudden changes in temperature?" Peter asks him.

"Well, you'd have to catch one first." Conners informs him while erasing part of the whiteboard. "Did you know there's a rumor of a new species in Central City?" Conners asks and Peter wonders if that's what he saw last night.

"What do you know about it? You seen it?" Peter asks him, hoping to get some sort of answer. "No, it hasn't been classified as of yet. But it can be aggressive when threatened." Conners tells him when Peter notices half of his neck skin is reptile like.

Conners walks away and takes his bag. "Doc, you okay?" Peter wonders since it seems like he actually did begin human trials, and on himself nonetheless.

"Never been better, Peter. Never better. Now if you exucse me, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to leave." Conners says and walks to lock his labs. "I have a new project, and I need to be alone." He tells Peter and he does as he asks.

"Don't worry, mr. Parker. I'll be back. Wonderful things are coming for Central City." Conners states and leaves Mercury labs. Peter's senses go off and he looks back into the labs and sees Freddy and Wilma's cages and they're destroyed.

Peter decides to go back into the labs using his security card and sees Freddy has turned into a monstrous creature, and he's devouring Wilma. "Oh, boy. This ain't right." Peter states and needs to find a place to put new monster Freddy.

-

Peter makes it to Caitlin's place to inform her and it's not exactly believable. "The creature on the bridge was Curt Conners?" Caitlin questions, not believing him.

"Cait, after everything that happened in the past year, why do you sound so surprised?" Peter wonders and she sees his point.

"I think there was something imbalance about the equation we gave him and now he's turning into a lizard every time he uses it. I saw on his neck, he had lizard scales." Peter explains his suspicions to her.

"And I'm sorry to say, I think he's planning something for Central City. You hear anything about some sort of reptile or something attacking people?" Peter asks her and she gets to work and finds reports of something new in the sewers.

-

Peter makes it near where the recent reports have been coming from.

"Okay, I'm gonna go check out as far as I can go. You know how to run a antidote at Mercury labs?" Peter asks Caitlin who's still at the computer.

"_Yeah, of course._" Caitlin tells him.

"Okay, get to Mercury labs, access the cross-species file. It's a blue serum. It's under File 690-1963." Peter tells her and she starts to head out and Peter knows now he's on his own.

He keeps walking when he finds a whole lab setup in the sewers. He looks to see dozens of vials of the formula and a video on his computer.

"_I spent my life as a scientist trying to create a world without weakness, without outcasts. I sought to create a stronger human being, but there's no such thing. Human beings are weak, pathetic, feeble minded creatures." _Conners on the video informs anyone listening.

Peter let's the video keep playing and looks around his lab. "_Why be human at all when we can be so much more? Faster, stronger, smarter. This will be stronger than anything metahuman can do. This is my gift to you._" Conners says and Peter sees that he plans on spreading his serum across all of Central City. But he would need something that could disperse it all over the city at once.

Peter than remembers the device at Mercury labs that could do exactly that. "Oh no. Cait." Peter states knowing he just sent Caitlin into dangers way this time.

-

Conners, once again fully lizard starts making his way from the sewers where he's met with a CCPD taskforce and they try shooting him down, Lizard just heals and releases the toxin to turn them into lizards and continues to make his way to Mercury labs.

-

Across the city, Caitlin makes it to Mercury labs and notices the device as she starts the antidote.

-

Peter just exits the sewers and has dozens of people honking their horns from their cars and he just gets off the streets and calls Caitlin. "Cait, where are you?" Peter asks her.

-

"What do you mean? I'm at Mercury labs." Caitlin tells him since he asked her to go there.

"_Okay, you need to get out of there, now. Conners is on his way. He's going to use the dispersement device and infect the whole city with his formula._" Peter informs her.

"The antidote is cooking. There's eight minutes left." Caitlin tells him seeing everyone still working.

"_You're gonna wait for eight minutes after what I just told you?_" Peter asks her and Caitlin gets an idea.

"I'm gonna evacuate the labs." She tells him then hangs up to activate the fire alarm and notices the Ganali device, if this is what he's after...maybe she should get it out of the way.

-

Peter is swinging to make it to Mercury labs when a helicopter and it seems to be inviting him in. Peter leaps in to see Captain Singh and detective West.

"Please tell me you have a way of explaining what's happening?" Joe asks Peter. "Long story short, the creature is dr. Curt Conners. He's been working on a formula to regenerate limbs, and something went wrong and now he's planning on doing the same thing to all of Central City." Peter states and tells them to head to Mercury labs to stop it.

-

Caitlin notices the Lizard is breaking through the walls and activated the lockdown procedure to close all entrances into the lab and has to find somewhere to hide and sees the air vents.

Lizard destroys the doors with ease and sees the Ganali device is missing and starts searching around for it. Caitlin is trying to stay calm as he searches and must've noticed her location as he breaks open the door and takes the device.

Caitlin tries fighting him with the blowtorch but he's infected and leaves her. She looks to see he's gone and sees the antidote is complete.

-

The helicopter arrives above Mercury labs. "So you got a plan or you going in willynilly?" Singh asks Peter. "Willynilly is kinda my thing." Peter answers as they see Lizard has already started the procedure for the Ganali device and Peter knows that means he's got two minutes and leaps out to fight him.

Lizard notices Peter coming in, But was too late as Peter slams into him and they both go falling off of the antenna and they begin to fight on the rooftop.

Peter tries getting back up to stop the device and Lizard tries throwing him off the roof, but Peter was smart and webs his hands and pulls himself at the Lizard as he throws a container of liquid nitrogen and Peter throws it back at him, causing it to explode. That gives Peter a minute as Caitlin runs up and sees them fighting.

"Peter!" Caitlin calls out and Peter notices her and she tosses the antidote at him and he catches it as the Lizard starts getting up. Peter runs for the Ganali device and Caitlin runs back inside as the Lizard chases after Peter to prevent him from stopping it.

The device warns that they've got 10 seconds before it goes off and Peter was able to replace the serum with the antidote to help the victims and Lizard grabs him a second too late as it fires the antidote into the atmosphere, spreading it all across Central City, including Conners.

-

"_An eerie calm has set in over Central City. Apparently, some sort of asrosolized antidote was launched from Mercury labs, which seems to have counteracted the biotoxins. Residents of the City can rest peacefully, knowing the alleged mastermind of this terror plot, Curtis Conners, is behind bars._" The news report goes on and Peter turns it off as Caitlin gets back to his wounds back at his place.

"You did good out there, Spider-Man." Caitlin compliments him.

"You didn't do so back yourself, dr. Snow." Peter replies to her and Caitlin sees somethings bothering him.

"What's wrong, Peter? Is it Conners?" Caitlin wonders since they were good friends before all of this.

"No, it's not that. It's May." He explains and she's confused by that when he continues. "I want to tell her I'm Spider-Man." Peter explains and Caitlin is shocked by that but knows it's time she is let in on what's going on.


	25. Other worlds

——————

Barry is checking on a murder at a plant. "How's it going?" Joe asks as he approaches Barry.

"Good." Barry replies.

"So, the victim. His name is Al Rothstein." Joe informs Barry as he looks over the report. "He's a welder here at the nuclear plant. Coworker found him dead this morning. So, what did you get?" Joe wonders.

"There's petechiae on his face and the whites of his eyes, and this brushing around his neck shows he was strangled. By someone very strong and large." Barry explains what he found out.

"Or something? Like a gorilla?" Joe questions remembering Grodd is still out there somewhere.

"This wasn't Grodd." Barry reassures Joe.

"I'll let you know when I find more." Barry says as he starts packing everything up.

"So this Flash/Spider-Man Day thing. You planing on making an appearance? I heard Peter is making it." Joe asks him.

"I haven't decided." Barry tells him since he knows he wasn't the hero that day.

"Barr, I head the mayors trying to give the two of you the key to the city." Joe explains to him.

"I don't need an award." Barry replies to him.

"You love getting awards. Like all those science trophies you got in high school?" Joe reminds him of the restless nights he spent perfecting projects.

"Those I deserved. I'll let you know what I find." Barry says and walks off. What he didn't know was that there was a blonde man watching him as he been doing on Cisco, Caitlin, Joe even Peter, and they never noticed him.

-

"_Flash/Spider-Man Day is almost here. And a speck downtown rally is in preparation to honor the heroes who saved Central City. It's been six months since Flash and Spider-Man saved the city from the freak black hole that erupted in the sky and a month since Spider-Man stoped Curtis Conners, the Lizard._" The news goes on about everything that has happened at the CCPD as Cisco is putting together a device to protect them from metahumans.

"You really think you can get this to work? I don't want you having me shooting my pants down in the streets." Joe states to Cisco who is confident it'll work. "Once I finish the Boot, the CCPD will have what it needs to take down metas." Cisco informs him.

"Especially since Peter and Barry have gone full alone Wolf McQuade and fight crimes by themselves, except for when all those guys broke out of Iron Heights and they teamed up for a good minute or so." Cisco states since it's been 3 months since the Sinister Six.

"I know, have you spoken to them?" Joe wonders since he hasn't even seen Peter in the past half year.

"Not really. I haven't even heard from Caitlin since she started working with Peter down at Mercury labs." Cisco informs him when Iris comes in and joins in on the conversation and they get that Cisco is jealous of Barry and Peter getting Keys

-

Flash/Spider-Man Day has arrived as Peter and Caitlin show up and look around all of the celebrations and everything around them.

"Wow. I never realized just how many people actually love me." Peter states seeing all of the Spider-Man merchandises everywhere along with Flash merchandise.

"I still can't believe that you sang a Christmas album and had it manufactured." Caitlin states as she shows him the copy she bought just recently.

"You are never gonna let me live that down now, are you?" Peter asks her, even when he already knows the answer and she just says "no".

"Okay, I'm gonna be swinging from across those buildings up there. Giving me some cover from people looking up and catching me without my mask." Peter tells her and she looks up at where he's looking.

"Give 'em a show, Spidey." Caitlin tells her and he walks off to get into position and into his suit.

"Hey, Caitlin." Someone calls out and Caitlin looks to see May and is happy to see she could make it and hugs her. Peter did state he wanted to tell her and Just needed to find the right moment to tell her.

At the parking lot, Cisco and Joe are watching everything. "We expecting trouble?" Cisco wonders.

"Cops expect trouble. In this city, I expect evil monsters." Joe states and Cisco couldn't disagree when he sees Caitlin and May in the distance talking.

The mayor walks up to give his speech to the people. "People of Central City, we are here today because two people have saved all of us a year ago. One who has been with our fair city for over a decade and has never asked for anything in return. Someone who barley even recognizes what he's done for our city. So when you're falling with nobody to save you, or your store is being robbed, or your house is on fire, Who has always been there to break your fall, saves your families, and puts out the flames?"

"Spider-Man!" Everyone cheers and Peter watches them and is happy to see people actually appreciate him.

"And last year, our newest hero who helped us against these men and women who have broken not just our laws, but physics and reason. But we got someone else, too. We got the Flash!" The mayor says and everyone cheers again. "Our wounds run deep, and I know many of you are afraid of threats tomorrow may bring. But the Flash and Spider-Man don't just protect us, they restore hope where it was lost. That's why I'm honored to present the key to the heroes who saved Central City, Spider-Man and the Flash! So let's hear it for them, huh?" The mayor calls and the band starts playing the Spider-Man theme song and they all cheer as Spider-Man comes swinging on down.

"Hey, what's up?" Peter asks as he swings across everyone and hi-5s people as he swings across to the stage and he lands on top of the stage.

"Shazam!" He shouts as everyone keeps on cheering for him as he comes down onto the stage and everyone just waits for the Flash.

For a good minute, it would seem like he might not show when a flash of lightning comes and Flash appears next to Spider-Man and everyone cheers once again and they all cheer the heroes names.

"It's moments like this that make me appreciate everything." Peter tells himself and the heroes turn back to the mayor who s holding the keys for the heroes.

"The doors to Central City will forever be open for you, heroes." The mayor says and before they could accept the keys, Peter senses go off and they see a car coming at them.

"Look out!" Joe shouts and Barry speeds the mayor away as Peter catches the car. Barry stops and sees a man wearing a hood and removes it to show he's wearing a mask.

"The heroes who saved Central City, hate to rain on your Parade." The man mockingly apologizes and Barry runs to stop him and he punches Barry into a police car.

The man removes his coat to reveal his sleeveless outfit he's wearing as the cops try shooting him and the bullets have no affect on him. Peter comes leaping in and sees his look.

"Hey, Bane. I'm pretty sure Batman misses you in Gotham." Peter states and swings a mailbox and slams into him.

"But I didn't miss you." Peter quips and that gets not Bane angry and they begin fighting. Cisco and Joe get the Boot and wait for Peter to get clear and shoot his leg.

But it seems to do nothing as he starts growing three times his original size and Peter looks in shock to see it.

"Forget Bane. Where are the Avengers?" Peter questions as Barry speeds off to grab something and comes back with containers of flammable liquid.

"What's the plan?" Peter asks Barry, not seeing what he's thinking.

"I'm throwing, you're webbing." Barry tells him and now he understands. Barry throws the containers and Peter first shoots a web to connect the containers and shoots a taser web for them to explode and the man starts shrinking and removes his mask to reveal Al Rothstein.

"That's the body from the nuclear plant, he's alive." Joe states completely confused as he runs off and Peter just now realizes he has a whole side of his body burned and he has to get that checked on.

-

Now at Mercury labs, Peter is healing his leg and fixing his suit, Caitlin is looking at what she can find about the man who was killed and supposedly come back to life. They even called in to Mercury labs to say Peter was injured during the rally and have asked for some space so they know no one will interrupt them.

"According to the coroner's office, the man's body for who attacked you is still there, so this isn't anything like the _Walking Dead_, fortunately." Caitlin informs Peter as he puts the finishing touches back on his suit.

"Does he have any relatives?" Peter asks her, trying to figure this all out while taking his mind off his painful leg.

"It says here he's an only child and when the accelerator exploded, he was in Hawaii." Caitlin responds and that just makes things even weirder.

"Okay, is there anything else?" Peter questions, trying to put all of the pieces of this puzzle together.

"Well, it would seem the X-ray's and CT machines all failed while our man was charging himself up." Caitlin tells him and he thinks that could be related.

"So are you gonna tell May?" Caitlin asks while she keeps looking into all of this.

"Yeah, you keep asking me this for the past few weeks and I keep telling you, I need to find the best time." Peter repeats himself since every time a good opportunity presents itself, something interrupts him from telling her.

"So this is what it looks like inside Mercury labs." A familiar voice says and they look up to see Cisco somehow got in.

"Security here is way better than it was at Star labs, what with people walking in and out of the cortex all the time." Cisco states and they wonder what he's doing here.

"Sweet Sarahi. Is that a 6K proton splicer?" Cisco asks seeing the new tech they got after the Lizard incident.

"Yes, It is. Dr. McGee constantly insists on having the latest tech. Even after we were able to split off from Oscorp." Peter says.

"I spotted you two at the rally, and May. And I'm guessing you saw what happened." Cisco says referring to Caitlin. "And check this out, we found this on a victim at the nuclear power plant. But the badge shows absolutely nothing at all, which is weird." Cisco says and hands them the device. "What's also weird is that at the same time that metahuman grew, all the X-ray machines within a mile radius just went belly up, and I'm starting to see with the expressions on your faces you already knew that, didn't you?" Cisco asks and sees they already have most of the information.

"Okay, if you guys could just look at the badge and see if it was tampered with or something." Cisco asks his friends and they decide to do it since it could help them

-

After Cisco got what he was after, he met up with Stein and Iris and went to Star labs which alerted Barry and he sees them. "What are you all doing here?" Barry asks, confused since he doesn't want them here anymore.

"So, Caitlin and Peter was right." Cisco says, ignoring him while talking to Stein.

"Yes, all humans contain small amount of radiation due to contact with cell phones, microwaves, televisions, etcetera. Our bodies are natural conductors." Stein agrees with them.

"I think our meta's been sucking all the radiation around him and using it to power himself." Cisco states seeing why the hospital equipment was failing. "So if we want to find him, we look for places without radiation."

-

Peter and Caitlin have got a location where the man could've been, a hazardous waste reclamation plant that isn't showing any radiation. Which means that their guy is waiting for them there and didn't let Cisco in since they don't want to be involved with anything with Star labs since everything.

"Okay, Cait, I'm going in." Peter tells her, ready to fight this Atom Smasher.

"_Just be careful. We don't exactly have a good way of stopping him yet._" Caitlin warns and doesn't want to pave him off of the floor.

Peter enters the warehouse and sees him absorbing the radiation from the barrels. "I've heard of tv addiction, but that's ridiculous." Peter quips and Atom Smasher notices him.

"The bug on my windshield. I thought I was going to have to go searching for you again." Atom Smasher states as he's fueled up and ready to tussle and Peter is technically still healing from the burn.

A flash of lightning comes in and Peter looks to see Barry. "I'm not gonna let you hurt anyone else." Barry warns Atom Smasher.

"I'm only here to hurt the two of you." Atom Smasher explains and that gets them confused.

"Why did you kill Albert Rothstein? And why do you look exactly like him?" Peter asks him.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Atom Smasher responds to that.

"I fought a giant lizard, a psycho hunter who wanted my head on a pike. Try me." Peter states and Barry spins his arms around to stop Atom Smasher and it only pushes him back a little. Peter decides to stay back for a minute and watches as Barry tries fighting him and Atom Smasher grows bigger and grabs Barry by the neck.

Now this is where Peter interjects and webs Barry and the man's hand and he drops Barry, but still kicks him across the room into and through the wall. Peter gets into a stance to fight and Atom Smasher starts approaching him slowly. "He said you both were some kind of big hero, but you don't seem worthy of him, or this city." Atom Smasher tells Peter and that gets him confused to who he's referring to.

"_Peter, I've got an idea._" Caitlin's voice comes in and Peter is ready for anything as Atom Smasher is trying to smash him and Peter tries webbing his hands so that he wears himself down, but it's not working.

"I'm open to anything right now, Cait." Peter says while dodging another punch that ends up breaking a canister behind him.

"Remember Blackout from last year?" Caitlin asks him and Peter does. Blackout, a meta with the ability to control electricity and stole Barry's speed for a while and also when Peter let in his friends on Spider-Man.

"If he keeps absorbing radiation, he'll end up just like Blackout." Caitlin explains her plan and Peter likes it.

He looks around and sees a container for the nuclear waste and knows where to lead him.

"Hey, tall, dark, and crazy. You want me? I'm a sitting target." Peter says and walks backwards into the container as Atom Smasher follows.

"You really think I couldn't catch a bug like you?" Atom Smasher asks him. "News flash, I'm an arachnid." Peter states and charges in between his legs and gets out while Caitlin hacked into the controls to close the doors and floods the room with radiation and they know he can't possibly absorb it all and he'll choke on it.

Peter looks and sees it's working and sees he absorbed all of it, but it still destroyed his abilities. Peter goes back in and sees him on the floor and is ready to get some answers. "Why did you want to kill me and Flash?" Peter wonders as Atom Smasher is gasping for air.

"He promise he'd take me home. If I killed the two of you." Atom Smasher explains and that gets Peter even more confuses as he removes his mask to look at him.

"Who promised you that?" Part asks him.

Atom Smasher keeps gasping for air and Peter sees he's trying to explains and gets just one word out. "Zoom."

-

Peter and Caitlin decided it's probably best if they rejoined the team at Star labs and they were informed that Wells confessed in his will to the murder of Nora Allen and was able to get Barry's father out of prison. They're all waiting at Joe's house Waiting for them to show and cheer as they see Henry a free man.

They're all happy that he's free and is cleared of murder after everything and Stein pings his glas to get their attention. "Looking at all of you, thinking how far we've all come, and remembering those who are no longer with us, I'm reminded of a Hebrew word used during times of graduation. Kadima. It means, forward." Stein tells them and raises his glass.

"Forward." Stein says and they all repeat him and take a drink. Barry and Henry go around the hall to talk in private and Peter sees no better opportunity to tell May about Spider-Man than being surrounded by his friends.

He brings her to near the window while the others don't know what he's planning, all except Caitlin who is waiting for her reaction. Peter is stuttering while trying to get everything out, just like pulling off a bandage. If he could tell Wells, Cisco and Caitlin all at once he could tell his aunt easily, right?

"It's just...I've wanted to tell you something for a while, but I always got caught up in the What If's and chickened out, but I'm not doing it this time. I'm just going to say it..aunt May, I..." Peter goes on but gets interrupted by May.

"You're Spider-Man, aren't you?" She asks and that causes everyone in the room to freeze in shock to how she could possibly figure it out herself.

"What?" Peter asks, just as shocked as everyone else.

"That's what you've been trying to say, you're Spider-Man. Peter, I raised you for years, you think I couldn't tell when you're keeping a secret from me?" May asks him. "I mean, you always disappear just before Spider-Man shows up, let alone today. You vanished in the middle of the celebration at the rally just for Spider-Man to show up later. Never underestimate me again, Peter." She warns him and takes another drink and walks off leaving Peter shocked and amazed.

"Remind me why you kept this a secret." Cisco asks Peter who is still shocked but still relieved she's okay with it.

-

Barry went to drop his dad off at the train station and Peter has brought May to see Star labs and Joe gave him the key to the city he couldn't accept at the rally because of Atom Smasher.

"So, this is where you've been constantly running off to, huh?" May asks Peter looking around the cortex and he just laughs at her amazement. "You know before me and your uncle split up, we always talked about how great you will make the world one day. We knew that one day you'd do something that would keep people safe. But not even in my wildest dreams could I imagine you'd become this good of a person. You're the best parts of your parents, with Ben's heart." May says and hugs Peter who started tearing up at hearing how proud of him she is.

"Don't forget, May. I'm also the best parts of you." Peter informs her while not breaking the hug when Joe and Barry come into the cortex. "Hey, guys, I should warn you. I have your suit an upgrade." Cisco tells them and they look to see he upgraded the Flash suit to look like the picture in the time vault.

"I was thinking, you know, you shouldn't fear the future anymore, right?" Cisco asks and they agree with him.

"I must say, I like it. The lightning definitely pops more against the white." Stein says and Peter agrees it looks better.

"And Star labs is now safer than ever." Caitlin tells them since Peter and Caitlin added a few more security systems and more to protect it so nobody could just walk in when they feel like it.

But as they're talking, Peter's senses go off and somebody got in. They all turn to see a shadowy figure in the cortex doorway.

"Stay where you are!" Joe tells the figure and raises his gun while Peter raises his web shooters ready to fight him.

"Who are you?" Barry asks him.

"You don't know me, but I know you...Barry Allen." The man says and Joe warns him not to move and asks him again who he is and he stops into the light.

"My name is Jay Garrick, and your world is in danger." The man explains and they all think the same thing.

Here we go again.


	26. Zoom is coming

-

This "Jay Garrick" explained how the man, Atom Smasher, was sent to kill the Flash and Spider-Man from another earth that was caused by the singularity last year that created a portal connecting their two worlds.  


On that world, Jay Garrick was a speedster and they called him the Flash. The man that Atom Smasher warned them about, Zoom, and Jay were in a fight and he was dragged into the portal and lost his speed.

He also goes on to explain that he has been spying on everyone in the room and they decide to run some tests to see if he's telling the truth about all of this.

Caitlin has decided to give him a lie detector test while checking on him to see if he truly was once a speedster. "Is any of this possible?" Iris asks everyone while they watch Jay and Peter is keeping an extra close eye on him, since there's something about him making his senses scream _dangerous_.

"A portal to another earth. Is he talking about some sorta multiverse?" May wonders since she doesn't understand most of what they're talking about, but she does watch sci-fi to know about the multiverse.

"Just recently, the many different worlds theory proposed interaction with parallel universes was plausible. Now, if what mr. Garrick's saying is true, that theory has been proven sooner than we all thought." Stein says and Joe is completely lost, along with Iris since they don't watch sci-fi.

"So what Jay is saying is he's from a mirror world. Like a earth similar to ours, but still different." Cisco tries explaining in his own way.

"The multiverse, as ms. Parker has suggested, is a more apt description." Stein says agreeing with what May said.

"Please, Professor, call me May." May tells Stein who understands.

"That isn't helping." Joe tells them and Stein draws on a whiteboard two circles to explain different universes and how there are a infinite number of different earths and they're all slightly different and Joe calls it quits on trying to understand and heads back to the station.

"There is one problem that remains." Stein warns them and they know there's always a catch. "If what mr. Garrick is telling the truth, there is a breach somewhere in Central City that we need to find and close for good." Stein tells the team and they understand but have no idea how to find it.

Caitlin comes in as Cisco and Stein leave to find a solution to find the breaches. "Anything?" Peter asks her as she walks up to him.

"Well, Jay's heart rate is extraordinary low and he does have regenerative capabilities. Other than that, there's no evidence of the Speedforce in his system." Caitlin explains what she was able to find.

"So no proof of being a speedster, or from another earth." Peter recaps for her and she disagrees and explains how she gave him the lie detector test and he passed it. Peter believes her, but his senses are constantly warning him Jay is hiding something. Yet again, it could be he's being too paranoid, or possibly it's because his senses have never picked up someone from another world.

"You mind if you kept running some tests? My senses are warning me something isn't right with this guy." Peter explains and she knows by now to trust his senses.

-

In the meantime, Peter put Jay in the pipeline just in case he tries something.

"I hope you understand why I have to do this." Peter states to Jay.

"I get it, kid. You're doing what you think you have to for your family. But you'll realize soon enough that this, the tests, it's unnecessary." Jay says and Peter wishes he could believe him. "I want to help you, not harm anyone." Jay promises.

"Yeah, I get that, but my senses have never been wrong before and ever since you shown up they've been warning me to get as far away from you as possible." Peter informs him since he knows his senses never lie. Maybe a little off, but they don't lie.

"If what you told me about Zoom is true, that he sent Rothstein here to kill you and Barry, instead of locking me up in here, you better start listening. Because if Zoom is involved, you're gonna need a lot more than just me at your side to stay alive." Jay states and Peter just closes the doors and heads to help Barry with a fire.

-

At the fire site, fire department has just made it as Barry and Peter enter and take it out. "That was the most easiest...oh." Peter states as once again, his senses go off and a fist of sand hits him and Barry backwards and they see a man forming out of it.

"Is this your Sandman enemy?" Barry asks, referring to William Baker, the Sandman.

"Nope. He got disintegrated years ago. New guy." Peter informs Barry as they get back up to fight this guy.

"I thought it would be harder than this." The man says and sends another punch their way, Peter shoots a taser web and turns his sand into glass. Barry takes that as an opportunity to speed in and punch him, but he disappears at the last second.

"This could be a problem." They both say and don't have any idea what they just witnessed.

-

Barry returns with a sample of the sand taken by a new girl at the CCPD named Patty Spivot while Caitlin and Peter are checking up on Jay to learn anything from him while he's on Cisco's treadmill.

"His blood pressure is low, his heart rate is low, his oxygen levels are impressive. But nothing like or even similar to Barry's." Peter informs Caitlin and she agrees and they tell Jay to call it quits.

Barry and Cisco are looking at what the sand could be as the others join them. "I mean, it's gotta be from the metahuman that attacked us." Barry states and Peter agrees.

"What is this stuff? Sand?" Cisco questions since it looks like it is.

"It's not sand." Jay tells them as he exits the treadmill room with one of Peter's sweatshirts. "It's human cells whose myosin ll protein have migrated to the cell's periphery." Jay explains and they didn't know he was a scientist.

"Jay's a fellow scientist." Caitlin explains since she discovered that during the lie detector test.

"Those cells have the ability to rearrange and harden, giving them the appearance of sand." Jay explains.

"And you know this how?" Peter asks since he has a little bit too much information on a new guy.

"They belong to a metahuman I fought before named Sand Demon." Jay explains and Peter referred Sandman's name.

"I know you're new here, so I'm gonna break it down for you." Cisco states to Jay. "The whole naming the bad guys thing, that's my jam. But you know what? I'm gonna let you have that one, because I actually like that. Is that Peter's sweatshirt?" Cisco wonders seeing it also.

"Oh, sorry, it was all we could find that could fit him." May explains since they didn't want the guy walking around shirtless.

"I was gonna say, 'cause it looks a little big on you, right?" Cisco wonders and starts thinking just how buff is Peter compared to Barry and leaves them.

"Who is Sand Demon?" May asks Jay.

"I don't know his name, but I know how to stop him." Jay states and Peter remembers how he was weakened by his electric webs.

"I think we'll be fine on our own." Peter states still doesn't believe he's here with good intentions.

"Look, Peter, I don't know what else I can do to prove to you I'm in your side. I've been poked, prodded. Sand Demon's from my world. Let me teach you how to stop him." Jay pleads to Peter, but he doesn't buy it.

"Yeah, Sand Demon might be from your world, but I fought someone who could do the same thing. Sandman could do everything your Sand Demon can do, and I beat him several times." Peter replies since he knows not to trust people when his senses warn him to stay away.

"Zoom sent Rothstein here to kill you. He must have sent Sand Demon to do the same thing. Don't you get it? Anyone close to the Flash or Spider-Man, all of you, are in a lot of danger." Jay informs him and now Peter is getting annoyed.

"Okay, if you're this picture of hope and faith, why are my senses constantly warning me every time you enter the room?" Peter asks him. "Because every time I'm around you, my senses scream as loud that it actually gets me dizzy. I don't know what you're hiding, but I don't believe you're here with good intentions. Get Jay back to his cell, please." Peter asks as Caitlin and Jay leave to do just that.

-

Later Barry leaves to talk to Joe after they found the Sand Demon's Earth-1 doppelgänger and learned Jay was right about him being from his earth and May had to leave for her shift at the hospital.

"_Yesterday's surprise broadcast from the Star City vigilante who is calling himself the Green Arrow has spawned a massive outcry of both support and dissenters._" The news is saying, talking about Oliver.

"Catchy." Caitlin comments on the new name.

"I preferred just Arrow." Peter replies since Arrow was more simple than Green Arrow.

"I hate it when they put a color in their name." Cisco says as Barry comes back.

"Hey, the samples from the guy, they're definitely human, not sand." Peter says.

"It's not him, I get it." Barry replies.

"I hate to say it, but I think this Earth-2 theory is starting to make sense. I mean, could Jay seriously be lying about Sand Demon?" Cisco asks and Peter still doesn't trust Jay.

"Guys, were not just gonna jump on every crazy theory like it's the 100% truth, and I'm not gonna let some guy just walks in here and they sorta check out. My senses are still saying that he can't be trusted." Peter states since again, he has survived this long by trusting his senses.

"He was right about Zoom." Cisco replies to his friend.

"We don't even know anything about this Zoom. We don't even know if Jay _is_ Zoom and is trying to gain our trusts. I know a guy who once spent years gaining my trust just to stab me in the back." Peter states remembering the Scarlet Spider-Man.

"Have you even discovered a breach yet?" Peter asks Stein as he's behind the computers.

"Not yet, but we know how to now." Stein promises them.

"Have you found one thing to suggest that Jay is even a speedster?" Peter asks Caitlin and she hasn't found anything. "I mean, we're scientists. We test, we prove, we report. That's how it always goes. Even my senses keep telling me he can't be trusted. And by now, after everything, I know my senses can't be wrong." Peter states and Caitlin asks to talk to him in private.

She takes him out onto the halls to talk alone without anyone eavesdropping. "What has happened recently? What happened to the Amazing, Spectacular Spider-Man? I mean, I haven't seen you like this since ever." Caitlin questions Peter since she didn't fall in love with this Peter Parker.

"A lot has changed, Cait. First, Wells turned out to be a enemy and because I didn't listen to my senses, everything happened. Even Conners, a friend, my mentor, he became a threat." Peter states since he can't just trust people because they seem nice.

"Why do you think your senses think Jay is a bad guy?" Caitlin wonders and thinks of something that could be it. "Is it because he reminds you of Harrison Wells?" She wonders since he and Wells spent a lot of time together before the accelerator explosion.

Peter just stares off for a minute and realizes that might be it. "We all trusted that man for years...and you know what happened? Eddie was killed. Ronnie was killed. And a handful of people I couldn't protect, they're dead because I didn't believe my sense when all they've ever done is keep me safe. And I don't want what happened to them to help to you, Cisco, everyone else I love." Peter explains his dilemma and Caitlin understands. She misses Ronnie, even Eddie at times, and she knows that he's been trying to stay himself, but loosing Wells took a toll on his trust.

"Peter, not everyone is like Harrison Wells. Besides, you've been able to defeat all of these enemies because you believed in others. Because you trust people. That's the Peter Parker I..." She wonders if after everything, she should tell him how she felt, but maybe now isn't the best time. "That is my friend." She goes with and Peter understands, maybe he should give Jay the benefit of the doubt for now and keep his eyes on him.

-

Barry comes back later and tells them Sand Demon took the transfer cop, Patty Spivot and now they need Jay to teach Barry to show him how to stop Sand Demon. "So You've finally come to your senses?" Jay asks them as they open his cell.

"Sand Demon kidnapped a police officer. I need you to help us save her before something happens." Barry explains to Jay and he looks towards Peter.

"This mean you finally trust me?" Jay wonders and Peter doesn't.

"I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt as of now. Don't break it." Peter warns him and they head to the cortex.

"We're looking for any place that promote humidity. Greenhouses, grow rooms, anything of the sort. His body will literally start to fall apart if he becomes dehydrated. Sand Demon always attacks on twitter fronts. He creates a diversion, then strikes when you're distracted. What we need to do is use your speed to get to him before the distraction can happen." Jay explains and they don't see how he can do that.

"How do I stop someone who can slip through my fingers?" Barry asks him. "The way I was never able to. With lightning." Jay states and now that's seriously confusing.

"I'm sorry, with lightning? I know electricity can turn sand into glass, but how's he gonna do that?" Peter asks Jay.

"Barry is gonna summon lightning from the energy he creates when he runs." Jay explains and that's gonna be interesting to see.

-

Jay brings Barry to the basement to test throwing lightning as Peter and Caitlin are helping locate Patty. "I've searched all the vacant buildings in Central City and none of them fit the description we need." Caitlin says to the others.

"Yeah, and I've looked at any draw upticks in the electric grid. Nothing happening." Peter states when Cisco excuses himself and that confuses them.

Cisco goes back to the lab and touches the sample of Sand Demon and starts getting another vibe and was able to get their location and see Sand Demon is creating a weapon.

-

In the basement, Barry has learned the "throw lightning" part down but his aiming is still off. "I've been doing this for an hour, it's not working." Barry stops and tells Jay.

"It's because you're trying to rush it. This is the one time you need to slow down. Let the energy pass over you, then direct it where you want it to go." Jay explains and Barry doubts himself and starts seeing too many comparisons between Jay and Thawne when Cisco comes in to tell them where they are.

"They're in the abandoned Woodrue grow house." Cisco informs them and explains that he might have a secret device.

"What if we give Slick a diversion?" Peter says and looks towards Jay.

"He knows you, right? You said you went up against him." Barry asks seeing Peter's idea.

"Yeah, But I don't have my speed." Jay says and they explain how Sand Demon doesn't know that.

"I have my suit, all except my helmet." Jay tells them and they remember the helmet that fell through the time portal last year. They reach the cortex and Caitlin hands him the helmet and they see him in his suit. And now Peter might believe him that he's a hero, and his senses are just being paranoid.

"Well, sure you want to do this, Flash?" Barry asks Jay.

"Yeah, let's see what you're made of, Flash." Jay states as the plan is Barry and Jay go in, distract Sand Demon while Peter gets Patty out of there.

-

At the greenhouse, Sand Demon activates the bomb underneath Patty as Barry speeds Jay in and Peter enters through the ceiling to stay hidden. "Is that you, Flash?" Sand Demon asks and turns to see Jay. "I came quite a distance." Jay states.

"I thought you were dead." Sand Demon replies seeing his Flash alive. "You were wrong. Like usual." Jay informed him.

"Now let her go." Jay tells Demon.

"Go ahead, you touch her, she goes boom. And I think even you aren't fast enough to save her." Demon states while walking closer to Jay and they start fighting and it didn't take Demon long to realize he didn't have his speed.

Peter leaps down while he's distracted and Barry comes speeding in to help Jay, while Peter webs Patty in the back and pulls her away as the bomb goes off, sending a soundwave across the room and disorienting the speedsters and Peter.

"I got her, she's okay." Peter tells them regarding Patty as she's unconscious.

"Must be my lucky day. Zoom sent me here to kill you. Now not only do I get to kill the Flash from two worlds before I go home...I get the opportunity to kill Spider-Man." Demon states happy since on his world, Spider-Man has been missing for a while since New York fell to the Symbiotes.

Sand Demon grabs Jay by the neck with his sand and Barry sees he has to use his lightning. He starts speeding around and Sand Demon drops Jay to focus on Barry.

Barry stops and tries as hard as he can to throw lightning and slams into Sand Demon as he falls and shatters like glass. "You get stranger and cooler all the time." Peter says as he picks the unconscious Patty up ready to get her back to safety.

-

While Peter was doing that, Barry and Jay returned to Star labs and Stein talks to Cisco regarding how he learned all of this impossible stuff and they learn he has powers, and their breach location system starts working.

"It appears that while we were successful in closing the singularity, there was a side effect. Using electrophotography, Cisco and I were able to search Central City for any signs of energy entering our earth from another dimension." Stein explains to the team and Cisco tells them it's not just one.

"There's at least 52 of them scattered throughout the city." Cisco states and now they see that Zoom could come through any one of them.

"So, 52 pockets of time and space folded into and upon itself in our city. Why am I surprised at this point?" Peter wonders since this is turning into a weekly thing.

"But the most significant breach of all appears to be this largest one. And it's here, inside Star labs. And just beyond that breach is entirely different..." Stein starts getting cut off and suddenly his head and hands burst into flames surprising everyone before he faints, but Peter was able to catch him before he could hit the ground.


	27. Rebirth of Firestorm

The team is looking at the biggest breach in Central City, which just so happened to end up in their labs.  


"Pretty amazing, isn't it?" Barry asks Peter looking at the big clue ball of energy.

"There are 52 breaches in Central City and somehow the biggest one of them just happened to end up in our basement." Peter replies in complete shock and yet unsurprised at the same time.

"We need a name for it." Cisco tells them. "It's not exactly a pet, Cisco." Barry tells him. "No, it's a wormhole." He tells them.

"This isn't just a wormhole, it's my way home." Jay tells them and they think if Zoom could use it to get to their world, they can do the same.

"If Zoom uses the breaches, why can't we?" Jay explains and they just don't know how how he does it.

"I mean, we don't know how. Everything I put through, just bounces back." Cisco tells them and Barry gets an idea. "If Zoom is using these breaches to transport people from Earth-2, maybe it takes a speedster." Barry says and speeds to get a running start.

"Is he gonna..?" Cisco wonders, thinking this is a bad idea.

"Yeah, I think he is." Peter answers Cisco's unspoken question as Barry speeds at the portal and is immediately flown backwards.

"Maybe I'm not fast enough." Barry suggests while Peter is regretting not recording that.

"I don't believe your speed is the entirety of the issue, Barry." Peter replies as Stein was thinking the same.

"It might be the breach's stability or lack thereof." Cisco suggests and they agree.

"I'm sorry, I'm lost." May tells them.

"Think if it like a door, and on the second earth, there is a second door. Between that is a hallway that is constantly shifting between other worlds, collapsing in on itself." Peter tries expains and that she understands.

"So we stabilize the door, stabilize the hallway, and then anything or anyone could go through it?" May asks him and they see she's right.

"How's Stein doing?" Peter wonders and they wonder the same.

-

Upstairs, Caitlin and Iris are working on Stein as his head burst into flames like Firestorm. "He's dropping out." Caitlin says as they attach the Firestorm device on his chest and reconfigure it to steady him.

"This isn't normal. Even from what I've seen about him. Cisco was able to do what he could to re-engineer dr. Wells' original stabilizer to quell the reaction, but we don't know where he got the power source." Caitlin explains to her and they don't know how long it's gonna last.

-

The team comes back from the basement, to the cortex and Caitlin has an idea to save Stein as Peter had to go back to Mercury labs for work.

"When the particle accelerator exploded, the dark matter that collided with Professor Stein fused with the Firestorm matrix and altered the normal molecular process that occurs within his body. Those highly reactive molecular needed something to bond with in order to stabilize." Caitlin explains and shows them.

"And that's where Ronnie came in." Cisco recaps. "Yes, And now that Ronnie is no longer a part of Professor Stein, the molecules don't have anything to bond with. And the longer he gi s without merging, the more unstable he becomes." Caitlin finishes and they see that they need a replacement Ronnie to save Stein.

"Okay, so how do we do that? Are we gonna make a Tinder app for potential metahumans? 'Cause I'm pretty sure merging with Stein and randomly bursting into flames sounds like the biggest 'swipe left' of all time." Cisco tells her.

"Even if we could find someone willing, Stein can't merger with whoever he wants." Barry informs Caitlin.

"No he can't, but Peter had done some research while at Mercury labs and found two candidates that might be compatible. They were both affected by the dark matter, and were both admitted to the hospital, showing symptoms of gene rearmament mutation. And they both share the same blood type as Professor Stein and Ronnie." Caitlin informs them and they see they need to know who is more compatible.

-

While They got their first candidate, Peter was working and heard Tina in the hall talking to her assistant. "Remind me to call Richard tomorrow about the shareholders meeting." Tina says when Peter's senses go off and the alarms blazing.

"Applied sciences." Tina says and Peter rushes to meet the intruder before anyone got hurt.

Peter makes it and sees someone walking down a hallway and Peter rushes to stop him. As Peter got closer, intruder starts running and Peter was able to get a look at him.

"Wells?" Peter asks, seeing the man who died last year still alive somehow.

-

Later the CCPD show up to report what happened. "Detective West, thank you for coming." Tina tells Joe as she leads them to the scene.

"Dr. McGee, this is my new partner, Detective Spivot." Joe introduces them. "On the phone, you mentioned this was a sensitive matter."

"It is, And I called you directly because I've always appreciated your discretion in the past. Dr. Parker was able to see the intruder, and is shocked to what he saw." Tina explains as they approach Peter.

"Peter, can you describe who it was?" Joe asks him. "I can do more than that, Joe. I can tell you exactly who it was." Peter tells Joe and he sees that as help, not knowing who it was.

"Now before you call me crazy, I saw him 100%, no doubt about it. It was Harrison Wells." Peter tells them and they certainly are confused.

"Harrison Wells is dead." Patty informs Peter. "Yes, I know he is, but I know that face. It was Harrison Wells." Peter explains to them and that's surprising to hear.

"I seem to recall the circumstances around his passing were a bit inconclusive." Tina tells them since they couldn't tell everyone he was erased from existence. "Is there any possibility he could be alive?" She wonders and they explain he's dead 100%.

"I met that man multiple times, I know who I saw. The difference was he was running, with no wheelchair." Peter explains to Joe and that's seriously confusing.

"You have full access to the facility if needed. Thank you, Detective." Tina says and leaves them.

"First a shark-man, now a dead man walking." Patty recaps their day. "I'm sorry, a shark what?" Peter wonders, first time hearing this.

"We need to call Barry, get him in here first." Patty tells Joe.

"Peter, can you give us a minute, maybe keep this between us for now and see what you can find out." Joe wonders and Peter does as he asks and leaves them to talk.

-

Peter comes back to Star labs and heard that the recruiting candidates didn't exactly go so well. "_What's being described as a spontaneous energy malfunction erupted last night at Eikmeir Technologies. Wanted for questioning is scientist Henry Hewitt._" The news tells them and that happened to be one of the candidates.

"Hewitt's dormant abilities must have been triggered when we attempted the merger." Caitlin tells the team.

"This could be catastrophic." Stein states.

"Yeah, if they're anything like yours, he requires a grounding mechanism to stabilize his volatility. Otherwise, he's gonna go big boom." Peter informs them.

"Yeah, and he's got a long history of violence, according to his police records." Cisco informs them and Peter didn't find any of those.

"I looked at everything I could get into, where did you get records?" Peter asks his friend.

"It was a sealed file. But I hacked into it and look at this." Cisco explains and shows them the list.

"One count battery, two counts aggravated assault, court ordered anger management therapy." Peter reads just the top the list. "This guy belongs next to Ock for crazy scientist."

"He seemed like such a nice guy. We should've waited until you could've been here to see what your senses said, Peter." Caitlin states since he seemed alright at first glance. They're interrupted when Stein is loosing his strength.

"It seems mr. Hewitt's stability isn't the only thing in question." Stein states and needs to lie down as Barry and Cisco leave them.

"Stein is getting worse, and Hewitt is like this because of me." Caitlin says, getting angry at herself. "And now Jefferson Jackson will never come back because of what I said." She tells Peter and he heard about what she said.

"This isn't because you didn't believe in him, Cait. When it comes to a decision like this, nobody can know what the right choice is. I didn't just decided to become Spider-Man. I fought in a illegal boxing match, lost my uncle. Sometimes, great possibilities are planned for us, and at first, we don't see them, because we choose not to." Peter explains to her and she understands what he means.

-

Caitlin decides to visit Jax at his place of work and Peter decides to go with her. "Let me guess, you don't got car troubles." Jax states seeing the two.

"I came to apologize. I'm sorry for what I said." Caitlin explains to him while walking towards him and Peter's senses pick up a third presence.

"It's fine. Apology accepted." Jax tells her and continues to work.

"Look, we could really use your help save Professor Stein." Caitlin tells him while Peter is locating the source of his senses.

"That desperate, huh?" Jax asks her.

"Our friend, Ronnie, he used to be Professor Stein's other half. He actually helped build the particle accelerator, and when it exploded, he was affected by it too. Ironically, that's how he got the chance to show the world what he was capable of." Caitlin explains and Peter is confused why she called him _friend_ when from what he was told, they were suppose to be still seeing each other.

"And he died saving the city last year." Peter informs Jax entering the argument, leaving his senses until they go off again.

"Wait, he was the guy who flew into the hole?" Jax asks them.

"He died a hero. We're offering you a chance to be one, too." Caitlin tells Jax.

"I never wanted to be a hero. What I wanted was to go to college, but we couldn't afford it. Football was my way in, until that got taken from me." Jax explains to them.

"I never wanted the life I was given either." Peter says and decides if he's going to trust them, he should tell him and reveals part of his Spider-Man suit under his clothes.

"I never wanted this, I never thought of it possible at the time. Until I learned maybe I was given this chance for a reason. I could have just forgotten about these powers, maybe use it on my resume, but I decided to protect others. The accelerator took something from you and it's now giving you something in what you have lost. A chance to be part of something greater than ourselves to protect them and to make sure they don't loose as much as we have." Peter goes on, that being the principal he stands on for becoming Spider-Man. In loosing his uncle, he became a hero he would be proud of.

"We believe you were meant to be a hero." Caitlin says when the lights start flickering and they turn to see Hewitt.

"I've been looking for you, dr. Snow." Hewitt tells them and he tries blasting Jax, but Peter pulls him out of the blast and Hewitt starts absorbing the energy in the room.

"You did this to me! But it's not what you promised, is it?" Hewitt states and they believe its time to run for it while he tries chasing them.

-

They were able to make it to Star labs and Stein isn't getting better.

"Oh, good you're here. This thing, it ran out, like, 30 minutes ago." Cisco says referring to the device keeping Stein alive.

"His temperature is 142 and rising. He's going into rapid oxidation. We need to find a coolant." Caitlin tells them and it's too late for that.

"I'll do it." Jax tells them and he is ready to merge with Stein. "You said this is a chance for me to be part of something bigger, to help people. That's what I want." Jax says looking to Peter.

"Are you sure? Once it's done, there no undoing." Peter warns him and he agrees to do it. They wake up Stein and place the device onto Jax and hopes that this is going to work as they bring in Stein and they're ready to see if they're compatible.

Jax and Stein touch and they watch the two become Firestorm. "Cool, So I get Grey as my copilot." Jax realizes.

"So when do we get to take this for a test spin?" Jax wonders when they get an alert on Hewitt.

"How about right now? It looks like he's recharging at Central City High school's football stadium." Cisco tells them and the heroes head out to stop him.

-

At the football stadium, Hewitt is absorbing all the energy as Spider-Man, Flash and Firestorm shows up and evacuate the grounds. "Cisco, cut the power so he can't draw anymore energy." Barry tells them and he's on it and all energy goes out.

Barry and Peter go in to confront him. "Hewitt! You need to stop!" Barry tells him when Firestorm shows up, making Hewitt angry.

"Stein? You chose him over me? That's who I'm supposed to be!!!" Hewitt states to them. "I deserve the Firestorm matrix!" He then shoots at Jax and he goes flying and Stein starts talking him through it.

"Hey, guys, cutting the power didn't work. It's like the more we anger him, the stronger he gets." Barry states and that gives them an idea.

"_That's it, it's like one of those controlled fusion devices. The more powerful they become, the more unstable they become. Make him angry and he'll blow his fuse._" Caitlin tells them.

Jax and Barry look towards Peter as he just looks towards Hewitt while smiling under his mask. "My time has finally come." Peter states to them and they know they have the right man to infuriate someone.

"Who's up to a game of catch me if you can?" Peter asks his friends and swings off as they fly/run to follow him.

"Hey, Hewitt, I heard of hot heads, but this is taking it a little too far." Peter quips and dodges his blast.

"You need a hug, Doctor?" Barry asks from behind him and speeds off as Hewitt tries blasting him.

"Come on, Hewitt, give me your best shot!" Jax intimidates and they shoot at each other. Barry and Peter come to a stop and look to him.

"Is that all you got, Hewitt?" Barry asks him.

"I mean, it's no wonder you didn't cut for Firestorm if this is how you fight." Peter quips again and that's getting him angry and he sends a shockwave at them, but it misses and Jax goes in for the final blow and knocks him out.

"That wasn't bad for your first go." Barry comments on Jax and Peter agrees he can do some good.

"Welcome aboard, Firestorm." Peter greets the hero.

-

Jax and Stein decided to go visit the same friend who helped Stein and Ronnie so they might not see them for a while.

While they were dealing with everything, Jay was in the basement working on stabilizing the breach. "Wow, look at that." Peter says seeing the portal is finally stabilized.

"Shall we see if it works?" Peter asks and grabs a first aid kit and throws it through the portal and it went through.

"It works!" They all say and are happy to see they have their own way to Earth-2 and back now.

"I guess this is it, huh?" Jay says since now he can go home. Back to where he belongs, but even though he doesn't trust Jay completely, Peter knows that they need him.

"Well, we still need your help with the breaches and Zoom is still out there." Peter says and Jay ageees to stay and help for a while longer.

-

Barry was in his flash suit speeding and stops outside Jitters to get time to talk to Patty to ask her out. When he gets attacked by a giant man shark. "Zoom wants you dead." The shark tells Barry when he suddenly gets shot by someone with a gigantic gun and he walks away.

Barry speeds up to him. "Who the hell are you?" Barry asks as the man removes his hood to show the one person he thought he'd ever see again...Harrison Wells.

————————————  



	28. Shedding some light

You know that strange feeling you get when you don't know when you're dreaming but you know you're in reality?

Well, today would count as one of those days when you see a dead man walking in front of you reading a book about himself.

"Very strange to be holding your autobiography, especially when you didn't write it and it's not about you." Harrison Wells tells them and drops the book.

"Caitlin, Cisco, Peter, meet Harrison Wells of Earth-2." Barry introduces them to each other.

"Oh, we know each other." Peter states looking at Wells.

"You're the guy who tried stopping me at Mercury labs." Wells realizes.

"So let me get this straight. You're the doppelgänger of the man who murdered his mom and is responsible for both Ronnie and Eddie's deaths." Cisco recaps, but Caitlin interjects.

"To be fair, he's not even the doppelgänger of the Dr. Wells that we knew, because his body had been taken over by Eobard Thawne." Caitlin defends and Wells didn't follow any of that.

"I'm my own man." Wells informs them. "I had nothing to do with the murderer of your mother, or your friend Ricky." He states to the team.

"His name was Ronnie." Peter corrects Wells.

"Him either." Wells states.

"You told me you had some proof on your identity?" Barry asks and Wells shows the device they threw through the portal to see if it worked.

"This could be mine, but I want to run some tests." Caitlin tells him and Cisco leans in to Peter.

"Your senses revealing anything?" Cisco wonders.

"Actually, this is strange, but my senses are calm around him. I think he's safe." Peter states and Cisco is shocked.

"He even saved my life last night." Barry tells the team and looks to Wells. "Question is why? I'm guessing you didn't hop between dimensions to meet Spider-Man and the Flash." He says to Wells.

"No, that's exactly what I did." Wells corrects Barry. "I came here to help you to stop your greatest threat."

"Yeah, that's what they all say. Just before another crazy showed up." Peter states since it is a regular thing he's told.

"Well, right now, the latest _crazy_ is Zoom. And I see you've already heard of him." Wells says seeing their faces to his name.

"He's been trying to kill us for some time with your metas." Peter tells him.

"Well, they're the symptoms. Zoom's the plague, one that has infected my world, and now he's coming for yours." Wells warns them and they see he's here to help.

"What do you know about Zoom?" Barry wonders.

"Everything. I created Zoom and helped cause the destruction of all of New York City, including the Spider-Man of my world." Wells answers and explains how he's going to help them stop him. But Peter was shocked to hear he isn't the only Spider-Man in the multiverse.

"Yeah, Well, were batting a thousand against these breachers." Cisco tells Wells as he is looking over Peter's Spider-Man suit.

"You're barring a thousand, Crisco?" Wells questions him. "What's your sample size? Ten? Less? Zoom is obsessed with speed. He will never allow there to be another speedster on any earth, and he is gonna keep sending these metas here, over and over, all with the same goal. To kill the Flash and Spider-Man." Wells informs them and they see they need to hear what he has to say.

That is until Joe comes in and sees him, and immediately tries shooting him. Luckily, Barry was fast enough to stop the bullets and Peter webs the gun port so Joe doesn't try shooting again.

"Joe, drop the gun." Peter tells the cop.

"How is he still alive?" Joe asks while walking towards Wells and Barry keeps him back. "How are you still alive?" Joe asks Wells.

"I don't know, because you missed?" Wells asks and that isn't helping and Barry takes Joe out to talk with him alone.

"We know someone who can verify everything he's saying, you know." Caitlin tells Peter and Cisco, and they know she's referring to Jay. Cisco and Caitlin go to find him as Wells goes back to looking over Peter's suit that's on the manikin display.

"You design this yourself?" Wells asks the spider hero.

"Yeah, with help from a friend to give it some new features my previous suits never had. Facial recognition, heat readings, a few web attacks. Some being web grenades, impact webs, some trip mines, splitter webs, a few more." Peter tells the features and Wells wonders why he's telling him all of this.

"Why do you trust me when the others don't?" Wells wonders, even though he knows the whole killing their friends part. "My doppelgänger must've taken someone from you."

"My senses seem to tell me that you're not a threat. That you're here for a good reason." Peter tells him since in the past, his senses warned him every time Wells was in the room, even with Jay. But with Wells, they're telling him he's a good man.

As they're talking, they get an alert on the computers that a bank is being robbed and he leaves to stop it.

-

As Peter reaches the bank, Barry meets him there and they see a woman wearing a mask only covering her eyes. "You got our attention." Barry tells her and she sees the two of them.

"Flash. Spider-Man." She greets them and blasts a flash of energy at them that they easily dodge and she smashes the ground and sends people flying. As they're keeping the people safe, she makes her escape.

-

"Her name is Dr. Light." Harry (Cisco named him that earlier) explains and shows them everything about her from a flash drive he had on him for some reason.

"A small time thief on my Earth until exposure to the dark matter from the particle accelerator and bacame a metahuman with the ability to derive power from Starlight." Harry tells the team as Caitlin went to find Jay.

"And stars having a temperature of 5,300 degree kelvin and a blinding luminosity, I have a feeling she doesn't go flashing people. Double entendre not intended." Peter tells them.

"Obviously Zoom bought her here from your earth like the others." Barry states as Harry takes a bite out of his food Peter got him.

"And now that we know that, we can use that to help us." Harry tells them. "By capturing Dr. Light, use her to lure Zoom here." He explains when Jay and Caitlin enter the room.

"You are insane! We are not luring Zoom anywhere!" Jay states to Harry as they all look toward him.

"Apparently, they know each other, and Jay is not a fan." Caitlin explains to her friends.

"Like everyone else, I assumed Earth-2 Flash was dead. Why am I not surprised to find Jay Garrick here, still alive and in hiding a full universe away from Zoom." Harry asks Jay.

"I'm not in hiding. Zoom nearly killed me and stole my speed before the singularity pulled me here." Jay informs Harry and that raises some red flags in Peter's head since Jay said he didn't know how he lost his speed.

"Well, whatever the case, in your absence, Zoom has only gotten more powerful, faster. Barry, Peter, you two have to defeat Zoom now while there's still a chance." Harry tells the heroes and Barry is still questioning on trusting this Wells while Peter is questioning on trusting Jay.

"No, this isn't the time to be reckless. We don't even know why Zoom sent Dr. Light here. She's a thief, not a killer." Jay informs them all.

"Zoom can make people do things out of character." Harry tells Jay. "Thief or not, she'll kill you both." Harry warns the heroes.

"All right, look, we can decide what to do with Light later. First we need to find her." Barry tells them and Harry just takes his drink and gets on it.

Barry was asking Cisco how he knew about Dr. Light and Cisco tried changing the subject and gets the satellites searching for her light.

"I'll go to the CCPD, see if Joe has any leads." Barry says and leaves to do that. "Let's try keeping them apart until I get back." Barry tells them regarding the Earth-2 visitors.

"I have a sense that won't be a problem." Peter states to him.

-

Later, Cisco goes into his workplace and sees Harry working in there, researching everything about Harrison Wells while listening to music. "Hey, Harry. Come inside. Use my workroom. Use my computer! I don't care!" Cisco says, sarcasm on every word.

"Thanks." Was Harry's only reply.

"You and Wells prime have very different taste in music. His were better." Cisco comments on his music.

"This Harrison Wells and I are very different but similar in some respects." Harry says looking over everything. "I see he made almost the same mistake I did with the particle accelerator."

"He did a lot for terrible things, and none of them were by mistake." Cisco tells him and Harry stops to ask what Wells did to Cisco and he doesn't want to tell anyone about his powers still.

"Well, here's the deal. You don't have to like me. I don't like you, your friend has a sense that says that I'm not here to harm anyone. If you don't want to trust your friend, that's on you, but you have to work with me to stop Zoom and Dr. Light. Can you do that?" Harry asks Cisco and he agrees just for now.

What Cisco didn't know as he leaves the room, Wells was hiding his watch to scan for metas and it went red, meaning there's one around. More specifically Cisco's a metahuman.

-

"Harry's starting to get on my nerves." Cisco warns the team as he enters the cortex.

"The silent alarm just went off at the Bank of Central City." Caitlin warns them as it comes up on her screen.

"That has to be Dr. Light." Peter says and goes to grab his mask and gets into his suit.

"What do we do if it's a trap?" Barry asks Peter, wondering if he has a plan.

"I'll get the people to safety, you corner her and make sure she doesn't escape." Peter tells him as he places his mask and runs a quick diagnostic to make sure all systems are working.

"Barry, trust me, Dr. Light is not a killer. You can talk to her." Jay tells him and the irony is that Peter doesn't trust him.

-

Barry rushes them there and Peter gets the people to safety as Barry runs into the vault. "Looking for this?" Barry asks, referring to the cart of money.

"We know Zoom sent you here to kill us. Good news, you don't have to do that." Barry tells her, following Jay's advice.

"Not if I can get out of town with that cash." Dr. Light tells him.

"Then what's the plan? Zoom's not gonna like that you ditched him, right?" Barry asks her. "My friends and I can help you." He promises.

"Nobody can protect me from Zoom." She tells him and gets ready to fight him.

"All right, why don't we take it down a lumen, have a normal conversation, all right?" Barry asks her and she calms down he removes her mask.

Barry then sees the face of his ex, Iris' coworker. "Linda Park?" Barry asks her.

"How do you know my name?" She asks before realizing her mistake and blasts a flash of light into the room and leaves. Peter comes in, just missing Linda leaving and sees him looking around.

"Flash, you okay?" Peter asks while helping him stand.

"I can't see." Barry tells him and they see that's a problem.

-

Peter was able to make it to Star Labs with a blinded Flash as Caitlin and May give him a check up. Peter already explained the Wells situation to her a while back.

"I still can't see. How long is this gonna last?" Barry asks the doctors.

"You're suffering from solar retinopathy." May explains to him.

"Your retunas are severely damaged." Caitlin tells him. "You're lucky you're not permanently blind."

"But from what I can see with your rapid regeneration abilities, your sight should come back with time." May explains to Barry.

"6.25 hours by my estimation." Harry helps her out and she agrees with him.

"All this could age been avoided if you just stopped Light instead of chitchatting with her." Harry tells Barry.

"I have to agree with him on that one, Barry." Peter agrees with Wells.

"She caught Barry off guard." Jay tells the two of them.

"He's the fastest man alive. How could she possibly do that?" Wells asks him.

"Because Light looks exactly like my ex-girlfriend, Linda Park." Barry explains and that's confusing to how Zoom knew that.

"So that's why Zoom sent her here. Because he knew you'd hesitate." Harry tells Barry.

"But how could Zoom possibly know she was your ex?" Peter questions, still seeing they're still missing something big.

"It doesn't matter, this is why Barry has to act now before he sends another double from Barry's life." Harry states to them, and Peter still thinks Wells has the right idea.

"All right, right now, I'm more worried about Linda. When I saw who was under the mask, I don't think she knew she had a doppelgänger." Barry explains to them.

"The first thing Atom Smasher did was find and kill his doppelgänger." Cisco reminds them.

"Light's not like Atom Smasher." Jay tells them.

"You know, I'm starting to question your intelligence." Peter tells Jay since he seems more innocent that a two month old child, especially when he says he's been Flash for two years. He should know people can change easily.

He himself learnt that from experience.

"We should keep an eye on your Linda." Wells tells Barry and he offers to go protect her and as he's walking, trying to find his way out.

"You can't do anything, until you have your sight back." Peter tells his friend and puts his hands on the railing so he doesn't trip over himself.

"I'll keep an eye out on Linda. You guys do what you can to help him see if you can speed up the process maybe." Peter offers and begins leaving when Caitlin offers to go it's in case he gets injured.

Iris comes in as they leave and sees Wells. "You look just like him." Iris comments seeing him alive.

"I'm guessing my counterpart did something to offend her as well?" Wells asks Cisco.

"Her fiancé died because of him." Cisco explains and that is explication enough for him.

-

While Cisco was helping Barry on his date with Patty, Caitlin and Peter were camping out in the Star labs van. Caitlin comes back with coffee for the two of them.

"Classic stakeout fuel." Caitlin comments on their drinks and gets back in the van. "I find it strange how you're somewhat addicted to this Spider-Special." She states to him.

"What can I say? They make my name taste good." Peter comments and Caitlin laughs at that and Peter realizes they're alone, maybe he should ask her something.

"What are your thoughts or Harry and Jay?" Peter asks her and she's confused by that question.

"Why, What are your senses telling you?" Caitlin wonders, since she trusts his senses as much as he does.

"It's just...Jay claims to be a hero, but my senses like to say differently. Harry claims to be here with the focus on wanting to help us stop Zoom, and my senses believe him. And the way Jay acts like being a hero is actually new to him after he said he's been doing this for two years. He believes that people can't change from petty thieves to killers. I mean, I learned that Otto was capable of that before he murdered someone, and constantly tried killing me." Peter explains and that's not even everything he's seen.

"Maybe if you had a chat with Wells, maybe that'll clear everything up." Caitlin tells him and Peter sees that's a viable idea since he might be telling the truth. At least more than Jay will.

"I wish things were the same. Before the accelerator, before all of this time travel, multiverse, everything. Back when my biggest concern was some psycho with four metallic tentacles." Peter explains and she understands how he's feeling.

"Well, you should know by now, I trust you completely. You say Wells can be trusted, he can be trusted. If you say to stay clear of Jay, I won't be in the same room alone with him." Caitlin tells Peter while placing her hand on his.

"Good. I wouldn't know what I would do if you got hurt on my watch." Peter tells her and she begins leaning in, Peter sees her leaning in and decided to go with it and leans in himself when his senses go off. Dr. Light is here.

Peter grabs Caitlin as the truck starts spinning and Peter uses his powers to hold them on the ceiling as the car tumbles and crashes. Linda sees them knocked unconscious and heads inside. What she didn't know, Peter was faking it and grabs his mask and heads in after her after checking to see if Caitlin will be okay.

Light makes it inside and sees her doppelgänger. Before she could do anything, Peter comes swinging in and sees dozens of people in danger.

"Everyone, get out of here." Peter warns them and they all start leaving, but Light keeps Linda.

"No, no, she's leaving with us." Iris tells her.

"What do you want from me?" Linda asks and Light raises her hand.

"Your life." She tells her when Peter webs her hand and pulls it from Linda's direction.

"I've never killed anyone before, but the idea is warming up to me, Spider-Man." Light tells Peter as she gets her hand free of his webbing.

"Do we seriously have to go through the whole fight, when we know my flexibility will help me get away from your blasts, we both know I'm eventually gonna knock your lights out." Peter asks her and she looks at him angry at that quip.

"Full disclosure, that was a complete accidental quip." Peter tells her as Iris gets Linda out and te two enhance continue to fight. Peter webs her face and pulls off her mask and she sees she can't stop him and sends another blast of light that Peter quickly dodges and sees she used it as an opportunity to escape.

-

Peter and Caitlin makes it back to Star labs where Caitlin and May are checking up on Peter to make sure they're okay.

"Caitlin, Peter, you two okay?" Barry asks as he got his sight back during his date with Patty.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Light didn't put up a fight, though. Was able to get a few punches in, but Iris was able to get Linda to safety." Peter tells him as Caitlin sees he's good to go.

"Peter, I'm sorry, Dr. Light's never tried to kill before." Jay apologizes and now Caitlin sees what Peter was talking about in the car.

"As I've been trying to tell you, you cannot reason with someone under Zoom's influence, and if it weren't for Peter, a innocent life would've been killed because of you, Garrick." Harry tells Jay. "This whole thing is because of you. He doubts himself because of you, at least Parker knows what he's doing and doesn't listen to you. These heroes are an actual team, they can do what you could not. They can stop Zoom."

"I spent two years hunting Zoom." Jay defends himself.

"Wrong! Zoom hunted you! You even got our Earth's Spider-Man killed in your attempts of running from him. You spent the last two years of your life running, running from Zoom." Wells tells him.

"Zoom would have killed me just like he will kill Barry and Peter if you lead them down this path!" Jay tells him.

"No, because they are nothing like you. They run towards the danger, not away from it, because they're not cowards." Harry tells Jay, and Peter senses he's about to punch him and webs his hand before he could hit Wells.

"Enough!" Barry tells them and Harry leaves in a huff.

Peter decides to follow him to Cisco's workshop.

"You were pretty hard on Jay in there." Peter tells him.

"Maybe you should be hard on Jay, Parker." Harry tells him. "I've seen what you and Allen can do, I've calculated how fast he can run. He should be teaching Jay, not the other way around."

"You said he knew my doppelgänger?" Peter asks Harry.

"I never learned who was under the mask. Nobody learned, it could've been you, could've been some random person. Doesn't matter since when Jay asked him to help, he ended up destroying all of New York City. Zoom tried stealing some alien that was being experimented on at Oscorp and it spreaded like a parasite. Spider-Man was lost in the fight, leaving the King of the Symbiotes in his place." Harry explains to Peter and he's shocked that's what happened in an alternate reality, and that Venom's species actually won.

"Look, I know you're here for some good reason, but Jay, I don't think he can be trusted. My six sense, I don't know if my doppelgänger has it, it's a warning system of sorts. It tells me you're a good man, but constantly tells me to stay clear of Jay. So I'm with you, because I know you can be trusted." Peter explains to Wells.

"Well, then you can believe me when I say you and Allen can take care of Zoom, you and Allen know how to work together, all we have to do is capture Dr. Light." Harry tells him and Peter remembers the mask he took.

"What if we were able to track her with the mask?" Peter asks Harry and he looks to Peter intrigued.

"You have Dr. Light's mask?" Harry asks him.

-

Peter brings the mask in and shows it to Harry.

"How did you get this?" Harry asks Peter.

"I was able to snag it on a web when I was fighting her, when she tried killing Linda." Peter explains to him.

"You know how to use the mask to track Light?" May asks Harry, not seeing how it's possible.

"Yes, I do. All we have to do is give it to him." Harry explains and looks towards Cisco. "You have powers." He states and shows his watch.

"I developed this watch to detect metahumans." Harry says and raises the watch to Peter and it doesn't go off, which surprised most of them but it makes sense since he isn't a meta. Harry brought it to Barry and then it goes off. Harry approaches Caitlin and, of course, it didn't go off. "You never got an alert on your phone. You never reprogrammed the satellite, and this is why." He says and raises his watch and it goes off alerting a meta.

"You have powers?" Peter asks his friend and wonders why he never told anyone.

"I was gonna tell you, thanks Harry." Cisco states to them.

"Well, you can explain later, because you need to use your powers to find Dr. Light." Harry tells him.

"How do your abilities work?" Peter asks his friend, intrigued by his abilities.

"I get these feelings, these vibes, visions of the breachers. I'm not sure what triggers it." Cisco explains and he explains it happens in many different ways.

Cisco decides to try touching the mask and it doesn't work. Cisco keeps trying and it's not working for him. "Try again." Harry tells him.

"Cisco, do as I say, okay?" Peter asks his friend and Cisco agrees to do as he says. "Close your eyes, empty your mind. Remember the feeling that you felt when you got these...vibes. Don't think, don't do anything but think. Now touch the mask." Peter walks his friend through what he did to get his senses to work for him when he first began.

Cisco does as he said and starts getting a vibe. He looks and sees Light at a train station and platform 15. He escapes the vibe and looks to the others. "South Plasa train station, platform 15." Cisco tells them and they're surprised it worked.

"What are you waiting for?" Harry asks as the two heroes then leave.

-

The heroes make it to the train station and see millions of people around. "Everyone, get out of here, fast!" Peter yells and they all do, except for Light.

"Why won't you two let me leave?" Light asks them.

"You tried killing an innocent person, also my friend here." Barry says to her.

"It's the only way I can be free from Zoom, unless I kill this universes heroes." Light tells them.

"I'd prefer to be left alive. I have a lot to look forward to in life." Peter tells her as she starts sending flashes of light at them and they duck for cover.

"You got anything in your web arsenal to help us?" Barry asks Peter.

"She's got to have a blind spot. You keep her distracted, I'll attack her from above." Peter tells him and he likes that plan, and doesn't like it.

"_Give her more than one targets._" Harry tells them. "How's he gonna do that?" Peter asks him.

"_By running so fast, Barry is going to create multiple afterimage of himself, a speed mirage._" Harry tells them and they see that could give them an edge to take her down.

"I mean, you've traveled through time, this should be a piece of cake." Peter supports his friend and Barry sees that he's right. Barry starts speeding around and creates images that Light thinks is the real one and Barry keeps making afterimages while Peter gets above them.

"Where are you?!" Light yells as Peter webs her back and pulls her against a banister that knocks her out.

"Told ya' I'd knock your lights out by the end of the day." Peter tells the unconscious woman.

-

They bring her back to Star labs and put her in the pipeline and Barry tells them the plan is like Wells said. They're going on use Light to lure Zoom in and Jay thinks they're making a mistake and doesn't want to be here to see them kill themselves in a fight against Zoom.

"You all have to ask yourself why this man, for years, wouldn't admit that he was responsible for the particle accelerator exploding underground. He may not be him, but he has just as many secrets as your Wells. Remember that." Jay says.

"If you're such a saint, why do you seem to be hiding something?" Peter blurts out and Jay is confused. "I told you, my senses are telling me you're dangerous. Awfully dangerous for a non metahuman. I don't know what you're hiding, but I've tried giving you the benefit of the doubt. And it's not working." Peter tells him and Jay leaves.


	29. A demon with the face of a man

Barry and Peter have visited Light in the pipeline and she explains to how Zoom wanted them dead and when they were dead, she would take Barry's emblem to prove he was dead and throw it through the breach and he would confirm thy were dead. She also warned them they can't stop Zoom, but it's not like they're gonna listen to that.

"Zoom wants Dr. Light to send him your emblem?" Caitlin asks him.

"Yes, If we can get dr. Light to take my emblem, throw it though the breach, then Zoom will come to collect my body, and we can trap him." Barry tells them the plan.

"And what about Peter? How's he supposed to know he's dead?" Cisco wonders since they were sent to kill Peter as well.

"As for what she says, Zoom doesn't think I'm that much of a threat, he wants Barry dead, and if I was left, he would finish me off himself if needed to." Peter explains to them.

"This is the woman who was willing to kill Linda and you in order to escape Zoom, but now she's willing to help us catch him?" Caitlin asks them.

"She knows that there's no other way out." Barry tells her and Harry approaches.

"Before I left Earth-2, I worked on a serum to dampen Zoom's speed. All we would need is for Ramon to develop a weapon to deliver it." Harry tells them.

"Great, that could be this years cold gun, while we're at it why not a new Spider Slayer? Maybe another criminal can get it, and then we'd have Sergeant Slow and Spider-Killer." Caitlin tells them, sarcasm on every part of her statement.

"I would never let that happen. Sergeant Slow is a terrible name." Cisco informs Caitlin. "But Spider-Killer isn't half bad."

"Are we forgetting how more powerful Zoom is compared to Barry? I mean, Barry can catch bullets, Peter can dodge a dozen bullets. What's to say Zoom can't catch whatever you shoot at him?" Caitlin asks, not wanting to see anything happen to her friends.

"Element of surprise. All we would do is rig a projectile to fire as Zoom crosses into the breach. He can't stop what he doesn't see." Harry tells her and they all agree, except for Caitlin who still thinks this is a bad idea.

Joe and Cisco don't know if Harry can actually be trusted or not, but Caitlin remembers her and Peter's talk and knows he can be trusted, if he's hiding something, he has his reason. Everyone has secrets, no need to make everyone share everything about them.

"I'm gonna head to Mercury labs, see what I can find to stop him." Peter tells everyone as Cisco goes to feed the metas. As Peter was leaving, Light used her powers to go invisible and used it to escape.

"Dr. Light managed to black into the lights of her cell. The whole building runs in fiber optics that operate on pulse of light, so she turned off the dampeners and used her powers to reflect off herself to go invisible." Peter tells them.

"I thought I convinced her to help us, so she could be free of Zoom." Barry says and they see they need a new plan to lure Zoom. "How are we doing with the speed dampener?"

"I think we isolated the composite. And were modifying the dart that Oliver used to take down Wells." Cisco tells them.

"We don't even know if this thing works." Joe states.

"Until we try it, no we don't. This will be a field test, so can we end this and get back to work?" Harry asks them.

"Maybe it's a good thing that dr. Light is gone. Maybe it's the universe stopping us from doing something stupid." Joe replies to Harry.

"No. We're going to find another way to lure Zoom." Peter says as Harry leaves.

"You seem to trust this guy an awful lot, Peter. Wanna explain why?" Joe asks the web slinger.

"My six sense trusts him, so I trust him. My six sense doesn't trust Jay, so I don't trust Jay. That's how I work, Joe. I don't know what it is about Jay that can't be trusted, but Harry has good intentions. He wants to help stop Zoom, Jay...I don't know." Peter explains and leaves to Mercury labs.

-

Later Barry brings Linda to Star labs with an idea to use her to pretend to be Dr. Light. They bring her to the basement where they have a bunch of targets set up for her to hit.

After a few tries, Linda has the suit and some gloves that Cisco rigged up from Cisco and after some trial and errors, she starts getting the hang of it, mostly. Not enough to fool Zoom...let's face it, she's terrible.

"Did you find somewhere near a breach so we don't have to worry about civilians getting in the way?" Peter asks Cisco, changing the subject.

"Yeah, there's a place by the docks that's usually deserted at night." Cisco tells him.

"And the speed dampener?" Barry asks Caitlin.

"My tests indicate that it should work." Caitlin tells him.

"Are we actually going through with this?" Cisco asks Barry.

"Yeah, we're doing this, I'm gonna have Iris get Linda ready." Barry tells them and starts leaving and Joe goes to have a talk with him.

As he leaves, Peter looks back at his suit and wonders if he does have what it takes to stop Zoom. He could barely stand the Lizard or even most of these Earth-2 counterparts.

"What are you thinking, Peter?" Caitlin asks him, seeing him starting at his suit.

"You think I can beat Zoom?" Peter asks her straight up.

"Honestly? I believe Spider-Man can do anything, if he knows what he's doing." Caitlin tells him and he's satisfied with that answer.

"Hey, there's something I wanted to ask you." Peter tells her and gets her full attention.

"When we were watching for Light yesterday, what do you remember?" Peter asks her and sees her blushing.

"Was I supposed to remember something?" She asks him and they don't know what to say and they just start blushing at each other, and decide to leave it unspoken.

-

Linda is at the waterfront fighting Barry, trying to make it as real as possible. Let's just say they're failing at making it look real, but hopefully real enough for Zoom to buy it.

After "beating" Barry, Linda takes his emblem and throws it into the portal and they wait.

They now just wait for something with Harry and Joe in the distance with Peter. Joe and Harry have the guns at the ready as Peter is there for when his Spider senses go off, they know he's approaching.

It's been over an hour, and nothing is happening and they decide to call it quits. As he passes everything, Wells knocks over everything.

"I think he's taking this harder than the rest of us." Peter states and Barry goes to talk to Joe.

-

As they return to Star labs to learn what they did wrong, Zoom kidnapped Linda from Central news when Peter senses go off...and it's the biggest they've ever gone off.

"Peter, what's wrong?" May asks as every hair on Peter's body stands straight.

"I've never felt fear like this before..." Peter says as Barry gets a call from Iris that Linda was taken and the alerts go off everywhere that Zoom is on the roof. Barry grabs Peter and zooms to the roof to fight him.

They go to the roof and see Zoom in person. His dark blue lightning flickering off of him, along with his demon like eyes and mask that would give the devil nightmares.

"**You like** **to fish with bait?**" Zoom asks with his menacing voice. "**I do too.**" He says while he drops Linda and Peter leaps after her and saves her before she could hit the floor as Barry speeds down to them both.

"You need to get out of here, now." Peter warns Linda as she leaves and Zoom speeds down to them and they're ready to fight.

"Remember, stay together, we can stop him." Barry tells Peter and he agrees.

An idea and starts running sprung the labs to charge up lightning. Zoom just stares as Barry throws the lightning at him, but before they could do anything else, Zoom garbed Barry's lightning and threw it at him, sending him into the wall, knocking him unconscious.

"You guys saw that, right?" Peter asks in shock to what he saw. No, forget shock. He's downright afraid to what he just saw this...thing do. Because whatever that is, it's no human.

"_See him catch a bolt of lightning with his demonic claws? Yeah, saw that._" Cisco tells him.

"_Peter, you can't stop him alone. You need to get out of there._" Caitlin pleads him and he turns off the com link so they don't hear what he's going to do. He grabs into his boot and pulls out the speed dampener serum Harry perfected.

"Let's hope I was right to put faith in you, Wells." Peter mumbled and walks towards Zoom. "What do you want from us?" Peter asks the monster.

"**Everything.**" Zoom answers and that confuses Peter.

"What did we do to you? You seriously want to be us? You want to be a hero?!" Peter asks him and hears a demonic chuckle exits his mouth.

"**Heroes die.**" Zoom informs him.

"Only if you're good enough to stop them." Peter comments and Zoom charges at him, and the two start fighting back and forward.

The two dodge and swing punches back and forward, thanks to Peter's senses he had a upper hand against his speed. But Zoom _is_ fast, if Peter doesn't keep his focus, Zoom will kill him.

Peter grabs Zoom's fist and Zoom does the same to him as Peter looks into his demonic eyes and gets a familiar sense when he sees him and realizes something...

"Jay..?" Peter asks and Zoom starts using his super speed to get the upper hand while Peter's in shock.

Barry sees Zoom stab Peter in his back and speeds to stop Zoom, but all that did was antagonize him more and Zoom gives Barry the same treatment he gave Peter.

Wells came out to help and stop Zoom, but he saw the tranq coming and stoped it. "**Never forget, I am the fastest man alive.**" Zoom states and stabs Barry with the dampener.

Peter starts trying to get up and looks at Zoom.

"I knew...you couldn't be trusted." Peter tells Zoom, knowing his darkest secret.

Zoom just punches him in the face countless times and drags the heroes across the city.

-

His first stop being Central News and shows them the heroes beaten senseless.

"**Look at your heroes. These men are no gods, they are nothing.**" Zoom tells all of them and speeds off for the CCPD.

-

At the CCPD, they all look in shock to see Flash and Spider-Man beaten to a pulp.

"**The days of the Flash and Spider-Man protecting this city are over.**" Zoom tells the cops.

"**Now what will you do without your precious heroes?**" Zoom asks them and they open fire to try to kill him, but Zoom drops Spider-Man and grabs all of the bullets, making it pointless and speeds the heroes off again.

-

"Do we know where they are?" May asks since the tracking system on their suits are going everywhere.

"They could be anywhere in the city." Cisco tells her when Zoom speeds into the labs and they see their friend and family beaten.

"Barry!" Cisco shouts.

"Peter!" Caitlin and May shouts seeing him beaten.

"**Harrison Wells, you thought you could defeat me with these?**" Zoom asks while still holding the heroes.

"I made a mistake." Harry tells him.

"**Yes, a costly one.**" Zoom comments and gets ready to kill Peter, since he actually knows his secret.

That is when a dart hits him in the neck and they look to see May is holding the speed dampener gun. Zoom speeds off and they run to check on the heroes.

-

Later, May and Caitlin moved Barry and Peter into the medical room to help them.

"This is all you! If Barry or Peter die, you die!" Joe warns Harry.

"Joe, both Barry and Peter's viatals have stabilized. Just let it go." Caitlin tells him.

"No, Caitlin." Joe tells her.

"Joe, stop. Who's Jesse?" Cisco asks Harry and he vibes his daughter, Jesse Wells, and Zoom has kidnapped her.

"That's why you're here. Why Peter's senses were telling him you were here for a good reason. You're here to save your daughter." Caitlin states and Harry explains that he needs Peter and Barry's help to stop Zoom to save her.

Later Barry starts waking up and he's at least okay. He starts getting up and sees Peter in the bed next to him with May watching over him.

"How bad did he get it?" Barry wonders since it seems he got the better end of the beating.

"It's bad. If he didn't heal as quickly, I'd be very worried." Caitlin explains.

"Linda?" Barry wonders, hoping she's okay.

"She's staying with some friends in Coast City." Cisco tells him as Caitlin tells Barry he needs to stay down after everything.

-

That night, everyone went home, except Caitlin who offered to keep Peter company for when he wakes up, and he doesn't seem to be doing that any time soon.

Zoom beat his face in, attacked his spine with his claws, and much more.

She just looks over his face that looks better than it did this morning.

"Hey, Peter. I don't know if you can hear me, but if you can I need you to wake up. I can't loose you too, Peter. I need you." Caitlin says while tears roll down her face and she grabs Peter's hand.

"You asked if I remembered what happened when we were staying out for dr. Light..." Caitlin says and leans in and quickly pecks his lips. "That's what I was gonna do. I'm just afraid to tell you, because I think you see me only as a friend. You just don't seem to be interested in anything more, Peter." Caitlin explains, knowing she's expressing her feelings to a man who can't hear her.

As she just sits in silence, she looks to see Peter is starting to wake up. "Caitlin?" Peter asks seeing her.

"Peter, you're awake!" Caitlin screams in joy, happy he's awake again.

As Peter tries standing up, he tries to recall what happened, and remembered the fight with Zoom. "No, you're still healing, you are staying here." Caitlin tells him and Peter starts getting worried.

"Cait, I can't feel my legs..." Peter tells her and now that gets her worried.

—————

**Bum bum bum. Zoom broke Peter's back instead of Barry's since Zoom was trying to make it so Peter died, but ultimately failed because of May.**

**I don't know why I had may do it, I just wanted her to have her moment.**

**And Peter knows Jay's darkest secret!**


	30. Return of Grodd

Peter has been trying to walk with help from his friends and family for support. Peter just takes a few small steps with the cane until he can't do any more and takes a seat on Wells old wheelchair.

"You're making progress." Barry says encouraging.

"Yeah, six whole steps. Someone get me the Bozo button." Peter says, not letting his broken spine getting in the way of his quips.

"Hey, give yourself some credit, man. You had your back broken." Cisco tells his friend.

"Yeah, a normal person would be paralyzed for the rest of his life." Iris informs Peter.

"Hasn't this ever happened to you before?" Joe wonders since Peter's been doing this for years.

"No, I don't recall ever fighting a demonic speedster who pretended to be a hero. He might be around when I was fighting the psycho criminal with a scorpion tail who tried killing me with poison. Or possibly the hunter who tries stabbing me with a sphere multiple times. No matter how times I've fought someone had they broke my back." Peter tells him, with a sort of sarcasm in the way he talked.

"How long until he's healed?" Barry asks Caitlin and May.

"The initial MRI I took a week ago showed a complete dislocation at the T12-L2 interspace of the thoracolumber junction." Caitlin shows them on the screens.

"But this is the MRI we took this morning." May says and shows that Peter is mostly healed, just a few more days should be enough for him to get back on his feet, literally.

"We're going to get you back in that suit, Peter, don't worry about that." Barry tells Peter as he's looking at his suit on the display case.

"What are we gonna do about Jay?" Peter asks them since he told them what his senses told him during the fight.

"No sign of him since May nailed him with that tranq dart." Joe states.

"And I haven't been seeing Jay around Central City, or vibed him since then." Cisco tells them.

"Maybe he's not coming back." Iris tells them, hopingly.

"I highly doubt that." Harry says as he comes back with his gun around his shoulder. "Which is why I'm gonna do something about it. I need access to your breach room and your speed cannon."

"Why is that?" Peter wonders.

"Because, Peter, it's time to go home." Harry tells them and that means he wants to go back to Earth-2.

"So, you show up on our Warth, you screw everything up, and now you wanna go home? Sounds very familiar." Joe tells Harry.

"Again, I'm not him. I need to go take care of Jay or Zoom, whatever you want to call him once and for all before anyone else gets killed." Harry tells them.

"What do you plan on doing to stop him?" Peter asks Harry.

"I'll think of something." Harry tells him.

"Wait, you can't leave." Caitlin tells Harry.

"Yeah, he can. Stein showed us how to send people through." Cisco informs her.

"I don't think that's what she meant." May tells Cisco.

"If you can stop Jay on your earth, you can do it here. Besides, you're a sitting duck out alone. We need your help to stop him." Caitlin tells Harry.

"She's right, we understand Jay has your daughter, but the best way to stop him is with us." Peter agrees with them but Wells just leave to pack.

"I'm not understanding you, did Zoom punch your brain loose? The last plan he gave us nearly got you killed." Joe informs Peter.

"And yet at the same time, you all thought Jay could be trusted and it turns out _he _was this years Reverse Flash." Peter replies to him. "And I'm not exactly going to be helpful until I get back on my feet, we're going to need him." He says since he still believes Harry can still help them.

Suddenly, an reminder goes off for Cisco saying he needs to get ready for a date in an hour. May has to head into work and promises to check on Peter later. Barry's phone rings and it's Patty and he leaves the room.

"Wow, I'm feeling kinda left out suddenly." Peter states to Joe who just laughs since they're the only two guys out of everyone who doesn't have a date.

-

Wells is getting a drink at a bar while trying to learn which breach will get him home as Caitlin comes in to talk to him.

"You should stay away from the cheese curds. They're addicting." Caitlin warns Harry.

"I'm gonna take a wild stab and guess you're here without the consent of the rest of your fabulous team." Harry guesses since only she and Peter want him to stay.

"It's been difficult, having you here, for all of us. But we can help you save your daughter." Caitlin promises him. "I know that's why you want to go home."

"Look, I made a mistake coming here and expecting this world Flash and Spider-Man to be able to stop Zoom. Who actually turns out to be my world's Flash, and my plan to stop him failed." Harry tells Caitlin. "There's nothing to do, except go back and face Zoom myself."

"So let's say you go back to your earth, and you fight Zoom. He will kill you." Caitlin informs him and that won't help Jesse. "The best way for you to help her, is to stay here and work with us as a mean to help us fight Zoom." She asks him and he still doesn't want to.

"Just be glad Peter and professor Stein never figured out how to close all the breaches, then you'd be stuck here." Caitlin tells him and Harry gets an idea.

"Wait. That's it, we close the breaches. All of them, except one. So Jay only has one way to get to this world. The one at Star labs." Harry tells her and Caitlin gets his idea.

-

The next day, Barry and Joe get called in on some attack at a laboratory. "Joe, I found these weird looking hairs all over the street. I'm gonna run them against the database, see what they say find." Barry tells him.

"Well, our victims name is dr. Jeffery Shore. A biochemist engineer here at Vaughan pharmaceuticals. Making him the second dead lab tech in two weeks." Joe informs Barry.

And just like the other tech, he had stolen a serum from their storage cooler. Something called Cortexin. What they use to treat encephalopathy, blood diseases in the brain." Barry states and the serum was gone when they found his body and his point of death was high above the ground.

"Hey, I'm here." Patty comes up to them since she's been running a little late and they fill her in on what she missed.

-

Peter is still at Star labs and is trying to do as much as he can to get himself back on his feet. He was at the moment balancing himself, which used to be an easy task for him, but every time he tries focusing, the haunting images of Zoom beating him to death.

Zoom's Dark, soulless eyes, demonic voice, and every time those images come back, he just falls into a panic.

"Peter?" May calls and Peter sees her worried.

"I'm okay, aunt May." Peter tells her and she walks up and sits down next to him.

"Talk to me, Peter." May begs him, and Peter knows he has to if he wants to get past this.

"It's just...Zoom showed everyone in Central City what he could do, and showed them Spider-Man is not gonna be able to stop him. I'm supposed to be able to protect people, but Zoom showed that Spider-Man is nothing compared to him." Peter explains to her and he doesn't see how he could match up to someone like Zoom. He's not a speedster, his senses can only do so much. Zoom's a unstoppable creature.

"Oh, what would Ben say?" May wonders and Peter thinks back to his uncle.

"Probably give a speech, something about how when we fall, the only thing to do is just stand back up and see how many hits it takes for us to stay down." Peter takes a guess and May agrees with that and laughs.

"Ben always had a speech for every occasion." May jokes and Peter laughs with her, remembering his _with great power, comes great responsibility _speech he once gave.

They just stayed there in a comfortable silence until Cisco came in and saw them while he was holding his face like he's gotten punched.

"Hey, either of you seen Caitlin?" Cisco asks them and they're confused why he would ask that.

"No, why?" Peter asks his friend.

"She just hit me in the face then ran away." Cisco explains and they're wondering why Caitlin would do that when they hear Barry and Joe yelling for them.

"Grodd, he's back." Joe tells them and they realize he has Caitlin.

Barry speeds outside, just missing Grodd and he's kidnapped Caitlin.

"I'm continually amazed by the similarity between our two earths." Harry says as they're searching for the giant gorilla on the computers.

"You've got talking gorillas on your earth, too?" Joe asks and he concurs with him. "Remind me to never visit there."

"But why would a psychic gorilla kidnapp Caitlin?" May asks after Peter explained the whole gorilla situation.

"I don't know, it doesn't make any sense. Caitlin was the one who he actually liked." Peter says, now being able to at least stand up on his own.

"He mind controlled two lab technicians to steal chemicals that enhance intelligence. So he must need Caitlin for something." Barry tells them and that could be a problem they need to deal with.

"Well, he seem to have left his bachelor pad in the sewers." Cisco says while looking at the sewer cameras.

"Grodd's a big ass gorilla. He can't just waltz through downtown in the middle of the day with nobody noticing." Joe states to them and he does have a point.

"Exactly, and if there's been sightings, We night be able to approximate his location." Harry tells Joe and he offers to go to CCPD and find reports of a gorilla and they all split up to do what they can leaving Peter.

"Don't start beating yourself up about this, Peter. There's nothing you could've done against a gorilla, even at full health." May informs Peter.

"I'm still not at full power. How am I supposed to help save her from Grodd?" Peter asks her, wishing he could sense Grodd, but he's always going in blind with that telepathic overgrown chimpanzee.

"You might not be able to flip, or dodge bullets, but you still have your brain. Start using it and help figure out where she is." May suggests and he knows that if he wants to help Caitlin, he needs to stop thinking about Zoom, and focus on why he became Spider-Man.

-

In Cisco's labs, Harry and Cisco are trying to figure out how to save Caitlin.

"So how did Grodd become sentient?" Harry asks Cisco.

"A few years ago, Star labs had this contract with the military to research and awaken latent mind reading capabilities for interrogation purposes." Cisco explains to him.

"And I'm guessing Grodd is one of the test subjects." Harry guesses.

"Yes, but then dr. Wells shut down the program, and we all thought it was to save Grodd from all of the crazy mind control experiments, but it was really so that dr. Wells could use the accelerator to create his own 1,500 pound mind controlling gorilla that he could manipulate." Cisco starts explaining.

Cisco looks at what Harry is doing on the computers and sees he's running an algorithm. "What are you doing exactly?" Cisco wonders.

"I'm running an algorithm meant to extrapolate Grodd's location from places we know how alewasy been." Harry says and the computer finishes and they see they all intersect and they have a location.

In the labs, May is giving Peter another exam to check if everything is completely healed yet. "No spinal cord edema. No trace of any subacute hemorrhaging. Bones have fused perfectly, you're all healed, Peter." May says with gladness and Peter doesn't know what to do about the images still.

"You know, Peter, Ben would always say if you want to get back to something, figure out where you started." May offers and Peter thinks back to when he was first Spider-Man when Cisco comes in with news.

"Hey, guys, I think we found where they are." He tells them and they join him in the cortex.

"Grodd has to be in one of these three bell towers. The only reason we couldn't find him on any cameras underneath the city before is because he upgraded from a bachelor pad to a penthouse, like a baller." Cisco informs them on what he found out.

"Okay, so we know where he is. What's the plan to get her out?" Peter asks as Harry is back in his doppelgängers Reverse Flash suit.

"We use me." Harry explains and they're shocked at the resemblance.

"If we can get Harry to convince Grodd that he's Wells, he's his father, he can distract Grodd, Barry can go in and get them both out of there." Cisco explains the plan and it's the only thing we've got.

"I'm not gonna be much help, if anything goes wrong." Peter warns them and they understand.

-

They checked the first two bell towers and are at the last one now. "Okay, let's go over the plan one last time." Cisco asks Harry and he doesn't want to. "Look, I just finished these anti-psychic ear buds. They could fail and if they do, you're toast, so you're gonna need to nail it if you want to live." Cisco tells him and Harry puts on his best Wells impression.

"Cisco. In many ways. You've shown me what it's like to have a son." Harry says, and Cisco asks him to try a bit harder, and more sincere. Once he finally gets it, Barry just has to wait for his moment.

-

May and Peter are just talking at Star labs as Peter looks towards his Spider-Man suit again that's on a mannequin next to Barry's. "Tell me what you first thought when you put on that outfit." May asks Peter, since he never truly explains why he became Spider-Man.

"I just...I don't even know myself. I was angry when Ben got shot, I wanted to stop the man responsible for killing him. But after time, I guess the idea of me being given these powers for a reason started coming in. I wanted to make a difference in the world, and that's what Zoom took from me. He showed the city, Spider-Man is not powerful enough to protect them." Peter explains to her why he feels like maybe Spider-Man should stop.

"Do you remember what I would say when you would fail a test in school when you were younger? You know, those rare occasions?" May asks him and he does, he remembers her exact words.

"Were only human?" Peter asks her.

"You're feeling the shame that you lost. What made you think you could become Spider-Man to beigin with?" May keeps asking him and Peter doesn't remember much about starting, but remembers what he took.

"I just took a leap of faith, and saw what followed." Peter tells her and she places her hands on his shoulders.

"Maybe it's time for you to take a second leap, don't you think?" May asks and Peter understands.

Maybe that's what he needs in order to get Zoom out of his head is to retake his first steps.

Then make Zoom pay for what he did.

-

The team later comes back with Caitlin and she explains that what Grodd wanted her for was so he could have more gorillas like him.

"What are you saying? He wants kids?" Cisco asks her. "Because I'm pretty sure one telepathic grape ape is more than enough for this city."

"I know somewhere we could send him." Harry tells them. "When the singularity exploded and I discovered the breach in Star labs, I ran similar tests and discovered the same thing, 51 additional breaches. The difference being the breaches in Central City are scattered throughout the city whereas counterparts in my world mist definitely are not." Harry says and explains he knows where they all are and where they lead onto his earth and shows one breach that will send Grodd to his world, a city of gorillas.

"Even if you're right, how do we bait Grodd to go through it?" Joe asks them when Peter gets an idea.

"I'll do it." Peter tells them and they're surprised he's offering. "Barry can bring Grodd to the location, and my strength matches Grodd's so I'll be able to hold him off. I've been hiding and playing dead for far too long...I need to take a leap." He says looking to May whos smiling.

-

Caitlin goes back to the tower and calls out for Grodd and as soon as he comes out, Barry speeds Caitlin away.

"You want Caitlin, Grodd? You're gonna have to catch up, first." Barry tells the gorilla and speeds off with Grodd close behind.

Peter is sitting against the side of a abandoned building, above where the breach is, and is waiting for the moment to kick Grodd into the portal. Barrry comes speeding up while Cisco and Harry get the speed cannon ready to send the gorilla through.

Barry comes to a stop and waits for Grodd. Grodd comes down and asks where's Caitlin, Peter takes this as his time to start swinging, when once again the images if Zoom trying to fill his mind, but he fights back against them.

His feelings of fear have been holding him back ever since Zoom tried breaking him. But what Zoom doesn't realize is that he can bend Peter Parker, but he will never break.

Cisco activates the breach and it starts pulling Grodd trough, but it's not strong enough. But adding Peter's strength, it is. Peter comes down on a web and goes for a full power kick and kicks the gorilla through the breach when they shut it down.

Peter just drops to the ground since kicking a gorilla still leaves some pain.

"Welcome back, Spider-Man." Barry tells him and he's happy that he was able to help get rid of Grodd for good.

-

They're all back at Star labs and are looking at the Reverse Flash suit.

"That thing seriously gives me the creeps. We should destroy it." Cisco tells them.

"Agreed, but maybe we should see how he got his suit to fit into his ring, first." Peter tells Cisco since they're both curious to how he managed that.

"Really you guys?" Barry asks his nerd friends.

"Hey, this came from the future, you know, that place where they have more advanced technology. I'm not letting it go to waste." Peter informs Barry who just lets them do what they want.

"So the place where we sent Grodd, what is it exactly?" May wonders, since nobody really explained it.

"It's a refuge where gorillas subjected to lab experiments, like Grodd, can roam freely." Wells explains and they see that's the best life for Grodd.

"I still don't understand, why do the breaches on our Earth lead to different places on yours?" Peter asks Harry.

"I don't know yet, Parker, but I do know we have to close them all and I don't know how to do that quite yet." Harry tells him and they agree to work together to find a way to close the breaches and stop Zoom.

"Say what you will, I'm just glad to be rid of that gorilla. If I never see him again, it'll bee to soon." Peter states and walks off, hoping that's the last Grodd will ever be interfering with their lives.

Hopefully.


	31. Hawks

The team have been busy with Cisco looking for ways to close the breaches, harry and Caitlin have been looking for a way to help Barry get faster, Peter's been working on his suit so it's harder to penetrate, especially with Zoom/Jay's claws.

But as of now, Cisco is on a date with the girl he met at Jitters, Kendra, when it got interrupted by a psycho knife throwing man. Barry had to go in to save them and brought them both to Star labs.

"I can't believe you know the Flash and Spider-Man. And that you work with Flash and Spider-Man." Kendra says to Cisco.

"Well, to me, it's something you don't bring up until your third date in my opinion." Peter quips while Barry looks over the knife Cisco was almost killed with.

"This is the same knife that was used to kill the men at the docks. The residue is a perfect match." Barry informs the team. "But the interesting thing is, these blades are old, centuries old."

"You have any idea why this man would be after you?" Caitlin asks Kendra who says that she hasn't seen him before and how he called her princess Shieara, an Egyptian name.

"This guy, he's clearly incredibly dangerous, so you need to at least let us protect you." Peter asks Kendra and they know someone who might be happy to help.

You know, maybe. It might take some convincing, to be honest.

-

Star City, team Arrow are in the middle of fighting Damian Darhk, that team being Felicity Smoak, Oliver Queen, John Diggle, and Oliver's sister Thea. As they're fighting Darhk, Barry comes in at the last second and saves them.

He comes to a stop near Peter, and Diggle throws up as he stops and the team sees the Central City's heroes.

"It's the Flash. And Spider-Man. Did I know we knew the Flash and Spider-Man?" Thea asks them. "Okay, I didn't know we knew you guys." She admits, a little embarrassed.

"Thank you. But I don't think that you swung by to protect us." Oliver guesses.

"No, not to protect you, but someone we know does need protection." Peter tells him and fills them in on the way to their base.

-

They make it to their new base of operations, and it's amazing.

"Nice new digs." Barry says, seeing how they've improved from a small basement below a club.

"Hey, I just noticed with the no sleeves. Don't you ever get cold?" Peter asks his friend.

"I spent the better part of 5 years on an island in the North China Sea, I don't get cold." Oliver informs him as Felicity approaches for a hug, then she smacks him.

"How come you never told us Zoom broke your back?" Felicity asks him and then hugs him again.

"So, this is what it's like dating her?" Peter asks Oliver.

"More bruises from her than Deathstroke." Oliver tells him as Cisco goes on about how bad the place is designed. Then they go past introductions through everyone.

"Wow, first the flash and Spider-Man, now the Green Arrow." Kendra recaps the night so far. "You got any other surprises for me?" Kendra asks Cisco.

"Please, I hope not." Cisco replies to that.

"They said you need our help." Oliver asks Kendra and Barry speed draws a picture for them.

"Okay, this is him." Barry says and hands the picture to Felicity.

"Let's see if our facial recognition software can find a match." Felicity says and runs it through and gets a match.

The only thing wrong is the picture he's found in was taken in 1975.

"So the guy you couldn't stop is 80 years old? Not judging, I respect my elders." Peter jokes as Oliver keeps asking Kendra questions, when Felicity offers for them to go to their place.

-

When they get there, Felicity and Oliver hand out drinks to everyone and they get into conversations.

"I'm not changing my nickname." Thea informs Cisco.

"Are you familiar with my work? If you are, you know I can come up with something better than _Speedy_." Cisco informs her.

"He's gonna do it, without your insight either way." Caitlin informs Thea and Peter agrees, then Thea decides to start mocking Cisco's hair.

"So the CEO or Palmer technologies is living with Oliver Queen." Peter tells Felicity. "It's amazing how much life can change in a year, isn't it?" He asks her, since when he first came to them for help, he was a different man.

"Which you would know better than anyone, considering that there's another Flash who is actually an evil speedster who tried killing you, another dr. Wells, from another earth." Felicity recaps what He's been through the past year since they've last seen each other.

"Yeah, it's been crazy. Makes me miss the days where the biggest threat I had to face was a mutant with electricity powers." Peter tells Felicity, since those days were simpler and had less chances of death.

And less evil speedsters out to kill him.

"I wonder what Oliver's doppelgänger would look like." Felicity wonders out of the blue. "So, have you been seeing anyone?" She asks Peter, since his last date was with Laurel Lance when he was visiting them.

"Uh, I wouldn't say seeing anyone, really." Peter answers while looking towards Caitlin.

"Oh, but you do have your eyes on someone, huh?" Felicity teases and he looks away.

"Come on, I can see myself you like Caitlin, I've known it since my first visit to Star labs." Felicity tells Peter.

"Caitlin's amazing, but I think she deserves someone better than me." Peter says since the life of a hero is dangerous, and considering everything and everyone Caitlin's already lost, he doesn't want to add himself to that list.

"Peter, after everything, you both deserve someone special. Look, if you're worried about the whole, _I'm a hero, and there's a chance I might not come back_, she's going to know you chances she's gonna take dating you. Come on, you once said you like taking leaps of faith. So try taking a leap." Felicity tells him and Peter wonders if he and Caitlin could possibly work.

As they're talking, when suddenly Peter's senses go off and they see the man comes swinging through the window.

"I will always find you, Chay-ara." The man says and Barry speeds to bring Oliver his arrows, and Peter tries webbing him but he dodges all of his attempts.

"Don't move!" Oliver warned him.

"Then now will I kill you all?" He asks them and he throws knives at all of them. Peter was able to dodge his, while Barry speeds to stop the knives from hitting the rest of them.

Oliver tries shooting him and he was fast enough to grab his arrows so they start fighting hand in hand. Peter leaps in and uses his abilities to stick to the roof and kicks the man backwards and he falls off the balcony.

"I just wanna say, I did not mean to do that." Peter says and they look to see that somehow he escaped and didn't even hit the pavement. "Okay, this is seriously weird." He also comments, never seeing anything like this before.

-

They return to the Arrow cave to find out what they can and Cisco explains what he was able to see in his past visions of seeing Kendra with wings when the lights flicker off and they turn to see them come back on and Malcom merlyn with a group of men appear.

"Okay, A, how did you get in here? And B, where do I learn that? Also, the more importantly, C, who are you?" Peter asks him, since he wasn't here for when he tired destroying the city.

"It's my dad." Thea tells Peter and he sees he missed a few things.

"The man you're looking for is Vandal Savage." Malcom tells them. "Some say he was the most trusted advisor to Genghis Khan. Others say he guided Julius Caesar through the Gallic wars. But one thing the League knows for certain, he was there for all of it."

"So what are you saying? He's like a vampire or something?" Cisco asks Malcom, confused to what he's saying.

"Not a vampire, an immortal." Malcom corrects Cisco and they see that explains why he hasn't aged. "There's nothing you can do to save her now."

"I need some air." Kendra tells them and leaves with Cisco following her.

"We're gonna do whatever we have to keep Kendra safe, whether you think we can or not." Peter informs Malcom when the lights flicker again and he vanishes. "I was being serious, I need to know how he does that." Peter states to Barry who agrees, that was cool.

-

Cisco later comes back to tell them that Kendra was kidnapped by some freak with wings. Barry, Peter and Oliver go out to find her any way they can by using their own ways of moving through the city.

Felicity finds where they both are and Peter was the closest one and he spots them and comes swinging in and kicks the man off the building and he lands on the street where Oliver is waiting and tries shooting him with arrows.

"Give us the girl." Oliver commands the man with Peter ready with a web grenade to restrain him.

"Not gonna happen, Robin Hood." He states to Oliver.

"You're making a mistake." Peter warns him, not wanting to fight unless needed to.

"I'll take my chances." He states and goes in to fight them and Peter throws the web grenade and it explodes, immobilizing him as Barry speeds in and takes him out.

"I'd make some chicken puns, but I'll do that later." Peter tells them, causing Barry to chuckle and Oliver just looks at the two sternly.

-

They bring him to the Arrow cave, tied up in chains and he eventually wakes up.

"Where is she?" He asks them commandingly.

"What's your name?" Barry asks him.

"You're putting her in danger, and I'm the only one capable of saving her." He tells them all, ignoring his question.

"Interesting name, is that Swedish?" Peter jokes.

"You have a very interesting perspective on what the word saving means." Thea also tells him.

"She's the love of my lifetime, sweetheart. I was not going to hurt her." He tells Thea and that gets them confused.

"You heard him say lifetime, right?" Peter asks Caitlin and she heard that as well.

He then explains how he was once Carter Hall, and is now Prince Khufu, and only in this lifetime is Kendra actually Kendra Saunders. And that they're supposed to be soul mates.

"Okay, Romeo, why don't you pump the brakes?" Cisco asks, feeling a little threatened.

"These people cannot protect you from Savage any longer." Carter warns Kendra.

"Do you know who exactly this Vandal Savage is?" Peter asks Carter, hoping they can get information on the man.

"In every lifetime, he hunts us down and kills us. He's done it 206 times, and I'm not planning to make it 207." Carter tells Peter.

"Why does he kill you?" Diggle asks him.

"His life force is tethered to ours. Every time he kills us, he becomes more powerful. You do the math." Carter explains and they think that it's kinda strange how he thinks he's her best bet after he killed them 206 times.

"Okay, so what we need to do is just find Savage and get rid of him." Peter recaps what he's telling them.

"Well, you cant get rid of him, my friend." Carter warns Peter.

"Really? I've got a master of archery and the fastest man alive on my side. Some immortal with knives isn't the craziest thing, or ever the hardest, I've had to face...sadly." Peter says when Malcom comes in through the shadows.

"It might be harder than you think." He informs Peter.

"Okay, seriously man, how te hell did you get in here with an entire entourage, and nobody seeing you?" Peter asks them.

"My associates tell me Savage left Star City a few hours ago. We're not quite sure where, though. But I assume after his run in with all of you, he realized he needed something more powerful to complete his mission." Merlyn explains to them.

"We think he's trying to locate the Staff of Horus." He also tells them and none of them know what on earth that is.

"It's a relic from our past, an ancient and powerful weapon. If Savage gets his hands on it, it's gonna be nearly impossible to stop him." Carter warns the group.

"Felicity, think you can find it?" Oliver asks her and she goes to do her thing. Carter tries to convince them that Kendra can do what he can do and they decide to give him a chance to prove it.

-

They're standing on top of a building and Carter is saying that the only way to emerge her wings, is for her to jump.

"I'm not the only one thinking this idea is crazy, right?" Caitlin asks them and Peter agrees with her.

"Actually, after what we saw, after what Cisco said, I cannot believe I'm gonna way this, but it..kinda makes sense." Oliver tells Peter.

"Okay, Oliver's completely lost it." Peter says as they see Kendra is standing up to try herself.

"Are you serious?" Barry asks as she's ready to try it when Carter pushes her off the roof and, without thinking, Peter leaped down after her and before she could hit the pavement, he grabs onto her and shoots a web to slingshot the two of them back upward.

"What the hell was that?" Barry asks Carter.

"Saving her life." He tells them.

"I'm agreeing with Thea on the whole you don't know what saving someone means." Peter states as he puts Kendra down.

"Then we should try again, see what happens." Carter says and is met by protests by Cisco, Peter and Barry.

"We're not doing that again." Peter states, since he's lucky nobody was around to see him save her.

"Peter, can we talk for a minute?" Oliver asks and Peter asks Caitlin to keep an eye on Carter. "What's going on with you?" Oliver asks since Peter's been acting strange.

"I'm trying to keep her alive. You know, the one thing I know how to do right." Peter replies to his friend.

"Then I think we should let her jump." Oliver tells him. "Aren't you the one who always talks and the leap of faith?" He asks Peter. I get that you're desperate to help and you want to do what you can, but I believe that this is the right way." Oliver says and Peter is seriously getting annoyed by everything lately.

"What's wrong?" Oliver asks him.

"It's just...the rules keep changing. I miss the days when the weirdest thing science created was just me. Now, ever since the accelerator exploded, I'm now teaming up with a man who can go so fast, he can time travel. Next, I fight a evil speedster from the future, fighting a telepathic gorilla, now there are multiple earths and doppelgänger. And right now, we're chasing down an immortal madman on a rampage against a reincarnated warrior priestess? When I started Spider-Man, I thought I would be the strangest thing to ever exist. Now, it feels like I'm becoming less powerful compared to everyone else." Peter explains the dilemma he's been in for the past two years.

"That I would understand. But you have already helped Kendra. You help get her alive. Now, let's help her get her wings, and then she can give you a lift back to Central City, so you don't need to waist web fluid." Oliver says and gets an idea.

"We need to check Central City for the staff." Oliver tells Felicity and Oliver explains maybe that's why Kendra was drawn to the city. And they found it at st. Mark's in Central City and they believe they can use the staff to stop Savage.

Barry gives Kendra some advice about emerging free, and the three heroes suit up to fight Savage.

-

They make it to the church and it seems deserted and they see that the staff is missing.

"Guys, I'm sensing someone's here." Peter warns them as they look around for Savage.

"You're power of the senses have brought you far, I'd imagine. But that power will only get you so far." Savage says, stepping into the light with the staff.

Oliver readies his arrows, ready to shoot him. "You trued those arrows once before, remember? They didn't quite finish the job, now, did they?" Savage asks him.

"I'm not gonna make this mistake again." Oliver states.

"You're gonna leave Kendra alone." Barry tells him.

"I can't do that. While my destiny is to live forever, Chay-ara's is to die, as is yours now." Savage states to them and uses the staff, but Barry speeds off to avoid the blasts and Oliver is trying to stop him. While he was distracted, Peter went above everything and webbed the staff away from Savage.

"In all of my years, I've never met anyone with such grand capabilities. It's astonishing." Savage tells Peter as he now wields the staff and feels the energy flow through him, but it seems to have no effect on him.

"Now this is what I'm talking about." Peter quips as he shoots Savage with the staff and he feels something is wrong and his powers are doing what they can to help when Barry and Oliver hold onto the staff.

"We end this together." Oliver says and they all use their might to keep Savage back, when whatever Savage was doing stopped and Savage gets hit by the blast and turns into dust.

"Why do I have a sense of déjà vu?" Peter wonders looking at the ashes of Vandal Savage and why he feels like he's seen that before.

-

While they were dealing with him, Kendra was able to unlock her wings and everything with them and the group returns to Central City. "So how do you feel now that Savage is pushing daisies?" Cisco asks the Hawk people.

"Does this mean you guys are the immortal ones now and he's the one who gets reincarnated?" Peter wonders, now seeing he needs to try and embrace all of the craziness of his life.

"I just sprouted wings a few hours ago, and I'm just trying to wrap my head around that." Kendra states to them.

"Well, Savage is gone for good now, right?" Barry asks them both. "I don't know." Carter tells him. "We've never defeated him before."

"You're welcome, by the way. I feel like I'm not getting enough credit since I'm now being told if it weren't for my enhanced blood, I would be dead." Peter says looking towards Cisco who told him that information.

"I thought you'd find it interesting!" Cisco defends himself. "Who would wanna know that he had a chance of dying?" Peter asks his friend.

"It doesn't matter, because now we're free." Carter tells them and Kendra says that she's leaving with Carter to help people. Kendra asks for her and Cisco to have a moment and Barry goes off to talk to Oliver.

Peter and Caitlin start walking, just to enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasts.

"You know, this has been a strange past few days." Caitlin tells Peter.

"It's been a strange past few years, what you talkin' about?" Peter jokes causing Caitlin to laugh to her right he is.

"You believe in that whole soul mate thing?" Caitlin asks Peter.

"Well, I believe that there's someone out there for everyone, that being what some people would call soul mates." Peter says and Caitlin agrees with that and wonders if he and her can actually work out if they got together.

"This is nice." Caitlin says breathing in the fresh air. "It's nice to slow down, take everything in."

Peter agrees with her when he starts showing his serious face when an idea strikes him.

Instead of speeding Barry up, maybe they should try slowing Jay down.

But, maybe it's time he told Caitlin how he feels about her.


	32. Nightmares

This was it.

There was turning back now.

Peter was finally going to do it.

He is going to confess to Caitlin how he feels about her.

Peter had asked Caitlin to meet him at Jitters to talk and he just needs to think of what to say.

Harry, Barry and Cisco are busy at Star labs, while Joe and Iris are showing his son Wallace West around the city so he knows he wouldn't be called away suddenly.

"Peter, you made it. I got you a Spider-special, because you like to gloat at times." Caitlin jokes and Peter laughs with her.

"What can I say? They make my name taste good." Peter says remembering he said the same thing before while going against dr. Light and takes a sip from the cup.

"So, what did you want or talk about?" Caitlin asks since she doesn't know why he asked her here.

Peter thinks for a minute and goes with what he wanted to say for the past year.

"Caitlin, for the past year and a half I've been working with you, I've been developing something I can't explain." Peter starts off, trying his best to express himself. "I've been spending my life feeling like I was destined for loneliness. But then, I met you and I don't feel so lonely anymore. What I'm trying to say, Cait, it's that...I love you." Peter says, ripping of the bandage fast. Like people advice others.

Caitlin looks shocked at the statement and Peter sees he made a mistake.

"I know you probably don't feel the same, but I've been holding these feelings in for the past year and I thought it was time for you to know-" Peter was saying when he gets interrupted by Caitlin just leaning over the table and kissing him, shutting him up.

"I've been trying to say the same thing to you for a while, Peter." Caitlin says and Peter is overjoyed and they kiss once again.

But the moment is immediately interrupted with Zoom grabbing Caitlin and speeding to the roof.

Peter leaps and climbs up to see Jay holding Caitlin over the ledge.

"Jay, put her down!" Peter warns him, not wanting Caitlin to be harmed.

"**Peter Parker, everything you love, everyone you care about, will perished.**" Jay says, using the demonic voice and drops Caitlin.

"Caitlin!!" Peter yells while trying to run and save her, but Zoom grabs him by the neck and starts chocking the life out of him, while his claws dig into his neck.

"**I warned you.**" Zoom states and starts vibrating his hand and enters Peter's chest.

-

Peter wakes up in a jult and looks to see he's still in Cisco's workshop and remembers he was helping Harry work on a way to slow Zoom down.

"You okay there?" Harry asks Peter, while the hero catches his breath.

"You know those dreams that you think are real, so you start thinking that you're still dreaming?" Peter asks Harry.

"You had me at realistic dream, lost me at still dreaming." Harry tells him as they stand in silence for a while.

"You want to talk about it?" Harry asks Peter, who's surprised to see he cares.

"No, I'm fine. It was just one of those nights." Peter replies, wanting to forget the nightmare.

"Seemed pretty intense. It was Zoom, wasn't it?" Harry asks and Peter nods to him that's right. "He took someone from you, didn't he?" Harry asks again, and this time, Peter nods in agreement.

"We'll stop him, Parker. I promise you that. Dr. Snow will be safe." Harry promises Peter and he looks shocked he actually knew it was about Caitlin. "You said her name in your sleep." He tells him.

"Besides, you're very subtle in how you feel for her, but I'm a genius. I notice what others don't." Harry states and Peter sees that he is a genius when Cisco enters the lab.

"Hey, what's all this?" Cisco asks them.

"Just wrong answers." Harry says and starts erasing the board.

"Listen, I know the two of you have been working on this, and I think I learned a way we can strip Zoom of his speed." Cisco tells them and that gets their attention quickly.

-

"As some of you may know, I've been deeply embroiled in a secret, one sided battle with an invisible enemy." Cisco explains to everyone as they meet up in the cortex.

"No, not the Turtle again." Caitlin complains and they're confused.

"Who's the Turtle?" Barry asks them.

"It's Cisco's white whale." Caitlin explains and they understand the _Moby Dick_ reference.

"Look, I stumbled upon a few of these cases when we were looking for the Reverse Flash, robberies that were seemingly committed at high speeds. People holding their beloved items one second. Those items gone the next. Tell me what you see here." Cisco shows footage of a robbery where one man in a hood is walking in a room with everyone else is frozen.

"Okay, the time code shows he's not freezing time, so what's he doing?" Peter wonders, not understanding.

"He's slowing down everything around him. And that's why we call him the Turtle." Cisco explains to them why he was named that.

"Okay, first, I'd called him something like Stop Watch, sounds cooler and more menacing. Second, how come you never mentioned him in the past?" Peter asks Cisco since this is the first even he's heard of this.

"Oh, I don't know, I think we've just been a little distracted, you know with Thawne, the Lizard, your Sinister Six, gorilla Grodd. Need I go on?" Cisco tells him and that makes sense.

"So if we can catch him, and figure out how his powers work, we might be able to find a way to slow down Zoom." Barry says and sees the plan.

"How would you know where to find him?" Harry asks and that seems to be the biggest problem.

"Well, the robberies in the video all correspond with police reports that were dismissed as lost or missing items instead of thefts." Barry says looking over everything. "The suspects M.O. being apparently items of immense personal value."

Barry then keeps looking and finds there's a press conference at the CCPD about the Vandervoort diamonds that were recovered. A possible place for the Turtle to strike and he grabs Peter then runs off.

-

"The perpetrators who committed this heartless crime, have been apprehended and are now in our custody." Captain Singh says and continues about how the diamonds were returned as Barry and Peter keep their distance in their suits and wait for the Turtle.

They wait and see someone walking in wearing a hood that covers his face and hands and they know that's their man.

Barry goes speeding down when Peter senses something and sees a bubble of energy leaving the Turtle and filling the room.

Peter then sees that Barry and everyone else has come to a stop when he was hit by the bubble and sees that the Turtle has escaped the next second.

And the diamonds were gone.

-

"Well, the good news is whatever the Turtle did, it only affected you two temporarily." Caitlin assures the two of them as they return to Star labs.

"What was it like being in Turtle time?" Cisco asks them.

"It was like...I was walking through jello." Peter tries giving his best description of what it felt like.

"It felt like all the energy was sucked from my body and then it would return." Barry says, giving his own explanation.

"That's because that's what was happening." Harry tells him and they all turn to him. "He has the ability to transfer all the surrounding kinetic energy into himself. Leaving everyone else in a temporary state of potential energy." He explains and starts walking off.

"Excuse me, where you going?" Cisco asks the man.

"Trying to figure out how to use this against Zoom." Harry tells them and leaves. "Parker, you with me?" He asks Peter and he goes with him.

"Cisco, please join me. We'll use your idea and take it to new scientific heights and save the world." Cisco says in Harry's voice, since he wasn't asked to help.

"Facial recognition software found us a match from the press conference footage. The Turtle's name is Russell Glosson." Caitlin tells them and pulled up his photo. "He was a small time thief who stopped thieving after the particle accelerator exploded."

"All right, I'm gonna head to work, catch Joe up. Let me know if you find out anything else." Barry says and leaves, leaving Cisco and Caitlin behind.

Harry and Peter are thinking of ways to use the Turtle's power to slow down Zoom by sending it into his body without him knowing.

"You know, I think we're thinking about things all wrong, regarding how we're fighting Jay." Peter admits to Wells.

"What do you mean by that?" Harry asks as he looks back to him from the board.

"Jay has been moving the pieces since day one. He's been moving all the pieces on this world. What if we fought him on his turf?" Peter wonders and Harry seems to be getting what he's saying.

"Are you saying we should go to my world?" Harry asks Peter and that's exactly what he meant.

"Yeah, I'm saying we go to Earth-2, find Zoom and stop him, and save your daughter." Peter says and Harry doesn't know about the plan but sees his idea.

Jay has been playing for every outcome and decision they could make on this earth. Maybe by going to him, they can catch him off guard.

They go to tell the others the plan and they also think it's both a good and bad Idea when Barry comes in.

"Hey, you guys find anything yet?" Barry asks them.

"Well, we have one strange idea and maybe the next target for our 30-something, metahuman, not ninja turtle." Cisco tells him.

"How long did it take you to come up with that one?" Caitlin asks Cisco.

"It just came out of my mouth, that was amazing." Cisco says and gets back in topic. "Central City museum is hosting a special black tie event tonight showcasing The Crystal Ball."

"It's a famous painting, apparently, that was recently recovered from Markovia. It's on loan from the Silverburg family. Jacob Silverburg himself said, 'the painting safe return means more to us than all the money in the world.' They're basically asking for someone to rob it, might as well be Stop Watch." Peter tells Barry looking at the monitors.

"The Turtle." Cisco corrects when he called him Stop Watch.

"So when the Turtle makes his move, we can wait and take him down." Barry says and that means that Peter's gonna need a date.

"How do you look in a tux?" Caitlin asks Peter, and that means she's offering to help.

"Come on, he's 5'9" and he's jacked. He thinks he looks fine." Cisco answers for Peter.

"Dude, I'm 6'2"." Peter corrects his friend when Barry realized he made plans with Patty but sees a better date than just dinner.

"You know, you're a great superhero. But do you think it's a good idea when you're fighting crime to bring a date?" Cisco asks Barry a looks to Peter to help explain.

"Don't look at me, I've never held a good relationship for long." Peter states, since every relationship lasted about a month, some even less.

"I wanna tell Patty I'm the Flash." Barry tells them and they're shocked. "What do we think? Is that a bad idea?" He asks the team.

"I will say, she put bullets in King Shark. So as far as I'm concerned, that's team Flash material." Cisco says and Peter agrees, but Caitlin is a little skeptical, but keeps it to herself.

Barry leaves and has a conversation with Harry who believes he should keep her away from all of this.

-

They go to the museum and see the party has started while Peter's waiting for Caitlin and Barry is searching for Patty.

Peter looks to see Caitlin with her hair brushed down across her shoulder while wearing a beautiful blue dress and his entire mind shuts down.

"What? Something wrong?" Caitlin asks seeing his reaction to her look.

"No. It's...your beautiful." Peter compliments her and she smiles.

"You don't look so bad yourself. You clean yourself up nicely." Caitlin tells him and takes his hand.

"Keep your eyes open for Turtle." Barry tells them and goes off to find Patty.

"Care to dance, mr. Parker?" Caitlin asks Peter and he's willing to make himself a fool for trying to dance since he's terrible at dancing.

"If I trip on my feet, I warned you." Peter warns Caitlin.

"I'll take my chances. I always wanted to see if the great Peter Parker could dance, and this seems like the only opportunity I'm gonna get." Caitlin states as they start slow dancing to the music.

"This is pretty nice. No enemies, no nothing. Just us." Peter states, even though there here to stop Turtle it's like their in their own little moment.

"Maybe we should do stuff like this more often." Caitlin suggests and Peter likes the sound of that, but then wonders if she just asked him out.

"Sounds like a plan." Peter replies when Cisco calls in.

"_Guys, we've got eyes on the Turtle_." Cisco tells them.

"Looks like our dance is cut short." Peter says and goes to get changed to stop Turtle.

Patty spotted the Turtle and tries stopping him, but Turtle uses his powers to take her gun as Barry show up to see him pointing the gun at Patty.

"This is a trap?" Turtle realizes. "I'm slow, not stupid." Turtle says and uses his powers to crate a field of slow and then shoots the chandelier and it starts falling on Patty.

Barry keeps speeding in to save her, while Turtle keeps using his powers to slow him down and leaves with the painting.

Barry was able to move Patty out of the way, but he gets crushed under the chandelier

The Turtle makes it outside, but is hit with a web trip mine that webs him to the wall.

Peter leaps down and sees that the Turtle is trapped.

"I guess you are too slow, buddy." Peter comments to how he didn't see that coming.

-

They return to Star labs with the Turtle in the pipeline, with Harry using his blood to conduct a serum to slow Zoom down while Caitlin is making sure Barry is okay.

"You wanna know the new definition of irony here?" Peter asks Turtle while he draws some blood to bring to Harry. "You're our most prized possession." He states as Harry takes the blood sample he needs and closes down the pipeline.

Barry goes to the prescient to learn that Patty is now leaving Central City to become a CSI and is leaving to Coast City.

-

Harry comes out of the lab holding a device that they perfected to close the breaches. "What is that?" Joe asks seeing the device harry is holding.

"A breach implosion reactor Parker got perfected the other day. You ready?" Harry asks Peter and he's ready to see if it works and leaves.

-

They leave to a outpart of the city where a breach is and set the device to work.

"If our calculations are correct, and they are. When this device detonates, it'll collapse the event horizon on the side of the breach, thereby shutting off any connection to Earth-2 permanently." Harry says and hands the device to Peter.

"Looks like those football tryouts Ben made me take are coming in handy for once." Peter jokes as he throws the device into the breach and they watch as it collaps in on itself.

Peter shoots a web at where the portal once stood to see if its gone and the web hits the warehouse building and goes nowhere.

"We did it!" Peter states and hugs Harry. "Come on, we just rewrote the laws of physics. Don't smile or anything." Peter tells Harry.

"I guess that was pretty cool." Harry replies. "Thank you for this, Peter."

"Did you actually call me Peter?" Peter asks, since he usually calls him Parker and sometimes Peter when he feels sorry.

"Yeah, I did. Don't get used to it." Harry warns him and thinks about his suggestion earlier. "I think we should do it."

"Do what?" Peter asks, not understanding.

"I say we take the fight to Zoom." Harry explains and Peter remembers when he suggested going to Earth-2 earlier. Now he needs to convince everyone else.

-

"Have you hit your head on the pavement too many times?" Joe asks hearing the plan.

"You've hit your head on the pavement?" May asks.

"Guys, we have a way of stopping Jay, a way of closing the portals. Harry's daughter is in danger on a world with barley any heroes, probably none. We can't leave a entire earth, full of innocent people, in the clutches of Zoom. I believe that this wasn't an accident, I think that it's the universe's way of asking for help to stop someone who thinks he's invincible. We have to save them, we have to stop Jay. I know I can't stop Zoom alone, he'll destroy me. But I know that with Cisco's powers to predict things, Barry's speed, my abilities, we stand a chance. He's been bringing the fight to us, now I say we take the fight to him." Peter tells them and they understand his decision.

After a look around the room and they all have the same decision.

"Well, like you said, we're a team. So were deciding this together...it looks like we're going to Earth-2." Barry says showing they're in on the plan.

Watch out, Zoom, were coming for you.


	33. Welcome to Earth-2

After closing all but one of the breaches, the only one left is the one underneath Star labs.

Caitlin has made it clear on how she thinks Peter shouldn't be going considering he can't fight off Zoom, especially if he's been getting faster.

"You don't have to do this, you know." Caitlin tells Peter with a pleading look, not wanting him to go.

"Well, somebody has to keep an eye on them to make sure Harry doesn't kill Cisco. Besides, there's no telling what super people they have over there. But if there's a family called the _Incredibles_, I'm never coming back." Peter warns her and Caitlin just laughs at him.

"But what if you were to run into Zoom again?" Caitlin asks him. "He...he nearly killed you last time. And this time I won't be able to help you."

Peter sees that she's on the verge of tears. He knows how worried she is for him and takes ahold of her hands. Caitlin sees him flash his trademark grin that melts her worries.

"Don't worry, I have a feeling this time will be different." Peter tells her in a soft tone. "Remember, I upgraded my suit, so if he shows his face again, me and Barry will be ready for him. Besides, his beat down is nothing compared to what May could dish out." Peter states causing a laugh from both of them.

"Just be careful, alright?" Caitlin asks him and he promises to be careful.

"If I come back with, I don't know, say Earth-2 sunburn or something, I know I have the best doctor in the entire multiverse who can get me back in good shape." The wall crawler informs Caitlin causing her to blush and giggle.

"Make sure she stays out of trouble." Peter asks his aunt who agrees.

"Just do what she says and stay out of trouble. You scared her half to death last time." May tells Peter and he just chuckled at that statement.

"Hey, Pete, you coming or not?" Cisco asks him while they're waiting for him by the breach.

"Yeah, yeah, don't get your super goggles in a twist." Peter tells his friend referring to his goggles Cisco created to help control his powers. "Well, time to save the multiverse."

With that, the web head approached Barry, Harry and Cisco ready to put an end to Jay.

"You don't have to do this." Harry says, and Peter swore Caitlin just said the same thing.

"We know. But we're still doing it." Barry answers as they step closer towards the breach.

"Is anyone else feeling panic right now? I chickened out of bungee jumping when I was 18, but this is categorically a lot scarier." Cisco tells them and none of them feel anything.

"Okay, so I turn the speed cannon on, and the three of you will pass through unharmed, right?" May asks as she's at the controls with Caitlin.

"Exactly." Harry informs them.

"I...I got no spit." Cisco informs them.

"_Jaws_." Harry and Peter say, knowing that reference.

"I'm not just making a reference, I mean my mouth is really dry right now." Cisco says as Caitlin activates the speed cannon and they leap through the portal.

-

While in the portal, Peter looks around and sees dozens of other worlds.

One world where he sees himself wearing a Iron suit, holding a glowing glove with stones attached.

Another version of his younger self with a group of people wearing a dark suit with a logo spelling S.H.I.E.L.D.

One where he's apparently in space wearing a Iron suit that's golden and red with...a raccoon?

One where he sees himself flying around with some blonde with an _S_ on her chest.

-

They exit the breach and land on solid ground again.

"Holy 2001. I feel like I just opened my third eye." Cisco says as Peter drops to his knees trying to regain his legs and they start walking out of the basement into the open.

They make it outside and see the atmosphere is completely different, with train tracks everywhere, tall skyscrapers filling the air and more.

"Welcome to Earth-2." Harry tells them and they're amazed at the fact they're standing on a whole new world.

They make it back inside and see everyone still working at Star labs.

"Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." Cisco tells the group.

"Hey, stop taking all the good quips. Leave some for the rest of us." Peter says while still amazed at everything he sees.

"Half of these things are ideas on our earth." Barry states as they all start taking pictures and selfies.

"Guys." Harry gets their attention again. "Not a sightseeing tour." He reminds them.

"Speak for yourself. We want our grandkids to know we did cool things worth telling." Cisco states as they see someone approach them that looks like the failed half of Firestorm, Henry Hewitt.

"I thought you've left town with all that's happening. Are your friends okay?" Henry wonders seeing their surprised faces.

"They're fine. They're excitable." Harry explains and they introduce each other and he leaves.

"I wonder what our doppelgängers are like." Peter says, just realizing he could learn exactly what happened to Spider-Man after the whole Symbiotes invading New York thing Harry mentioned.

-

They make it to Harry's office and the news come on from a glass wall.

"_The fight to keep the Symbiote army contained reigns on as King Symbiote's armies have forced President Murdock__ to extract the __group as to stop any further deaths, since it seems every time we attack, we only grow their numbers and the parasites continue to spread._" The news say and Peter just listens in fear that maybe it's too late to stop him.

But he's also surprised to hear that his blind friend is president on this Earth.

"Cisco, do your thing." Barry tells Cisco and he puts his goggles on and they wait for something to happen. But it seems that since Earth-2 vibrates on a different frequency than his goggles, they now have no way of finding Zoom when the news change to a newly looking Barry Allen.

"My god, I hope that my doppelgänger looks better than that." Peter says seeing that Barry looks almost like he did before being by the spider that gave him his powers.

"I have a plan." Barry tells them, but doesn't share it as he speeds away and returns with his doppelgänger. His doppelgänger started rambling on, so Peter just hit him with a tranq-spider drone.

"I'm sorry, I did us a favor. He was droning on." Peter explains and grabs his drone off of the doppelgängers neck, since they're expensive to make and he's sure by now McGee is wondering where he puts all of this money into.

"Why'd you even bring him here?" Cisco asks Barry.

"So I could become him. While you guys work on the goggles, I will go to CCPD as him and see if I can figure out what information they have on Zoom's previous sightings." Barry explains his plan and see they can learn where Jay is hiding and Barry dresses up like his doppelgänger and leaves.

-

While Cisco and Harry were focused on the goggles, Peter was watching all the footage in the past two years of everything to do with the Symbiotes. It seems that this world has the same enemies as his world.

But they all became apart of the Symbiotes army, and everyone he knows on Earth-1 are either dead or Symbiotes.

From what he could gather, his Spider-doppelgänger was killed fighting off the army, leaving the King of Symbiotes like Harry said. And to make matters worse, it would seem that it was him in fact who was in the mask.

"Where is he?" Harry asks out of the blue.

"I don't know. I can't find him anywhere." Cisco tells Harry while Peter closed down everything he just looked at to try to get out of his head.

"Well, he better hurry up because he's been gone for hours and we only have so many of those left." Harry says and Cisco explains he thought he meant his doppelgänger for some reason.

"You know, I always thought in another life, I was like really wealthy, famous inventor, you know, sorta like the Earth-2 Elon Musk." Cisco explains and they see it might've been a mistake bringing him along with them.

"Here's some advice for you. Spend more time looking for Zoom and less time worrying about what someone who is not you is doing." Harry tells Cisco and now Peter feels guilty since he's been doing exactly that.

Barry comes back later to explain how he was attacked by Ronnie and Caitlin's doppelgängers, Killer Frost And Deathstorm and they attacked him and attacked Joe's doppelgänger.

"They know you now, they know your here." Harry says and that means they're in trouble.

"So Caitlin and Ronnie's doppelgängers are evil?" Cisco asks while Peter is shocked the woman he cares about could do something like that. "Those are some dope ass names, though."

"This was supposed to be a surgical mission, Allen." Harry reminds Barry. "Find Zoom's lair. Rescue Jesse. Check the Turtle tranq dart see if it can stop him. These people, they're mirror reflections. As far as your life is concerned, they don't exist."

"If Killer Frost And Deathstorm know we're here, they can warn Zoom and that could mean a world of trouble is in store for us." Peter says and Barry leaves for Joe to see him in the hospital.

-

Afterward, they come up with a plan for Deathstorm or Killer Frost to lead them to Zoom.

Barry brought Cisco to the CCPD and they see Iris. Barry explains how Cisco has a device to help bring them down.

"We're gonna being them in. Dead or alive." Iris says and looks to her partner. "Detective Fitzpatrick, lets go." She calls and they look to see May all ready for a gun fight.

"Okay, I'm not the only one who sees that, right?" Cisco asks as they leave to stop them.

"Peter's aunt is a force to be reckon with on a parallel universe? I kinda saw it coming." Barry said since this world is crazier than anything.

-

They make it to the warehouse where the criminals were spotted.

"Look alive, everyone." May-2 says and Cisco is still shocked by her as they enter the warehouse with Peter swinging in and sees his aunt.

"Well, what can you expect? She _is_ scary." Peter tells himself since it makes sense when he searched for May Parker, nothing came up and Fitzpatrick is her maiden name. She decided to keep Parker even when her and Ben split.

The group enter the warehouse and their watches go off warning them of metahumans.

"You didn't knock." Killer Frost tells them as she and Deathstorm approach them.

They see her ready to fight and drop their weapons.

"Ronnie. Is Martin Stein in there?" Cisco asks as he looks to the ceiling to see his friend sticking to the ceiling waiting for the right moment to strike.

"I haven't let him out in years. Doesn't talk much anymore." Deathstorm tells Cisco as Killer Frost laughs.

Iris talks about how they killed her father and Cisco is shocked they work for Zoom when someone else speaks.

"No, they work for me. I work for Zoom." A voice says and Cisco approaches him and is shocked to see himself, while on the ceiling, even Peter is shocked to see this.

"What the hell is going on here? Are you two related or something?" Iris asks him.

"I knew there was another me here." Cisco tells his doppelgänger.

"And I knew you were coming, Cisco." He tells Cisco, even before they planned to come here. They knew they would show up. "Vibe. Reverb." His doppelgänger introduces himself and it's not a half bad name.

"I've been watching you, Vibe, and I have to say I'm disappointed." Reverb tells Cisco.

"I know the feeling, I don't know what's worse. The fact I'm working for Zoom, or the weird samurai situation you got going on the top of your head there." Cisco says and Reverb tries turning Cisco to the dark side, but Killer Frost sees that's a bad idea.

Cisco just calls in Barry and Peter, and they come in for the attack and Barry speeds in and punches Deathstorm while Peter webs his hands.

"And who the hell are you two?" Iris asks.

"Look, detectives, just get out of here." Peter pleads, not wanting to see May get hurt, but Iris refuses and shoots at Deathstorm, but only sets him free of Peter's webbing.

"I think I pissed off the Human Torch." Peter warns them as he starts shooting fire. Peter gets May out of the way while Barry saves Iris.

Peter sees Cisco talking to Reverb, and goes in to help his friend when Reverb shoots him with a blast from his fist across the room.

"Ow. I'm pretty sure I broke my promise about being careful." Peter mumbles to himself when icicles come flying at him and he looks to see Killer Frost while Barry is fighting Deathstorm.

"Okay, Elsa's evil twin. Let's do this." Peter says while standing back up, not looking forward to fighting Caitlin. "Wait, you guys have _Frozen_ on this earth, right?" Peter asks causing Killer Frost to chuckle at his weak attempts of humor.

Peter goes to dodging all of the shards of ice she throws, full on _Matrix_ style by leaning backwards and planting his feet on the ground. "You know what, I just realized something. I had a conversation with you doppelgänger once regarding this exact situation." Peter tells Frost.

"Please, enlighten me." Frost asks him.

"She once said about how if she was a super villain, and what kind of quips I could make fighting her and I said I couldn't think of any." Peter tells her. "Now, you're making me go back on my word. What else is going on in this backwards world? Does Otto Octavius look like Dwayne Johnson?" Peter asks, causing her to burst out laughing.

"You know, you're funny. And quite the fun hero. All of the others here are so serious." Frost tells Peter while complaining, and he's shocked to hear she likes his jokes.

"Wait, are you serious?" Peter wonders. "You're the first super villain I've fought in the 10 years I've done this that finds me hilarious." Peter tells her while he's still dodging her attacks. "I mean, most of them hear my jokes and it only enrages them to try to take my head."

"Some people just don't have any sense of humor." Frost states while she sends a cloud of ice at him and Peter leaps to the ceiling to dodge it.

"That's what I always say! Everyone is just so serious sometimes." Peter states as he lands on the ground.

"You know I still have to kill you though, right?" Frost clarifies for Peter.

"Yeah, I kinda figured that much." Peter states while shooting his webs to close off her hands, but she freezes it off.

"Frost, can you stop flirting with the web brain and take him out?" Deathstorm asks while shooting fire at Barry.

"I have to agree with evil Ronnie. Now's not the time to have a conversation with the criminals." Barry states to his friend.

"We're just having a friendly conversation, no need to be jealous." Frost tells Deathstorm and looks to Peter. "Isn't that right, web head?" She asks him.

"You just threatened to turn me into a spide-rcicle, I don't find that friendly." Peter tells Frost and sees Barry get shot in the back by Reverb's blasts.

"Flash!" Peter shouts seeing his friend in pain, but couldn't do anything since in the next second he was encased in ice, apart from his head, on the wall.

"Don't tell me you're bored of me already?" Frost asks in a sorta flirty tone then sees what the others are doing as they're continually attacking Barry.

"Stop, both of you. Zoom wanted him alive." Frost tells them. "You know what Zoom will do if you don't obey him." She states when Deathstorm drops to the floor with a vibrating hand in his chest.

"**That.**" Zoom tells them as Peter looks shock and fear as he's once again powerless to fight this monster.

Zoom speeds up to Reverb's face. "**What did I say you should do if you encounter**** a speedster?**" Zoom asks him.

"Leave him unharmed." Reverb tells Zoom his instructions he gave him.

Zoom looks and points over to the Flash who's bluntly beaten. "**D****oes this look unharmed to you?**" Zoom asks Reverb and gives him the same treatment as Deathstorm.

Zoom then speeds over and grabs Frost by the neck. Peter sees this and knows it's not Caitlin, but can't see her die because of their decisions. Especially since this is playing out too similar to his dream he had. He was able to break free of the ice, but now his blood is mostly frozen over.

"Let her go, Zoom!" Peter yells at him.

Zoom looks over to the frozen hero and back to Frost. "**Give me one good reason why I shouldn't, you pest.**" Zoom giving him a chance.

Thinking fast, Peter thinks of a good enough reason to leave her alive. "Because she obeyed your orders. Sure she turned me into a Spidercicle. And I'm probably gonna need a good few hours in a hot bath, but I'm still alive and annoying you as always. Not to mention, she tried stopping them from turning flash into a speedster-kabob special, deep fried." Peter tells him.

Zoom seems to be thinking for a while then drops Frost, leaving her grasping for air. "**You're right, at least one of you know your place.**" Zoom states and grabs Barry before speeding off.

Peter could hear Cisco's shouting and Frost running off before he passes out from exhaustion.

——

**_By the way, if anyone didn't spot the little Easter_****_ egg, DD is also apart of their universe _**


	34. I know what it feels like

Now, Zoom has been spreading the word across the city that he wants Wells and they're trying to figure out a way to save Barry while Peter is using anything hot to warm himself up after Killer Frost froze him.

That is until Barry's doppelgänger woke up so this is gonna take some explaining.

"Dr. Wells, this is very disappointing." Barry-2 tells him. "I mean, the three of you should be ashamed of yourselves." Barry-2 tells them and Peter never thought he'd hear Barry say that. It just sounds weird.

"You can't just lock someone in a room like that. How long was I in there?" Barry asks them as he's untied.

"Barely a day." Harry tells him.

"One day? My wife's gonna be worried sick. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but my wife is a very well respected detective in the CCPD. She's gonna be very upset." Barry-2 informs them all.

"Okay, if we don't shut him up soon, I might just tranq him again." Peter warns them.

"Please don't, because I'm sure I deserve to know what the heck is going on this instant." Barry-2 states to them.

Harry tries his best to explain quickly. "Barry, this is a very long story. One we don't have time to explain. We're sorry We locked you in the room, but right now, you need to leave." Harry says when the alarms start going off and they know that means Zoom is in the building.

"Follow me." Harry tells them and they run off into the familiar hallway that would lead to the cortex.

"Wait, what's going on?" Barry-2 asks them.

"Zoom is after us." Harry tells him.

"Why would Zoom be after you?" Barry-2 asks as Harry opens the time vault doors.

"No time for explaining, he's first." Peter says, pushing Barry-2 inside and Harry closes the door and Barry-2 starts panicking as Zoom phases into the room.

Harry activates a fake wall to hide them behind while Peter covers Barry-2's mouth to shut him up.

Zoom doesn't spot him and leaves to search somewhere else. Harry says they need a plan, and also decide to fill in Barry-2 on what's going on since he's going crazy.

-

They go to the CCPD and then continue to explain everything to Iris and she sees that it makes sense after everything. And that they've been trying to find Zoom themselves.

"We need to find Zoom's lair." Cisco explains why they need it.

"Lair?" Harry asks him.

"He's a bad guy, it's a lair." Cisco states while Peter turns his suits heater off after warming himself up.

"God, that woman is cold." Peter mumbles finally free of the frost but gets an idea. "Wait, wouldn't Frost know where his lair is?" He realizes and Iris explains she will never betray Zoom.

"If she loved Deathstorm just as much as our Caitlin loved Ronnie, she'd stop at nothing to end him." Cisco replies, knowing Peter's right.

Barry-2 says that he actually has a way of tracking her using her cold atmosphere she gives off by using her powers. It comes up with a location in the woodlands.

"Okay, let's go." Harry says and Barry and Iris-2 are tagging along to stop Zoom.

-

They keep walking through the forest waiting for something.

"Spider-Man, your senses saying anything?" Harry asks the only masked man in the group.

"If they were, wouldn't I tell you?" Peter asks him sarcastically.

"You sure this is the place?" Cisco asks Barry-2 when they suddenly feel the drop in temperature.

"Okay, now my senses are going off." Peter warns them.

"You lost or just looking for more fun?" Killer Frost asks as she appears from behind the trees and they all raise their weapons.

"We just came here to talk." Harry explains why they're here.

"Oh, really?" Frost asks them seeing their weapons. "Do you always bring your toys to every conversation? Or do you just want to see me burn again?" Frost asks Iris.

"After what you did to my father, the thought has crossed my mind." Iris tells Frost.

"Look, before you turn us all into sherbets, we just wanna know where Zoom hangs his tights, we don't want any trouble." Peter explains to the villainess.

"You really don't know how to use your abilities do you, breacher?" Frost asks Cisco.

"It's a work in progress, White Witch." Cisco tells her using a _Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe_ reference since Peter stole the _Frozen_ reference the other night. "Zoom killed the love of your life. That hurts, even for somebody with a heart as cold as yours."

"And you think that will make me turn on Zoom?" Frost asks him, not changing her mind.

"Enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?" Cisco asks.

That just got him looks from everyone else.

"Don't tell me it doesn't work like that over here." Cisco asks them.

"I don't think so." Peter tells his friend.

"If I tell you, he'll kill me. But if I kill you and take you to him, I bet he'd be pretty pleased with me. Maybe even let me off my leash." Frost says while emitting a cold mist in her hands. "So take a wild guess. What do you think I'm gonna choose?" She asks them.

"Considering how much you're making my spider senses tingle, I think I have a good idea." Peter says and realizes just how he phrased that. "Wait, that came out wrong." He realizes.

"Move!" Iris-2 shouts as Frost starts shooting icicles at them and they duck behind a log.

"That did not go as planned!" Cisco shouts while keeping his head down.

"Her name starts with Killer. This comes as a shock to you?!" Barry-2 asks them.

"Okay, keep your heads down. I'll take her." Peter tells them and stands above the log. "Hey, Dairy Queen, ready for round 2? I'm game if you are." Peter challenges the villainess.

"Oh, I'm totally game." Frost states and starts shooting at the Spider hero while he dodges her attacks to try to talk to her.

"Look, we didn't come to fight." Peter tries explaining to her while avoiding her attacks.

"Then you shouldn't have followed me." Frost replies to him while shooting more ice daggers and Peter hides behind some trees to shield himself.

"I understand that you're afraid of Zoom. That's why you're following him. If you help us stop him, you'll be free." Peter tries reasoning with her.

"You have no idea how powerful this guy is." Frost informs him while he keeps leaping out of her attacks.

"Actually I do, the guy beat me to a pulp and broke my back the last time we met, and threw me into the next day. And I mean that literally, I was knocked out for a whole day." Peter quips.

Behind the log, they keep peeking to catch glimpses of the fight to see who's winning and the Earth-2's are seriously confused.

"I'm sorry, who is this guy?" Barry-2 asks the team Flash members.

"I'm not entirely sure, yet." Harry says, since in the short time he's known Peter he's trusted Harry more than anybody else but hasn't gotten him figured out yet.

"Still, I think we should let him handle this." Cisco tells them and they look to him. "Him and Caitlin on our earth are close. If anyone can get through to her, it's probably him."

"He's right. He can handle himself." Harry informs the West-Allen's.

Back to the fight, Peter leaps from the trees, using them to stay alive from Frost's blasts.

"Then how come he doesn't scare you like everyone else is?" Frost asks the masked man.

Peter just lands on the side of a tree to answer her question. "Because I fought dozens like him before. Dark, intimidating, likes making bad guy speeches, and guess what? I beat all of them. In fact, he's completely similar to the enemy I fought last year. Same pretending to be a friend to gain our trust, wanted to use my friend for his own diabolical purposes." Peter says when realization hits him. "Wow, his lack of originality actually makes him a lot less threatening." He tells himself.

"You think this is all a joke or something?!" Frost asks getting angry for no reason. "He's a psychopath. Zoom can kill you and everyone you care about in seconds!"

Peter sees his opening and webs her hands to her side and lands on the ground seeing she's immobile for now and she slips onto her back.

"Like I haven't heard that threat before." Peter states as the others see she's down.

Frost tries breaking free, but is met with all the weapons pointed at her again.

"Where's Zoom?" Harry asks the obvious question again.

"If I tell you, he'll kill me." Frost informs them all.

"He's going to kill you eventually, Caitlin." Peter tells her.

"_Don't _call me that." Frost snaps at him. "That's not my name."

"Yes it is. You just don't want to hear it because it reminds you of someone you used to be." Peter tells her and by the face she gives, he sees he's right. "Trust me, I know Caitlin almost better than she knows herself."

"You don't know anything about me." Frost informs Peter.

"You're right, I don't know you. But I know Caitlin Snow on my earth." Peter says and walks in front of her to face her and kneels down. "And I know when she's in love someone, that person is all she cares about. That person was Ronnie Raymond. And he died a hero. And I see that it's hurting you as much as it did to her." Peter states, seeing she's putting on a brave face just like Caitlin would.

"And why do you care about how I feel?" Frost asks him and Peter thinks for a minute and peals off his mask revealing his face to her.

Everyone is shocked to see for different reasons. Harry and Cisco are shocked to se him unmask himself in front of a villain while Iris-2 and Barry-2 have never seen his face before while Frost was curious to what he looked like without it.

"Because I know what it feels like to loose someone you love because of some criminal. And after what Zoom did to Deathstorm, I'm pretty sure that you want his head on a pike just as badly as we do. I do what I do because I don't want anyone else to feel the pain I received from loosing someone." Peter says and points to Harry. "His daughter, our friend, we're gonna loose them if we don't do something to stop him. Just tell us where he is, and you'll never see us again, and I promise Zoom will never harm you. Maybe a few years behind bars for you're crimes, but its safer than anything else."

Frost starts thinking about everything he just told her, and he makes some valid points. But there's still something that's been bothering her.

"Why did you save me?" Frost asks him.

"Because I make it a promise to everyone, nobody dies on my watch. Not even someone as cold hearted as you." Peter explains to her.

For some reason, Frost's said heart started swelling at the kindness this man was giving her. How could this admittedly cute stranger have this affect on her?

_'Wait_, _cute? Where'd that come from? But__ he is kinda cute.' _Frost asks herself and finally comes to a decision.

"Fine. I'll take you to him." Frost says causing Peter to smile.

"Thank you." Peter says and his smile sends butterflies down her stomach, he then uses his web dissolver to get her free and helps her get back.

She starts leading the way when Frost thinks of something daring. She stops and turns back to Peter who's holding his mask now since everyone knows what he looks like now.

"Something wrong?" Peter asks her, but she doesn't respond, and just grabs his face and pulls her cold soft lips onto his.

Everyone looks shocked once again as Barry-2 just looks away from them, being nervous. Frost just pulls away and gives him a flirtatious smile.

"That's for saving my life." Frost explains her action and sees the look on Peter's surprised face.

"What? No quips? No wise ass comments?" Frost asks while leaning in once again and puts her hands on his chest and puts her lips close to his again. "Am I making your spider senses tingle?" She wonders and turns back around and continues to show them the way. "Try not to fall behind." She winks at Peter as she continues her seductive strut.

Harry and Iris keep up with frost while Barry-2 and Cisco push a stunned frozen Spider-Man along.

"Is anyone else cold? My face feels numb." Peter asks them making up for lost comments.

-

They make it to the cliff side and sees a hole where Zoom could easily get to being a speedster.

"I gotta say, at least he's creative on where he hides his lair." Peter says seeing the location.

"A place only a speedster could get to." Harry says agreeing with Peter.

"It's like the cliffs of insanity." Cisco comments on it.

"So how do we get up there?" Peter asks Frost.

"I can make you something to climb on, darling." Frost offers, still flirting with him.

"Are you serious? You want us to climb to the top of those cliffs..on ice?" Barry-2 clarifies to Frost.

"Got any better ideas?" Frost asks him and he stops talking. Frost than starts making stairs for them to climb up on.

That make it inside and start looking for Jesse and Barry. They find Barry trapped in a box and Jesse in a cell.

"Guys, how did you find this place?" Barry asks his friends.

"We let Peter ask for directions." Cisco says and Barry notices Frost in the room. "Don't even get me started on this guy." He says looking to Barry's doppelgänger.

Harry finds Jesse and opens the cell to save her but she's still chained by the leg.

"Frost, do you mind helping us?" Harry asks her.

"Not part of the deal." Frost tells them.

"Bringing us here wasn't part of the deal, either, nor was kissing me, but here you are." Peter states to her.

"I'm sorry, did you say kiss?" Barry asks him, missing something.

Frost sees his point again and freezes the chain off of Jesse and tries helping Barry out but her powers aren't working.

"It seems to be carbyne. I've got an idea." Peter says and webs the sides of the container and starts pulling himself backwards as far as his webs can go and rams himself into the glass and was able to crack it and brought him a lot of pain, but it allowed Frost to help.

"Mother Uber driver, that hurt." Peter says and Frost tries using her powers and the ice starts expanding inside the container and it shatters like glass.

"Nice move, Spidey." Frost comments on the man as he's down on the ground in pain.

"Okay, come on, man." Cisco says helping Peter stand. "How many fingers am I holding up?" He asks and places two fingers in his face.

"Six?" Peter asks, trying to focus.

"Close enough." Harry says and helps get him to stand.

That's when he just notices the other guy.

"Who's _The man in the Iron Mask_?" Peter quips.

"We can't leave him." Barry says when his senses go off then Zoom appears.

"**He's not going anywhere, and neither are any of you.**" Zoom informs them all. "**Thank you for bringing them to me.**" Zoom tells Frost.

"You double crossed us?" Peter asks and sees her saddened face.

"Jay. Let them go." Barry pleads to him.

"All you need is me and Barry." Harry states.

"**You're right. I may not be able to kill you yet,**" Zoom realizes and speeds Peter against the wall, "**but I can kill him and then all of them.**" Zoom says and looks to Peter.

"**I told you, I will take everything from you.**" Zoom reminds him and gets ready to kill when he gets hit by a blast from Killer Frost.

"Get out of here." Frost tells them and keeps holding him back.

Peter looks to her in shock that she's risking her life for them.

"You're right. He killed Ronnie. I'm not letting anyone else die." Frost tells him, and for a minute there Peter didn't see Killer Frost, he saw Caitlin Snow.

"Thank you." Peter says and sees Barry promising to return for the man in the mask. "Come with us." He asks Frost, not wanting her to be killed for saving him.

"I have to hold him back, but I can't hold him forever." Frost tells Peter knowing she's going to die for this. "You kept your promise, I'm not dying on your watch. This is my choice. You helped me see the error of my life." She informs Peter.

"I'll come back for you, I promise." Peter says, knowing he'll save her when this is over before leaving.

-

The team makes it to Star labs, Barry and Iris-2 say they'll be leaving the city to stay safe.

"God, I hope she'll be okay." Peter says regarding Frost.

"Don't worry, she's not easy to kill." Cisco says hoping that helps when they hear the Zoom alarms are going off, and they make their way to the breach.

Caitlin, Joe, Iris and May are on the other side seeing their time is almost up before they have to be back.

Cisco and Jesse suddenly come through the portal and warns them to be ready to close it for good.

On the other side, Peter and Barry see Zoom holding Harry.

"**Forgetting someone, heroes?**" Zoom asks them.

"Tell Jesse I love her." Harry asks the heroes when he takes out the Turtle formula he kept ready for use.

"Tell her yourself." Peter says and Harry stabs Zoom causing him to drop him.

Barry speeds in and grabs Harry while leaping into the portal.

Peter leaps into the portal while looking at Zoom raising his middle finger. "Boom!" He mocks Zoom and drops into the breach.

He makes it back through and yells for them to close it, Joe throws the device into the breach and it closes for good.

Leaving Zoom and everything else back on Earth-2, but they know this was just their temporary solution until they can find a way to stop Jay for good.

And they will.


	35. Trajectory

The team come back after a failed attempt to make Barry faster while Peter was giving Jesse a bit of information to get around her new home when they return. They complain to Barry he they've been at this and they all really need a break.

"And the best way for us to have fun, is for us to go out to the club." Cisco suggests to them. "Am I right, team Spider-Flash?" He asks them and they're all confused on the name.

"You know, Peter's Spider-Man, Barry's Flash. So to not leave anyone out, I combined the names. Let's get turnt!" Cisco explains before leaving.

"In all honesty, he's right. We need a break." Peter says, agreeing with him.

"You know, they're right, and if I'm saying we need a break, then you know it's serious." Caitlin states to Barry.

Barry sees that everyone is tired and deserve a break.

"All right, lets go out tonight. We'll go out tonight." Barry agrees to them.

"I wish I could join you, but I've got the night shift tonight, covering for a friend." May tells them and leaves for work.

-

They go to a dance club in town and take a few drinks.

"I'm really glad you came, Jesse, even though this place is less than ideal." Caitlin tells her over the music.

"Hey, we could've gone to a karaoke bar." Peter suggests and gets angry looks from Caitlin remembering their karaoke night.

Peter quickly stops Jesse form taking a drink. "Sorry, miss underage. None of us plan in getting murdered by your father tonight." Peter states to her.

"Oh, whatever, he's all talk." Jesse informs them when Iris and Wally join up with them.

"What's up, Wally?" Barry asks him.

"Hey, interesting choice of venue." Wally comments on the place.

"Peter picked it." "Barry picked it." "Cisco picked it." The men all say pointing at each other.

"Okay, I picked it. I don't get out much. It had four stars on yelp, so.." Barry explains.

"So who's this?" Jesse asks since none of then have been introduced to Wally yet.

"This is Wally. He's my...foster...step brother? He's my new friend." Barry explains and points to the group. "This is Cisco, Peter, Caitlin, and Jesse." Barry greets them and Jesse leaves to stop the watch from beeping every time she's around Barry.

"Hey, I know I'm practically your only outside of work friend, and your not drunk out of your skull, and that the last time we dance we were interrupted. But you wanna give my club dancing a shot?" Peter asks her.

She thinks and sees a minute alone with Peter is a plus on her and decides to see what he's got.

"Sure." Caitlin agrees and he leads her onto the dance floor.

On the sideline, Cisco and Barry are watching them dance together.

"You think they like each other?" Cisco asks Barry who obviously knows they like each other after the Weather Wizard time travel incident last year.

"I can't tell you how I know, but I already know they like each other." Barry tells Cisco who's actually not as surprised as he expected.

"I ship them." Cisco states to him. "What do you think? SpiderFrost? No, SnowParker. How about SnowSpider?" He asks Barry trying out ship names for the two of them.

Suddenly a flash of lightning comes in and attacks them and starts stealing everyone's purses and money. Peter senses them coming and punches them in the face before they could steal his or Caitlin's money.

Everyone looks at see a female Flash in the bar. She speeds off when everyone saw her and Barry chases after her.

Barry return to the club with the CCPD who all were told the same story. A female Flash stole all their money and someone even snag a picture of the female speedster.

-

Everyone returned to Star labs to figure out where this speedster came from.

"I mean, where did this woman even come from?" Barry asks Peter as they're in the cortex.

"All I know is that woman made 60 smackeroos off Cisco. His words, not mine." Peter states.

"Maybe it's another one of Zoom's leftover henchmen. The only other way to become a speedster is from a particular accelerator explosion." Barry replies and then Peter remembers the Velocity serum that Caitlin has been trying to perfect.

"Actually, Caitlin might know another way." Peter says when said Caitlin storms into the cortex and Cisco close behind, and she seems angry at something.

"Speak of the Snow." Peter says happy to see her, but then notices her mad/upset face. "You okay, Cait? You look like Marilyn Monroe just told you she got a better grade in biochemistry than you."

"So what's this I hear about my Earth-2 doppelgänger?" Caitlin asks them, who just look towards Cisco.

Barry and Peter just shout "Dude!" Since they agreed not to talk about Earth-2.

"I'm sorry, it just slipped out." Cisco explains to them.

"Look, the only way we could find Barry when Zoom kidnapped him, was to convince Killer Frost to help us. And she figured she owed me when I stopped Zoom from killing her, and she...kissed me." Peter says getting odd looks from everyone.

He got a silent "_Wow"_ from Barry as Caitlin looks upset.

"Cait, I can explain." Peter tries explaining everything.

"When were you gonna tell me about this?" Caitlin asks, interrupting him.

"I mean, I didn't see it as anything important. I just passed it as her way of saying thanks. And I knew you'd start freaking out if I told you."

"Wait, why are you making a big deal about this?" Barry cuts in.

"I..I...she's a criminal." Caitlin says while stuttering half of that statement.

"And she saved our lives." Peter defends since he believed she's changed after their visit. "Besides, it's not like I wanted her do it. She just did it out of the blue. And it was no fun afterwards, it felt like I was eating ice cream in a air conditioning room."

Caitlin doesn't say anything after that and Peter thinks of what to say next.

"Look, Cait, when we convinced her to help us find Zoom, she just lost her Ronnie. She was just as broken as you once were, and it felt like we've been doing that for a long time. She might not be you, but she was close enough that I understood her. And you know, I think you're not angry. I think you're scared." Peter tells her and she's not following.

"I think you're afraid one day you're gonna wake up and just become her. And I'm telling you this right now, that's not gonna happen." Peter says while taking her hand. "If there's one thing you have that she doesn't have, its friends. You have Cisco, Barry, Joe, May, Iris...me. Your doppelgänger might've been a criminal, but in the end she made the right choice and saved us. And I will be here for you for if that day ever comes." Peter tells her causing her to smile.

"Thanks." She tells him.

"Now come on, don't we have a evil speedster to catch?" Peter asks and Caitlin realizes what he's saying and remembers what she was going to tell them.

She brings them to a storage space and shows them a serum. "It's called Velocity-9." Caitlin tells them.

"Sexy name, what is it?" Cisco asks her.

"It's basically a speed drug. Harry was working on it while we were in Star City with mr and mrs. Chicken wings." Peter tells them both. "Also it's still too dangerous, and is seriously deadly." He explains why they shouldn't take it.

The alerts start going off and Cisco looks at the monitors. "Bad Flash is back." Cisco tells the heroes.

"Come on, you know the drill." Peter tells Barry.

Barry speeds into his suit and grabs Peter. "We need to get you some sort of transportation soon." Barry tells the hero.

"Like what, a spider buggy? That's just ridiculous." Peter says as they speed off.

"Bad Flash? I'm loosing my touch." Cisco states hearing the name.

The two heroes try catching up with the new speedster, but she's faster than them. She comes in and punches Barry across the street, and Peter was able to get a good look at her this time.

"Eliza Harmon?"

-

Peter and Barry return to Star labs to tell them what he saw and Caitlin pulls her up on the computers.

"When I was designing V-9, I was having trouble formatting the extracellular matrix, so I called a colleague of mine from Mercury labs for some assistance, which in this case is Eliza Harmon." Caitlin explains and that could explain everything.

"So Eliza knows how to make this speed drug?" Peter asks Caitlin since he knows her.

"No, I followed the protocols of information compartmentalization. I only gave her three of the eight components necessary for V-9's structure." Caitlin explains seeing she thought ahead.

"Unless she reverse engineered her own V-9." Harry suggests while drinking coffee.

"Listen, Eliza's a genius, but she isn't like this." Caitlin tries defending, but Peter knows exactly what he saw.

"Well, it's worth taking a look." Joe tells them and they agree.

Peter knows he's the only one who can get close easily. "I can go talk to her, make it look like I'm just going into work." He offers and Joe insists on going with him and they leave.

-

Peter and Joe go to visit her, and see she's working on something.

"Eliza Harmon, burning the midnight oil as always." Peter comments and she turns to him and smiles.

"Hey, Peter." She greets him with a smile.

"Don't you ever take a break?" Peter asks her.

"You know what they say, these thiocyanate ions won't bond themselves." Eliza tells him. "Who's your friend?" She asks referring to Joe.

"Detective Joe West, ma'am." Joe introduces to her.

"Detective? You secretly a cop or something, Peter or is it something you do in your spare time?" Eliza asks him while laughing.

"It's more of a part-time job." Peter mumbles to himself. "Listen, I'm sure you've heard of the speedster wrecking havoc?" He asks her.

"Yeah, some crazy chick speedster. What's that have to do with Mercury labs?" Eliza asks him.

"Caitlin said that she gave you a formula that she asked your help on. We think it's somehow involved in this." Peter tells her.

"How? What was she working on?" Eliza asks Peter, not following.

"I'm not supposed to tell you, but basically it's a enhancement that could lead to something even worse than what happened to dr. Conners." Peter says.

"You mean, worse than turning into a giant lizard and wrecking havoc?" Eliza asks and sees he's serious. "Okay, look, between us, this place is seriously vulnerable. But I kept all my research on lockdown and destroyed what I had when I gave everything back to Caitlin." She explains to them and they see that's all.

"Thanks for your help." Peter says, but on his way out, his senses go off when he passes a containment system and wonders what's in there.

"Okay, no super tingle or anything?" Joe asks him as they leave her labs.

"Exact opposite. And don't call it that again. She's hiding something." Peter tells Joe.

"Okay, what's your plan?" Joe asks him waiting for something useful.

Peter thinks for a minute and remembers some things he's been working on at his lab.

"I have been experimenting with some Spider-drones. They don't work long distances yet, but I can possibly sneak one into her labs see what she does." Peter says and Joe doesn't want to know why he has those.

-

Peter sends one into her lab and watches Eliza for hours at Star labs, and nothing seems to change in her behavior. That is until nightfall and she starts talking to someone else, and is complaining to how she's always mistreated and she keeps yelling at herself, then looks to the container Peter senses warned him about and he notices she has one container of V-9.

Eliza than says that they need to save it for emergencies, but then is convinced to take it now. She takes it and walks out and Peter sees where her next stop is. He runs back to the cortex and sees the team is all there.

"She's coming!" Peter warns them, running in breathless.

"Who's coming?" Barry asks his friend.

"Eliza! She took the V-9!" Peter explains when sparks start flying and a flash of lightning brings Barry into the pipeline and punches Joe across the room and takes his gun. Peter tries fighting her, but she's faster this time and even his senses couldn't find her in time when she shoots his leg.

"What do you want?" Harry asks, seeing nobody left to stop her.

"Where's the V-9, Caity?" Eliza asks Caitlin.

"Eliza, you have to stop this." Caitlin pleads to her.

"Eliza's not here right now. My name's Trajectory." Eliza tells her while Cisco is helping Peter put pressure on the gunshot.

"Why do the crazies always have to name themselves?" Cisco asks Peter who doesn't respond due to the pain in his leg.

"Look, Elisa, V-9 is dangerous, okay? It's killing you." Caitlin tries warning her, but she's not listening.

"You are boring me to death. Have over the V." Eliza tells them and they still don't have anymore, and won't make any more. So to motivate them, she takes Jesse hostage to have them make more of it.

Cisco helps Peter treat his wound while Caitlin and Harry are making the V-9 for her. As soon as they make it, Eliza takes it and takes it and speeds off.

Cisco opens the cell for Barry to get out of the pipeline and he speeds in and sees Peter injured and brings him into the med lab.

-

Caitlin and May patch up Peter's leg and it's not as bad as she thought, just another hour and he'll be okay.

"Peter, Caitlin, I know she's your friend and all, but homegirl has gone cuckoo bird." Cisco tells them as he's picking up the glass.

"And now she's out there with more V-9." Peter says as he sits up from the med-bed.

"What she doesn't know is, I put a micro tracker in the drug. Now we can track her." Caitlin tells them the good news and they activate the tracker.

They see that she's going back and forward on the Central City bridge. "Villains gonna vill." Cisco comments.

"She's creating friction and at that vibration and speed, she could destroy the whole bridge." Harry tells them, and Peter explains he's not gonna be much help with his leg and considering there's nowhere for him to help, it being on a bridge.

-

Barry understands and runs there and starts evacuating the bridge as Trajectory keeps destroying the bridge until it falls apart. Barry sees that if he runs across the water, she'll get away so he needs to jump across the gap.

He gets ready and feels the energy of the Speedforce running through him and runs and leaps over the gap and tackles Trajectory.

"It's over, Eliza." Barry tells her.

"It's never over." Eliza says while holding another canister of V-9.

Barry pleads for her to stop. "Stop doing this to yourself. You don't actually want to hurt anyone. I know you're not a bad person. This is the V-9 in your system. I also know what it feels like to want to be the best. It makes you feel like there's not enough time to accomplish things the right way, but it's a cop-out. And this is killing you." Barry tries reasoning with her.

She thinks for a minute and just takes it. She feels more energy and starts speeding off, but as she runs, her lightning is turning from red to blue.

Barry watches as she runs and starts turning into ash as she keeps going leaving her suit behind.

-

Barry brings the suit to Star labs while they're trying to figure out what happened to her. "So she just evaporated by running too fast?" May asks, not understanding how this works.

"Looks like cellular degeneration. This might be why Jay kept warning about how dangerous it is." Caitlin explains to them.

Peter looks and sees Barry is confused. "Barry, you okay?" He asks Barry.

"It's just before Eliza disappeared, her lightning, it turned blue." Barry says and that gets them more confused.

"Like Zoom's?" Cisco asks him.

"What if V-9 is what turns your lightning blue?" Peter asks Harry. "That could explain why Zoom is much faster than Thawne or Barry."

"If that's true, then that means he's sick, right?" Cisco asks.

Harry puts all the pieces together why he wants to be the fastest.

"He's dying. That's why he wants your speed. He's dying, and he needs a cure." He tells them and that could explain so much about Jay and why he never used his speed around them.

It explains everything about Jay. He never used his speed around any of them, because he didn't want to show them his blue lightning. But it was also killing him.

Every time he fought the Flash or Spider-Man, it was like he was giving it all he's got because it's all he can do. Because sooner or later, he's going to die.

And the only way he can survive is getting the Flash's speed.


	36. Blast from the past

Barry has been at Star labs doing everything, reading anything that he could find in order to become the fastest man alive so that when they find a way to Earth-2, somthey can end Zoom.

"Can we please get rid of Jay's helmet? It's giving me daymares." Cisco asks his friends.

"Sorry, it keeps me motivated." Barry tells him.

"Yeah, even I find it creepy we still keep it around." Peter states to Barry.

Cisco carries all the books he could carry. "This is all I could find even remotely related to increasing speed. How are these supposed to help apply the speed equation to you, or help Peter?" Cisco asks them.

"The answer to getting faster has to be in here somewhere." Barry answers.

"And I've been updating my suit so I can fight off the dark speedster." Peter tells Cisco as he enters the labs to start experimenting with a new web formula to keep a speedster as fast as Zoom trapped for good.

Caitlin then enters the cortex from her labs. "I think I found something interesting." She tells them.

"Is that a good interesting, or bad interesting?" Cisco asks her.

"After running some comparative data, it appears that you, Reverse Flash, and Zoom are moving your legs at essentially the same speed." Caitlin explains what she was able to put together.

"Then why are they so much faster than him?" Peter asks, just when the web fluid explodes onto his face.

"Best I can tell, with each stride their feet spend less time on the ground, this propelling them forward much faster." Says Caitlin.

"Well, I gotta make up that difference somehow." Barry says and goes to dinner with Joe.

-

Peter is just pulling off the web fluid off of his face from another chemical reaction as Caitlin approaches him. "You need some help?" She wonders as he just sighs.

"Yeah, there's a bottle of the web dissolver over by my suit. I keep a bottle on me just for emergencies like this." Peter tells her and she starts dripping it on some of the webbing and it starts dissolving off of him. "Thanks, Cait." Says Peter.

"No problem." Caitlin replies while smiling when they hear Barry and Cisco approach them.

"You mean the old Harrison Wells? As in Eobard Thawne?" Cisco asks and that's getting their interest. "Oh, that's rich. Hey, guys, Barry here wants to go back to last year to talk to the Reverse Flash to learn how to get faster."

"How are you gonna do that?" Caitlin asks him.

"By running to a time last year. And to avoid any _Back to the Future _paradoxes, I'll knock my past self out. It's not like he'll see me coming." Barry explains his plan.

"That's the craziest plan I've ever heard. And I have had my fair share of crazy." Peter states to him.

Barry explains that Thawne is his best chance of getting faster and they don't have any better ideas and decide that they should go through with it.

-

They put together when would be the best time for him to appear and decided to go with when Hartley showed up.

"Okay, you're going back when Wells was distracted by the return of Hartley Rathaway. This is the first time we found out wells knew the accelerator might explode, and we were all angry with him, so anything that might seem odd about your behavior, he should understand why you're acting that way towards him." Peter explains to him.

"This is a tranq dart that should knock the past you out for about six hours l which lines up perfectly for when you're going back," Caitlin explains while handing it to him, "because not much was happening until Hartley attacked the Cleaveland Dam that night, so that should give you time to learn what you need and return."

"Also, you cannot tell us the truth about Wells, no matter what." Cisco warns him, because everything could be destroyed.

-

Barry gets ready, and opens a time portal in the accelerator and starts going back to last year. But on his way there, he sees some dementor like creatures flying at him and he gets out of the portal at the wrong moment. He's too early.

Peter had just webbed up Rathaway's hands together. "Clever Spider-Man. You know my name. I know some names, too." Hartley tells the two heroes who are standing above him.

"This is not good." Barry states as he hopes Peter doesn't sense him.

Hartley just keeps going on with the same speech he gave them the last time. "Caitlin Snow. Cisco Ramon. Peter Parker. Harrison Wells."

Barry's suit frequency starts interfering with his comms and past Barry notices him.

"You okay, man?" Peter asks Barry as he's staring off into an alley.

"I can hear their radio waves. Emanating from your suit. About 1,900 megahertz. Are they on the other end listening? Will they hear you die?" Hartley asks them as he stands back up.

"Buddy, your hands are a little tied at the moment, man." Peter tells him while shocking his gauntlets with a taser web. Peter turns to Barry to go back to Star labs and sees he's he's gone.

"Where'd he run off to?" Peter asks while looking around for the speedster.

-

Barry and his past self start fighting in the alley so he can get on with the plan.

"I don't understand, you're me." Says past Barry, confused since he has yet to time travel.

Barry stabs him with the leg with the tranq. "I'm sorry, but I have to do this." Barry says to himself and takes his emblem then replaces it with his own.

He then speeds back to Peter and Hartley. "What did you do? Go for a bathroom break?" Peter asks him.

"Looks like you're not as smart as everyone says, huh?" Barry asks Hartley, ignoring Spider-Man.

"Smart enough to have figured out who Harrison Wells really is. You see, I know his secret." Hartley tells him and Peter is confused, but Barry already knows so he's not surprised.

-

They bring him back to Star labs and everyone is gathered at the pipeline as Peter is scanning Hartley again.

"Scanners picking up foreign metallic objects in his ears." Peter tells Cisco.

"Come on, take them out." Cisco tells Hartley.

"I can't, I suffered head trauma when Star labs exploded. My hearing was severely damaged. Without these, I am in pain you can only imagine." Hartley tells the team and Barry remembers that he uses them to escape later on.

"Peter, see if the devices in his ears are generating any low level electromagnetic pulses." Barry asks him.

Peter just looks at Barry confused. "You want me to scan for E-bombs?" Peter asks his speedster friend.

"I just...don't you think that's what was interfering with the comms?" Barry asks and Peter sees that could've been a possibility and does exactly that, and wouldn't you know it he found something.

"Trying to pull a _Joker_ us?" Peter asks Hartley. "Honestly, don't let him learn you tried taking his trick. He'll just make you more of a joke. You trying to blow a hole in our fancy lab?" Peter asks as Wells approaches and speaks in Latin.

"Pump in some sound stimuli to counteract his tinnitus. Then we'll make some non-explosive replacements for him." Wells asks Peter and he does as he said and Caitlin asks him to remove the pieces.

Wells and Barry go toward the cortex.

"That was quite the observation about Hartley in there, mr. Allen." Wells tells him.

"Yeah, it just seemed too easy taking him down, you know? I mean, he must've known Peter could stop his gauntlets for how many times he went up against Shocker." Barry states.

"Well, the likely reason is you're getting faster." Wells says and Barry explains about how he's been trying to get faster.

-

Peter was walking down the halls of Star labs when his head starts spinning and his senses have started going crazy ever since they took down Hartley. He doesn't know what can be causing this since it's never happened before.

He grabs his head in pain and slides to the floor. "Peter, you okay?" He hears Caitlin asks, worried about him.

"My head..my senses are in overload." Peter tells her and she helps move him into the cortex as they see Barry speed off and his senses start calming down. "Okay, that's weird."

"What, you're okay now?" Caitlin asks confused as he is.

"It's like my senses are reacting strangely to Barry." Peter says and that gets Wells confused. Later on they hear that the CCPD was attacked by a ghost.

Barry comes back after having a run in with Eddie and Joe and sees they're working on finding it.

"I actually saw it earlier today, when I was running to stop Hartley." Barry tells them since and Peter wasn't with him, so he can't say if it is the truth or not.

"Why didn't you tell us this sooner?" Peter asks him.

"I didn't know what it was. I thought it was some sort of illusion. I don't know." Barry explains to him.

"Okay, we need to find it before it hurts somebody." Caitlin says and they ask if Cisco can track it.

"What is it with you guys? It's like you think I have ESP or something. I can't just magically sense where things are." Cisco states while Peter moans.

"Don't accidentally predict something again, Cisco, please." Peter begs of him remembering how he said the accelerator would explode, and it did as soon as he mentioned it.

"What can you do, Cisco?" Wells asks him.

"I'm thinking I can reconfigure the Star labs satellite to look for it. It might take some time." Cisco says and Wells calls Barry out of the room to talk about what he figured out.

Wells took Barry into the Time vault so he can have a private conversation where he can hide from Peter's senses and hearing. While Peter is working on his brain with Caitlin helping him to figure out what's wrong and Cisco goes to talk to Hartley about the gauntlets and his non-explosives.

"Your brain senses seem to be reacting to some strange interface. It's like a secondary source is messing with it." Caitlin explains looking over what she can find.

"It's just...my senses have never gone crazy like this before." Peter explains, not understanding what his senses are trying to say to him. That was until the labs begin shaking and his senses go off.

They look to see the Time Wraith Come is to the labs and shrieks as it flys towards them. Peter shoots a web at it to try to stop it and it goes straight through it. "Worth a shot." Says Peter as they run through the halls.

"Cisco, it's here!" Caitlin shouts as they run into the pipeline.

"Inside the cell, now." Cisco calls for them and the three of them enter Hartley cell as the Time Wraith starts banging against the doors.

"Isn't this fantastic?" Hartley asks them.

"Look, were gonna be safe in here." Cisco informs him. "These cells are.." Cisco gets interrupted by the creature breaking the window.

"Impenetrable?" Hartley asks as Caitlin shouts for Barry or Wells as they seem to have disappeared.

"Anyone got any ideas?" Peter asks the people in the room.

"Yeah, I actually do. Give me those." Hartley says, referring to his gauntlets.

Since they see they don't have any other plan, they see what he he can do.

"These cells have speakers linked through Star labs. I rigged these gauntlets to emit a...destructive signal if ever they're disarmed." Hartley says and starts finding whatever frequency the Time Wraith is on and is sends a killing sound, and the Wraith goes flying off.

-

"I'm sorry we didn't come sooner." Barry apologizes to the team as he and Wells return to the cortex.

"It's all right. Inky's gone. I don't see anything anywhere." Cisco assures Barry.

"So the two places this thing has attacked are here and CCPD. What's the connection?" Caitlin asks and nobody seems to know.

"Me, actually. I just don't know why." Barry tells them.

Peter did a quick scan across the city and nothing came up. "Satellite isn't picking up anything." He informs then while his brain still seems to be itching, the closer Barry gets to him.

"We need to find a more permanent solution to this problem." Wells informs them. "Start by repairing Hartley's gauntlets. That's about as good a step as any." Wells says and the three of the members leave.

Barry and Wells wait until they're all out of hearing range. "You don't know how to stop a Time Wraith?" Barry asks him.

"No, none of us do." Wells replies to him.

"We?" Barry asks, confused.

"Speedsters. We're not the only two out there, you know?" Wells explains to him.

"This isn't the fist time I've time traveled, how come this is the first time I'm seeing one of these things?" Barry asks Wells.

Wells stands out of his wheelchair and up against Barry. "Because you ran out of luck. And Time Wraiths hate it when speedsters manipulate the timeline, and now that things gonna do everything it can to end you. So here's the plan. You're gonna go to CCPD. See what you can find out that can help us stop it, I'll do the same here."

"What am I supposed to be looking for?" Barry asks, not seeing how he can find anything from a ghost.

"You're in forensics. Figure something out." Wells says and that means they'll have to put the speed equation on hold.

-

"So the gauntlets can't be fixed?" Peter recaps what Cisco just told them.

Cisco looks at the gauntlets that are destroyed beyond salvage.

"No, their electron guns are fried. The wave tubes destroyed the amplifiers." Cisco answers him. "I don't know how to manipulate the frequency variance." He says, and they get ready to talk to Hartley about how he did it when Peter's senses go off and past Barry Allen returns, and Peter's senses seem to be going haywire.

"Where is he?" Barry asks the team who don't understand him. "Where's the other Flash?"

They're still not following when Barry returns to Star labs.

"Okay, That makes some sense, sadly." Peter states since his senses seem to be calming down nw that they realize their are two Barry's.

"Wait, I'm sorry...who are you?" Asks Past Barry.

"Who is he? Who are you?" Caitlin asks past Barry.

"What? I'm Barry." Barry states to her. "I'm Barry. He's..."

"Doppelgänger." Cisco and Peter say together.

"No, not yet." Barry assures the two. "I am you, Barry. Just...not you." Barry tries explaining to the group.

"Wait a second, how do we know which ones the real Barry?" Cisco asks, trying to figure it all out.

"Dude, I've watched _Wrath of Khan _with you and Peter at least five times." Past Barry informs Cisco who points to the future Barry.

"Imposter!" He states.

"Yeah, and every time at the end, you'd turn to us and say, _I have been and always shall be your friend_ to me and Peter." Future Barry tells Cisco.

"You, imposter!" Cisco says pointing to past Barry, as he's getting confused out of his skull. "What is going on?!"

"Guys, I'm sorry. This was not supposed to happen. The tranq Caitlin gave me was meant to last longer than this." Barry tells them.

"I did not give him a tranq dart." Caitlin defends.

"Wait, that's why you suddenly disappeared when we were fighting Hartley." Peter realizes.

"Okay, no, not you, not you Caitlin, the Caitlin from the time I'm from." Barry explains and Wells is getting angry.

"The time you're from?" Past Barry asks him.

"I think what he's trying to say is that he's from the future." Wells recaps to them and they're shocked to hear Barry can time travel.

"Okay, now I'm officially jealous." Peter states since it seems Barry's becoming overpowered. "Wait, is that why my senses were driving my head crazy?" He asks since it makes sense now, because his senses never had to deal one of the same guy from different timelines before. They were confused on who was the real Barry.

Cisco then realizes there's some differences on their suits.

"That explains the white on the symbol. Wait, suppose we now change your emblem. Will it be because we got the idea from this? That would mean-" Cisco was going on when Wells tells him and future Barry to stop talking and explains the Time Wraith to past Barry.

And the only thing they can do is to send Barry back in time. Before he does that, Wells gives him a drive that he can use to heighten his speed when he gets back. He also warns them that they have a year to plan a way on stopping it.

-

Barry speeds off and the Time Wraith begins catching up to him, so Past Barry sped in and tackled the Time Wraith to give his future self some extra time to get through the portal.

He was able to get through and return seconds after he left.

"It's coming!" Barry warns them all.

"That was fast, even for you." Peter says to the speedster.

"Did you figure out a way to stop it?" Barry asks and they take it as a yes as the Time Wraith enters the cortex.

Peter picks up Shocker's gauntlets he confiscated last time he escaped and shot a shockwave at the Wraith, and nothing happened.

"We thought we did!" Cisco says as the Time Wraith starts attacking Barry, when another shockwave hits the Time Wraith And he turns to dust.

They look to see Hartley wearing his fixed gauntlets.

"I suddenly realized. Low frequency, high intensity." He tells them and they see that's why Shocker's failed. "Hey, Barry. How was your trip?" Hartley asks as Barry is surprised he's working with them.

"So aside from the Time Wraith that nearly killed us, how did it go?" Cisco asks him.

"It was interesting. And so far, it's a good interesting." Barry tells them as Hartley leaves for dinner with his parents.

They all head into the Time vault and Barry pushes it inside the port and it activates, showing them what to do with tachyon enhancements for Barry.


	37. Can't lock up the darkness

Peter was taking a stroll through the park while the team was working on the tachyon enhancer when he runs into someone who looks exactly like Jay. He then thinks it must be his doppelgänger from their earth.

"I'm sorry, have we met before?" The man asks Peter, since he's looking shocked.

"No, I'm sorry. It's...Have we?" Peter asks him.

"Hunter Zolomon." The man greets him and holds his hand.

"Peter Parker." Peter greets to him.

"The name help ring any bells?" Hunter asks him.

"No, I'm sorry. It's just I know someone, his names Jay. Kind of a...there's no nice way of describing him." Peter explains to him and he understands.

"Yeah, I've been told I have one of those faces." Hunter tells him and they laugh.

"Oh, I've gotta go. I'm meeting with some friends." Peter apologizes and leaves and wonders if he can find out more about this guy.

-

He returns to Star labs and sees the group trying to figure out how to open a breach back to Earth-2, and judging by the boards and equations it's not going well.

"Wow. I'm guessing you guys are running out of ideas?" Peter asks his friends.

"Well, the best we have come up with so far is to set off a nuclear warhead next to the city's electrical grid, so..." Cisco tells him.

"Yeah, were not doing that." Barry tells them, stating the obvious. "But I think I thought of something." He tells them and they look to Harry. "Tell us everything you know about Cisco's doppelgänger."

"Reverb. He could tap into the multidimensional energies between Earths. He could see through dimensions. Find breachers, like Ramon." Harry tells him.

"We saw Reverb do more than that through, right? I mean, we saw him shoot vibrational bursts out of his hands." Barry tells them.

"Yeah, very painful one's." Peter states remembering the blast he was hit with during that fight with Frost.

"What do you mean?" Caitlin asks Peter, just hearing this now.

"It means Reverb had the ability to somehow manipulated that multidimensional energy. If his powers are linked to the energy that ties together the multiverse, and manipulate it. Maybe he can open to any earth he wants." Barry explains, and they see some idea.

"So if Reverb could do it, maybe Cisco can too." Says Peter, seeing the idea.

Cisco is a little skeptical, but decides to go ahead and see if he can.

-

They're in the basement and trying to help Cisco control his powers enough to open a breach and he doesn't think he can do it.

"Come on, Cisco, I know you can do it." Peter encourages his friend.

"Maybe were just not in the right place." Barry tells them.

"Or maybe I'm not the right man for the job okay? Let's go." Cisco says and leaves.

-

Later on they find a building with the most trans-dimensional energy, the perfect place to try opening a breach easily.

"For real? In this _Patch Adams _nightmare right here?" Cisco asks looking around the abandoned hospital.

"Look, if this doesn't work, I'll stop asking you to do this, all right?" Barry promises to him and he's ready.

Cisco's trying to use his powers and says he can't do it, when Harry comes back with Cisco's glasses he uses to vibe.

"You're not gonna stop, then I'm gonna do what I can to make sure you don't get you or Peter killed." Harry tells him and hands Cisco the glasses. "I recalibrated these to the electromagnetic frequency of this earth. It should help you access enough of the trans-dimensional energy to manipulate it into a breach."

"Just like Reverb. All I'm missing is the guyliner and the transformations complete." Cisco states and places them on and tries oncemore to open a breach, and it starts working.

A breach starts to slowly open to give them a path to Earth-1 until he suddenly stops.

"No, I can't do this. Don't ever ask me to do this again. Please." Cisco begs and leaves them.

-

Harry found a way to shrink the tachyon enhancer so that it can now fit underneath his emblem instead of it being all across his chest.

"Is Cisco back yet? Have you seen him?" Barry asks everyone.

"Haven't seen him. Might be in his workshop." Peter tells him, when Joe and Iris come to offer their help.

Joe and Barry get into a conversation about Wally not wanting Joe to help pay for a place to live, and he wants to move in with Joe.

Caitlin and Iris watch the two of them from the medical lab. "They really have a special bond, don't they?" Caitlin asks watching them.

"Yeah, they sure do." Iris comments seeing them and Caitlin sees she's hiding something.

"You okay?" She asks.

"I don't know what I am. Last night, I was supposed to go on a date. My first date since Eddie died, but at the last second, I just couldn't do it." Iris explains to her.

"Is it because of Eddie or because of Barry?" Caitlin asks since she's been looking at him differently lately.

"Is it that obvious?" Iris asks.

"Only to a woman who's been through the same thing." Caitlin tells her.

"Would this have anything to do about recent rumors spreading about you liking a certain spider based hero?" Iris wonders and that causes Caitlin to blush on how her feelings could have become rumors.

"Do you believe in destiny, Caitlin?" Iris asks her, since destiny seems to have brought Peter to her and everyone believes they would be perfect for each other as they're the only two who don't see how they feel for each other.

"Maybe for you. But Peter and I are friends. Nothing more than that." Caitlin states, but Iris can see right through her knowing she wants more than just friends.

-

Peter goes in and sees cisco is messing with his glasses.

"Look, man, I know what it's like...some enemy getting into your head, how scary they can be." Peter says, trying to assure his friend.

"It's not that, Peter. It's me. It's like right now I'm Anakin Skywalker. I got the midi-chlorians. I got the goods. But the force is strong with me. That is something I can feel. But if I start opening opening breaches into other worlds, doing all this other crazy stuff Reverb has done, then...what if this is how I become Vader?" Cisco explains and asks his most trusted friend.

"Dude, you're never gonna become Vader." Peter says and remembers when he turned into his own Vader. "Look, I know how it feels to loose your way...to want to give into dark desires. I did that when I had Venom attached to me. I felt the power. It made me feel...amazing. I felt invincible, I could jump higher, lift stronger weights, I was bulletproof for crying out loud. But what I didn't realize was that I was loosing myself. But the only reason I realizes that the power was controlling me and not the other way around, was because I had my friends. Ronnie helped me realize that thing was using me, manipulating me to do whatever it wanted. Just like I did, you have one thing that Reverb didn't have. You have friends to help you through this. We're basically family by this point. So what do you say? Wanna give it another shot?" He asks Cisco and he sees that Peter's right.

It's the deeds that make the man, not the other way around.

-

Caitlin was just working on something, when one of Peter's tabs on Hunter came back up and she sees it.

"Peter, who's Hunter Zoloman?" She calls out.

"Oh, I was at the park this morning while you were testing Barry's speed, and I found someone who looked exactly like Jay." Peter explains to her. "His names Hunter Zolomon."

"Hunter Zolomon?" Harry asks, overhearing them. "Are you sure?" He asks Peter.

"Yeah, I met him in the park this morning. Why?" Peter asks, not understanding but sees Harry's expression becomes serious.

"Because on my Earth, Hunter Zolomon was a convicted serial killer." Harry explains and pulls up articles from his killings.

"That's Jay?" Caitlin asks seeing the long hair and beard the man in the footage has.

"No, that is Hunter. Last public photo of Hunter Zolomon. Instantly recognizable. And on my Earth, serial killers are so anomaly, so a lot of media attention to this." Harry starts explaining to everyone in the room. "There was a podcast. When Hunter was 11, his father killed his mother right in front of him. Father sent to prison. Hunter grew up in the foster care system."

"And by the look of things, fast forward years later he is convicted on 23 counts of murder." Barry states.

"23? That's like some real Hannibal Lecter type leaves." Cisco comments, seeing that Zoom was always a psychopath.

"After the trial, Hunter was sent to the saint Perez mental asylum for the criminally insane daily electroshock therapy. Cure him of his urges and then faded from view. Until the night the accelerator exploded. The dark matter crept into the mental asylum. I had thought...piping the explosion underground would limit exposure." Harry explains as he knows everything is his fault. "All it did was create a unstoppable monster."

"Even powers have a sense of irony." Peter says, regarding Zoom's powers. "The thing that was being used to hurt him is his power."

"But he's not unstoppable. Jay doesn't know that we know who he really is. He already knows that we know who Zoom is, but now we know who Jay really is. He thinks his past is a secret." Barry tells them.

"I have a feeling you have a plan." Peter says and that's exactly it.

-

They hide Harry, Iris, Joe, Jesse, Caitlin and May into the Time Vault so that Zoom can't get to them while Peter is waiting in the training room of Star labs ready to take down Zoom with the Boot, curtesy of Cisco, when Barry gets him and they use the trap.

Cisco starts opening a breach when Zoom leaps out of it and Cisco runs off.

"**Reverb's doppelgänger has increased his powers.**" Zoom states to Barry.

"Hatred is a strong motivator, Jay." Barry states to him, ready to end this guy.

"**You were unwise to reopen the breach." **Zoom informs him.

"I'm not gonna let you terrorize another world anymore." Barry informs him.

"**Without your ****speed, you won't be able to stop me."** Zoom states when Barry speeds off with Zoom on his tail and they head straight for Star labs where Peter is waiting for him.

Barry is picking up speed and is running even faster than Zoom now and makes it to the labs first.

-

Barry comes to a stop in the halls of the labs.

"**You have gotten faster. Good. There'll be more for me to take.**" Zoom says, happy that the faster Barry gets, the faster he becomes.

"You want my speed?" Barry asks and starts playing around with speeding off, but that only intimidates Zoom. "Catch me." Barry says and speeds down to the training room.

As they speed around, Peter waits for the right moment and releases the cardboard cut out of Hunter's father.

Zoom stops to look at it and starts fighting Barry again, when Peter shows the cutout of his mother, causing Zoom to loose focus long enough for Peter to shoot him with the boot.

Zoom falls to the ground as it shocks him and the two heroes approach him and remove his mask.

"It's nice to see we all wore our best suits for the reunion, Hunter." Peter quips to the speedster.

"How did you figure out who I was?" Hunter asks the heroes as they remove their masks.

"Peter learned who your doppelgänger was." Barry tells him.

"You're a smart kid, Peter." Hunter admits. "I should've known your senses would've given me away, but I needed to do something to get Barry to want to be faster."

"Speaking of which, you and I are going to have a talk about you breaking my back." Peter promises to him.

"I'm dying, heroes. I'm getting desperate, and only your speed can save me now." Hunter tells Barry.

"And you just don't care how many lives you destroy trying to get it?" Barry asks the maniac. "How many people you kill?!"

"No, I don't!" Hunter screeches at them. "That feeling was taken from me a long time ago." He tells them and Barry walks away from him.

"You know, the three of us aren't so different. What happened to us all when we were all kids." Hunter states and that makes the heroes angry. "Both of you could have just as easily became me."

"No. We'd never become like you." Peter tells the criminal.

"I got to say...that was smart. Using my parents against me." Hunter congrats while looking at the cutouts. "Family. Such a weakness." He says to them.

"Not to all of us." Says Barry.

"Well, that's where your wrong." Hunter says while trying to stand with the Boot on him. "It's time I get what I came for."

"You mean your backside being whooped, or Barry's speed?" Peter asks. "Because I can promise you the whooping."

"You're not getting anything from anyone ever again." Barry states to him since now he's their prisoner.

"You can't lock up the darkness." Hunter whispers, and they didn't hear him.

"What did you say?" Peter and Barry ask him.

Hunter looks up to them and his eyes go pitch black.

"**You can't lock up the darkness.**" Zoom repeats and was able to phase the boot off and he takes off running.

Barry begins chasing after him, but he wasn't able to keep up this time.

-

Later, they learn that he broke into the West's home and left a mess while kidnapping Wally to trade him for Barry's speed.

They go through with the deal and Zoom returns Wally while they prepare to drain Barry of his speed.

"This is how we were gaining Barry speed, but I reconfigured it so now all Barry has to do is run, and the Speedforce will transfer into this vial. But only as long as I calibrate it." Harry tells Hunter and none of them wanted to be in this position.

They thought they've finally seen the last of him and now he's getting what he wants.

"So this was your plan all along, huh?" Peter asks Hunter.

"Ever since the skies parted and showed me another world, with another speedster. Once I saw you, I came here, figured out what I had to do." Hunter explains to them all.

"Who's The man in the mask?" Barry asks, referring to his prisoner in his cave back on Earth-2.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Hunter states to him.

"Try us." Peter dares, getting an angry stare from Hunter.

"Why the charade? Running around dressed like the Flash?" Joe asks since nobody understands why he would pretend to be a hero.

"To give people hope, detective." Hunter tells them and now that's confusing. "So that I can take it away from them. It's so fun pretending to be a hero."

"You're no hero." Caitlin states to Hunter. "You're nothing but a monster." She says and they're ready to start draining Barry's speed.

Barry goes onto the treadmill and starts using his speed and they all watch as he starts slowing down and all of his speed is being transferred from him.

"He's becoming human again." Cisco informs the team as Barry falls to the ground and Peter checks on his friend while Hunter takes the speed and gains even more speed and becomes even faster.

As soon as he gets it under control, he speeds in and grabs Peter by the neck and throws him against the wall.

"Now there's only one more pest I need to deal with." Hunter states and starts choking Peter who's trying to pry himself free.

Harry raises his gun to Hunter, but they all know it's useless. It couldn't stop him before he got faster. "Jay, please, you have to let him go." Caitlin pleads to him not wanting Peter to die.

"I know some piece of you cared for the team, so if you have any humanity left, then please, let him go." She begs and Hunter drops Peter, while he was gasping for air, Hunter took the opportunity to kidnapp Caitlin.

"CAITLIN!!" Cisco shouts as Zoom speeds off and both heroes realize now they both fail.

But Peter does promise one thing, Hunter's going to pay for this, and get her back.

Whatever it takes.


	38. Hold onto the light

Barry is speeding down the streets, trying to catch up to criminals who are robbing a store, making their getaway.

But in reality, the team at Star labs are using holographic technology to make it look like the Flash is still around.

Barry was able to stop the criminals as the cops arrest the group.

"I need a breather." Barry states.

"I didn't think this hologram thing was gonna work, but so far, so good." Iris says.

Cisco just laughs since they all thought it would be easy.

"I mean, I figured if they could get 2Pac rapping again at a concert, we could definitely get the Flash running around Central City." Cisco states as Harry enters the room.

"It's not gonna last." Harry tells them. "It's not gonna be long before someone figures out, you never say anything. You never touch anything, or go indoors."

"Okay, well, without Barry's speed, and Peter not being his usual spider self, this is as good an idea as any." Iris says, but Harry thinks their time is better spent helping Barry get his speed back by using the particle accelerator explosion.

"Your little entourage video game isn't going to stop Zoom, it's not gonna get Parker back in to the suit, and more importantly...it's not gonna save Snow. It's not gonna bring Caitlin back. And I have a feeling when Zoom returns, you should have all hands on deck. And as of right now, you have a hand missing." Harry tells them and they know Peter hasn't been himself since Caitlin was kidnapped as Harry leaves them to think.

"He's right. We could really use Spider-Man, and the city is already questioning where he is." Cisco says, sorta agreeing with Harry.

"I'll talk to him." Barry offers, since he knows it must be difficult for Peter with Caitlin stuck with Zoom. "Where is he?"

"I think he's still in the workshop." Cisco tells him and Barry leaves to find him.

-

Hunter has Caitlin in his lair back on Earth-2 and changes out of his suit since Caitlin doesn't want to talk to him with the mask on.

"Does this make you feel better?" He asks her.

"Nothing you could do would make me feel better." Caitlin tells him, wishing she was back home with her friends.

"You don't need to be afraid. I'm not gonna hurt you." Hunter assures her. "I care about you too much."

"You only care about yourself...Hunter." Caitlin states and watches him go through some flashback.

"I know you think I'm a monster. I understand why. But that'll change." Hunter tells her.

"Why are you keeping me here? You're cured." Caitlin asks him. "You don't need me for anything."

"You're here because Peter loves you, and I plan on using that against him." Hunter promises and all Caitlin paid attention to was what he said about Peter loving her.

Hunter then removes her restrains. "Make yourself at home. You're gonna be here a while." He promises and leaves.

Caitlin looks around for anything she could use to get away and comes across his prison cells, then comes across the man in the mask and a familiar face.

"Well, hello, doppelgänger of mine." The voice of Killer Frost fills the room. "What do you know? I can still pull off brunette." Frost jokes while Caitlin is surprised to see the woman who kissed Peter.

Yes, she's still hung up on that.

-

Back on Earth-1, Peter is as Cisco said, in the workshop tinkering with the web shooters attached to his suit. He was so focused on it, he never even sensed the ex-speedster walking into the room.

After everything that's happened, the only thing that seems to help him get his mind off of what's occurred the past several days is his science stuff. But it doesn't help take away the reminder that one of his closest friends, and the woman he loves is in danger.

He just starts getting frustrated and slams the screwdriver he was using into the table and throws it, then places his head in his hands.

"Wow, take it easy." Barry comments on his behavior. "That screwdriver did nothing to you."

Peter chuckles at Barry's bad attempt to humor and looks back down to his suit.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. It's just..." Peter just doesn't want to talk about it right now.

"Hey, I'm worried about her, too." Barry interrupts.

Peter sighs in anguish from everything. "I just can't keep doing this." He explains and that gets Barry worried.

"Can't keep doing what?" Barry asks him.

Peter grabs his mask off the table and shows it to Barry.

"THIS!!! I can't keep doing this! It feels like every time I put this god damn thing on, I believe I'm doing good, but in the long run, someone I love is gonna be put into danger because of me. First my uncle, Octavius, Conners, now Caitlin. And god only knows what Zoom is doing to her. For all we know, she could be..." Peter doesn't even wanna imagine that and throws his mask across the room and drops onto the chair.

Barry looks shocked to how Peter Parker, the same person who has kept hope alive in this city years before even he has seems to be loosing his hope. He just goes across the room and picks up the mask and looks at it.

"Look, Peter, you've been doing this longer than me, hell, even longer than Oliver has been doing this. But if there's one thing I've learnt about you ever since I became the Flash, it's that you're not one to give up on hope." Barry states and walks closer to his friend, still holding the mask.

"Jay and Thawne were using me to harness my speed, but you've been the one to show me how to be a better hero. Zoom is here because of me, because of what I did. If Zoom wanted to kill Caitlin, he would've done it right after getting my speed. She's still alive. And the only way to get her back is with my speed. And we can't do it without you." Barry then holds up his mask to Peter. "Central City needs Spider-Man...Caitlin needs Spider-Man."

Peter just looks at his mask and back to Barry.

"I gotta admit, that was a hell of a speech." Peter admits.

Barry laughs seeing the old Peter has returned.

"Come on, Harry and Cisco need your help to make sure they don't blow up the labs." He tells him and they both leave to find them.

"So, tell me about the doppelgänger of mine you met again." Peter asks his friend when Barry told him he traveled to a new Earth by accident. That world has their own Peter Parker who works alongside someone called Supergirl.

"Oh, he's like you, just more strict. And he has a girlfriend, and uses an iron suit to fly." Barry tells him.

"You're kidding." Peter replies to that, a bit jealous. "Think he'd be mad if I stole that design?"

"And he's an alien prince." Barry finishes.

"_WHAT_?!" Peter questions, completely shocked by this news.

-

Back on Earth-2, Caitlin is looking at her doppelgänger.

"You're...Killer Frost." Caitlin says.

"And you're Caitlin Snow. The one that Spider wouldn't shut up about. He made you out to be some kind of a saint." Frost tells her as they hear the man keeps knocking.

"If I could get my powers to work through this carbine wall, the first thing I would do is shut him up!" Frost states, getting annoyed by the man.

"Who is he?" Caitlin asks.

"Don't know, don't care. But if he's here, Zoom must need him for something." Frost states since that would be the only reason for him to be keeping her.

"So what does Zoom need you for?" Caitlin asks Frost.

"That is an excellent question, Caity. I think he's just mad that I helped your buddies escape." Frost guesses. "But doesn't matter now. Because you're gonna help me get out of here."

"Why would I do that?" Caitlin asks her.

"Listen, there is no way you are making it down that cliff all by yourself. And if your buggy friend told you about how I saved their lives, hopefully. You should know that I'm not exactly a bad person these days. I might even throw in some wardrobe tips for free on the way out." Frost offers her looking over her clothes. "Because sooner or later, Zoom is gonna kill me, and you. So how about we work together to get out of here?"

Caitlin takes a minute to decide and sees that she does need help in order to escape. She keeps working on getting Frost out of her cell while she explains how she became like this, and explains how Peter might've actually helped her get a change of heart.

"Spidey was kinda cute, for a goody goody. I do hope that he comes back here...maybe we could do more than just fight." Frost tells her.

That statement causes Caitlin's blood to boil, ironically.

"If you lay so much of a finger on him..." Caitlin starts off but Frost starts laughs at that threat.

"You'll do what?" Frost asks when realization hits her and she grins at her doppelgänger. "Oh, wait. You have the hots for the Spider yourself, don't you?"

Caitlin's eyes widen at her statement. "What..? N..no, that's not..."

"Honey, we just went over how we're not different. I'm pretty sure we both share the same feelings about the arachnid." Frost tells Caitlin and she knows she feels the same.

"Let me ask you something. Do you buy his whole boy-scout behavior? Do you laugh at his jokes?" Frost asks her and Caitlin does in fact. "I mean, despite that the fact we're on two different sides, he actually understands me. Probably understands you more than you realize."

Caitlin starts to think of how she's had a million times to admit her feeling to Peter, and it seems that everyone is figuring out she likes him before Peter could. And now she's a entire world away being held hostage by some maniac. She then realizes that from what Harry has told her, there was no Peter Parker on this world. That's the biggest difference between her and Frost here.

Frost never had the same shoulder to cry on as she does. She doesn't have Peter to help her feel safe whenever he's around, or to talk to. Even at this moment, when she's being held captive, she knows Peter is gonna stop at nothing until she's safe. And that is what's helping her stay strong.

"Tick tock, Caity?" Frost reminds her and Caitlin snaps free.

"Okay, the electrical current in the Cable should heat up the cabine, which in turn should speed up the electrons and the faster they go.." Caitlin was saying, when Frost picked up on her.

"The weaker the molecular structure becomes." Frost finishes her train of thought.

"Well, when it gets hot enough, it should make the carbine as fragile as glass." Caitlin finishes and gets back to working on the machine.

Once she gets the machine ready, it powers up. She grabs a hammer and swings it at the glass and it shatters as she thought.

"Well...looks like you have a little badass in you, after all." Frost says and they see the man in the mask still knocking.

"What are we gonna do about this guy?" Caitlin asks.

"I don't think he's ever going home." Frost says while raising her fist with her mist flowing.

"What are you doing?" Caitlin asks her seeing her getting ready to strike.

Frost is actually not aiming at Caitlin, but beyond her. "Duck." Frost warns her and Caitlin ducks for the mist blast to hit Zoom across the room.

"It's time to run." Frost states and Caitlin agree as they try running for the exit when Zoom grabs Caitlin by the neck.

Frost turns and sees she's being held back and tries fighting Zoom, but Caitlin asks her to run.

"Get out of here!" Screams Caitlin and Frost sees that she's asking her to go get help. Frost thinks for a minute and knows exactly where to go for help and creates a ice wall so Zoom can't speed through it so easily and runs for it.

Hunter removes his mask and looks to the man in the mask.

"Do that to him, he dies." Hunter warns her and speeds her back onto the bed with the shackles. "You okay?" He asks her.

"Stay away from me." Caitlin warns, and hopes Frost got away.

"Whatever Killer Frost has planned, I'll find her eventually, Caitlin." Hunter informs her.

"I just want to go home." Caitlin says. She wants to be back with Peter, where she feels safe and protected.

"No. Stay." Hunter tells her.

"I want to leave. Please. Take me back to my earth." Caitlin pleads.

"I've been measuring my success by the count of victims I've had. But now, I'm gonna start counting the number of Earths I conquered." Zoom states. "You wanna go home? Let's go. After all, I still have an annoying arachnid to kill." He tells her and starts laughing.

-

Cisco and Jesse are looking over the device they plan on using to give Barry back his speed in the cortex. "It looks like the Vacuum." Cisco comments on the device.

"What's the Vacuum?" Jesse asks him.

"No _Fringe_ on Earth-2, I'll keep that in mind." Peter says as he joins them.

"Parker, nice for you to join us." Harry says and looks back to the machine. "That is how Barry's gonna get his speed back."

"Okay, Barry cannot do this." Cisco says.

"He has to, Ramon." Harry says, and Cisco gets a vibe about his brother.

"You see Zoom? Caitlin?" Peter asks him.

"No. I saw my brother." Cisco says and leaves to check on him.

Barry left to talk to his dad and he actually returns with Henry, and he explains how he's sticking around.

"Ms. Parker." Henry greets seeing May.

"Please, call me May." She insists and they walk out for coffee while the others watch them leave.

"I'm sorry, what just happened?" Peter asks everyone, completely confused to what just occurred between the two.

Everyone looks just as confused as him and wonders what's been going on with them.

-

At the prescient, Joe and Wally were talking when Zoom appeared with Caitlin.

All of the officers see him and raise their guns at him. "Do not move." Singh warns him.

"**Or what? You've tried your guns on me once before.**" Zoom reminds them and they know they can't stop him.

"No!" Caitlin yells to him. "Don't hurt them." She begs and he actually listens.

"**Tell everyone that this city is mine.**" Zoom tells the police. "**Anyone who disobeys me will meet their end.**" He warns everyone and that means they have to clear out.

-

Joe tells everyone what happened and they're seriously confused, all except Peter who's still working on his suit upgrades.

"Why would he bring her here?" Iris asks anyone.

"To show power." Harry tells them since he did the same thing on his Earth, by slaughtering a bunch of police officers. Then he recruited every metahuman he could find. And those who don't follow him, he will kill.

They know it's a matter of time until Zoom kills the police. "Not with Caitlin. She talked him out of killing everyone when he took over CCPD." Joe states, and Peter is fueled with more anger the more he hears Caitlin is trapped with Zoom.

"That's what were gonna rely on? Snow talking him out of it every time? You need to get them somewhere safe." Harry warns Joe.

"What about Jitters?" Barry offers and they see that's a good start.

"You saw what Zoom did to my world, he will do the same thing here. Barry, we need to get you your powers back." Harry tells them and Peter agrees with his plan.

"There must be another way." Henry says.

"No, there isn't." Peter says from the labs. "I won't be able to fight off Zoom and an army of meta humans. I could barley fight off six of my greatest enemies. Let alone an army." Peter tells them and they need to do something to stop Zoom.

-

Caitlin is handcuffed to a bar in the prescient and hopes that she can figure a way to escape quickly when Zoom leaves her.

"You know they're gonna figure out a way to stop you, right?" Caitlin tells Hunter.

"Who? Barry? Wells? The police? Peter?" Hunter asks while chuckling. "No. Nobody can stop me now. Not anymore."

"So...what's your plan?" Caitlin asks. "You're just gonna kill everyone? Then why are you keeping me here?" Caitlin asks the madman.

Hunter things for a minute and knows why. "Because I don't want to be alone anymore."

"I'm never gonna be with you." Caitlin informs him.

"You think you're not like me, but I've seen the darkness inside of you, Caitlin." Hunter tells her. "Just like how it was inside Killer Frost. All you have to do is unlock it."

As soon as he left, Caitlin notices a evidence box that she could possibly find a phone inside to contact them.

-

Back at Star labs, they're working on how to remake the accelerator explosion while Joe places Wally and Jesse in the time vault once more to make sure Zoom can't reach them.

Peter and Wells are working on the machine to give Barry back his speed so they can stop Zoom for good this time.

"So this is what it takes to get Barry his speed back." Joe says looking over the device.

"It's not uncomplicated, but almost there." Harry tells Joe while working on the equation to get it operational.

"I once told you once Barry makes up his mind, it's impossible to change it." Joe warns Harry.

"Well, then we need to convince him that this is the only way, before he decides not to do it, right?" Harry says as Henry enters the room.

"Shouldn't have to convince anyone to do anything against his will." Henry states. "We're talking about Barry's life. I mean, I can't imagine you don't feel the same way about this.

Joe doesn't know what to do anymore. "I mean, I don't know what the right thing to do is now."

"It seems clear to me." Henry states.

"This isn't just about Barry's life." Peter tells them. "This is also about everyone in Central City, and stopping Zoom."

"This could kill Barry, and you're okay with that?" Henry asks Peter.

Peter stops working and looks back at him.

"No, I'm not okay with that, that's why we're working on everything we can to make this as safe as possible. If there's no Flash, Zoom will kill everyone. I can only hold Zoom back for only so long. If I have to go against him and an army of metahumans, I'll surly die." He informs them. "Can you live with my death?"

"The last time he was struck by lightning, he was in a coma for 9 months." Henry states to them. "You're messing with something that is out of your control. And what if it did work? What then? He goes up against Zoom, the monster than snapped your back and almost killed both of you." He asks Peter.

"This is the way. This is the only way." Harry tells him. "Central City needs the Flash, Spider-Man needs his partner in order to stop Zoom." He says as they look to see Barry in the doorway.

"I know all of you care about me in your own way, and you all have your points of view on this, but the decision is mine. I have to make it on my own." Barry tells them and leaves.

-

Cisco and Dante were leaving after hearing the news and run into one of Zoom's henchmen, Rupture. Cisco secretly calls Peter hoping he can get here fast.

"Settle down, reaper. We have no beef with you." Cisco tells him.

"Maybe not, but I've got beef with you, Vibe." Rupture tells Cisco.

"What does that mean?" Dante asks, referring to Vibe.

"I don't know." Cisco says and sees Peter swinging in.

"You killed my brother, now you die." Rupture tells Cisco.

"Wait, is that a misquote to _Princess Bride_?" Peter asks Rupture.

"Spider-Man. I wish I could kill you, but Zoom already promised your head to someone else." Rupture tells him and Peter is left wondering who Zoom promised his head to.

"Look, Cisco didn't do anything. You've got the wrong guy, buddy." Peter states.

"Wait, you know Spider-Man?" Dante asks Cisco.

"I don't think so, Spider-Man. My brother was Reverb." Rupture says and removes his mask to reveal Dante's doppelgänger.

"Cisco, run." Peter asks his friend as he starts fighting Rupture and he swings his axe like weapon and shoots a blasts at Peter. Peter obviously dodges the blast and Cisco drives the van into Rupture and they take the opportunity to escape while Peter crawls onto the truck.

"You wanna tell me what you got us into this time?" Dante asks referring to everything that just happened.

-

They return to Star labs and tell the team what happened. "He calls himself Rupture. Another metahuman that Zoom controls." Harry tells them while pulling up footage of him.

"So Zoom is bringing more of his friends over to play. And one of them wants my head on a pike." Peter guesses and wonders who on Earth-2 would want him dead. "Zoom must've lied to Dante's doppelgänger to say Cisco killed Reverb, so we gotta do something."

"What else do you know about him?" Barry asks Harry.

"He gets his power from that scythe he wields." Harry tells them.

"Okay, so all that we need to do is get it away from him. Peter, you can do that easily, right?" Barry asks him since Peter was able to get Kraven's sphere away from him multiple times.

"Yeah, sure maybe." Peter says and goes to give his suit some more upgrades.

Barry is left with guilt with leaving Peter to do all of this by himself. "You know what you need to do." Harry tells Barry.

"I need a minute." Barry says and leaves the room.

-

Back at the CCPD, Caitlin was able to reach the box and looks through it and her luck, she finds a working phone and waits for some news when Rupture returns with Zoom.

"He got away, Spider-Man helped him escape." Rupture tells Zoom.

"**That bug is becoming a real pain.**" Zoom states. "**But you can track him down later. The police have gathered again. They think I've spared their lives. Tonight...show then they're wrong, and if needed to, kill Spider-Man. But try to keep him alive, you know how eager he is to fight Spider-Man.**"

Caitlin is filled with fear hearing someone wants Spider-Man dead as Rupture leaves and Zoom approaches her while removing his mask.

"You disapprove?" Hunter asks Caitlin.

"You said you would spare them." She says, shakily.

"I need to teach them a lesson. And Peter is just becoming a bigger thorn in my bush the longer I'm keeping him around." Hunter tells her.

"Is that why you change your voice?" Caitlin asks him. "So that everyone will be afraid of you?"

"As you once said.**..I'm nothing but a monster.**" Hunter phrases her and speeds off.

Caitlin takes out the phone and sends a message to everyone that Rupture plans on attacking Jitters.

-

They get the message and know that Flash is the only one to stop Zoom, but Barry Spider-Man can stop Rupture for now until they know for sure that the accelerator explosion will work.

At Jitters, everyone is getting prepared while Peter puts the finishing touches on his upgrades and he's prepared.

"Are you sure this is the best plan?" Barry asks out of costume to the masked hero.

"My upgrades haven't been tested yet, and this seems like the perfect time before going up against the big guy." Peter says.

"You think I made the right decision?" Barry asks Peter.

Peter thinks for a minute and knows what to say.

"Look, I don't talk about this story a lot. But one time, Otto was able to actually suppress my powers. He created some DNA blockade that stopped me from accessing all my powers. I was human. The only way to get them back was to get bitten by a spider similar to the one that bit me the first time. But there was also the chance of me dying. But I didn't care, I saw what was happening without me, and the biggest thing was that I couldn't live without them. I never wanted these powers, I didn't ask for them, but when they were gone it was like a piece of me was gone. There's always gonna be risks, especially in our lives. If you don't want to take the risk, it's your decision. It's always going to be your choice." Peter tells Barry and goes back to waiting for Rupture to show up.

-

Later Rupture smashes the doors to Jitters while the police are hiding.

"Now where has everyone gone?" Rupture asks when Barry's hologram comes speeding in and Peter drops from the ceiling.

"Flash and Spider-Man? Not the group I was expecting. But you'll be a nice warm up." Rupture tells him.

"What can we say? We like coming in hot." Peter quips while Rupture starts swinging his weapon and shooting blasts at the heroes and they're both too fast.

Barry goes with the plan and has his hologram get hit by his blast and Joe comes out with the Boot and traps Rupture as Peter takes his staff.

"Are we the guys you were looking for?" Joe asks as they take him away when a bunch of reporters come in.

-

At the CCPD, Caitlin sees the news and so does Zoom.

"You told them Rupture was coming." Hunter puts together and sees the evidence box she took the phone from. "You betrayed me!"

"You said you would spare them." Caitlin states, knowing she did the right thing.

"I guess...**now we're even.**" Hunter says and puts his mask back on. "**I'll tell Peter you said goodbye.**" Zoom promises and speeds off to kill them and Caitlin screams in fear of loosing Peter before she could tell him how she feels.

-

Jitters, Peter's senses go off and he knows Zoom is coming.

"Captain Singh, get everyone out of here!" Peter warns him and they start leaving when Zoom comes in the front entrance.

"**Make sure you get this.**" Zoom tells the cameraman.

"Everybody move!" Detective Davis shouts when Zoom starts speeding and snaps some of their necks, until he reached Peter and a shockwave of energy leaves his suit and sends Zoom flying.

**(A/n basically what Black Panther does when he absorbs energy)**

"**What was that?**" Zoom asks, completely taken by surprise.

"I knew you'd be coming eventually. So, I got prepared for his fight." Peter states to him as the police start leaving out the backway.

Zoom grabs Rupture and kills him while they run.

"**You're an even bigger disappointment than your brother.**" Zoom tells Rupture as he dies.

"**Now it's your turn.**" Zoom tells Peter.

"Let's see what you've got, Zoom." Peter says and flicks a switch on his shooters then his gloves starts sparking electricity.

-

Everyone watches the fight on their tv's and are surprised to see Peter's upgrades.

"Man, someone went all out on the upgrades." Cisco comments on his friend.

-

"**Your new toys won't save you.**" Zoom promises and speeds up to Peter.

Peter dodges his attack, and punches him in the jaw with his electric glove and it hits Zoom across the room, attacking his nerve system.

"Fun little fact I learned about speedsters; your powers are lightning based. Where these gloves run on 100% electricity. You could easily say that because you give off electricity it should counteract. But as it turns out, all lightning is electricity, but not all electricity is lightning." Peter explains as Zoom just gets back up and keeps trying to fight Peter.

While Peter is able to sense most of his attacks and counterattack, Zoom is catching into that fact and continues to try to hit Peter until he goes up on that and starts using moves too fast for his powers to sense.

Zoom goes to punch Peter that he dodges, but while he was dodging it Zoom used his other fist to claw at his back, taking Spider-Man down.

"**I'm only keeping you alive, because I promised your death to somebody else. Try something like this again, and my deal might just be broken.**" Zoom promises Peter and grabs the camera that broadcasted their entire battle.

"**Central City...the Flash you've been seeing in your streets is a fake. A hologram meant to give you hope. But there is no more hope, there is no more Flash, there is no more Spider-Man, and there's no one left to protect your city...from me.**" Zoom says and drops the camera.

Zoom then speeds off, leaving a brutally beaten Peter on the floor until Barry and Joe come in and start dragging him to Star labs to get patched up.

-

May was able to patch up Peter the bets she could so now he's resting it off and they don't know how long it'll take.

It wasn't anything fatal like Zoom promised, but he does have a few broken ribs and some scratches across his arms and back.

"It won't be long now." Harry tells them regarding Zoom. "He's moving faster than he ever did on my earth. Even Peter's senses couldn't keep up with him anymore. Next, he's going to recruit every metahuman he can find. Might even decide to break out the Sinister Six."

"How many can be left? We defeated most of them, didn't we?" Joe asks them.

"No, you weren't even close. This..." Harry says while pulling up a list of all the metahumans from his earth and there's hundreds. "Is a list of all the metas. The particle accelerator explosion was contained on my earth, and that didn't happen here."

"And because of both Flash and Spider-Man, they never came out of hiding." Joe puts together.

"And now that everyone knows that the Flash isn't around and Spider-Man is out of commission, they'll start coming out of the woodwork." Cisco says.

"I told you he'd recruit metahumans. I told you he would kill those officers. Now he promised one of his followers the right to kill Peter, does anyone want that on their head? Flash is gone, should Spider-Man be next?" Harry asks them and they know that it's just a matter of time.

Barry thinks for a minute and knows that the best way to stop Zoom, keep Peter alive, save Caitlin...it's to get him his speed back. He wants to go through with the particle accelerator plan.

-

Peter had most of everything already built, Harry just had to add in his calculations to get it operational.

"Now, Ramon, when I give you the signal, you're gonna create a lightning storm with that wand of yours." Harry tells Cisco who was constructing the wand all day.

"_So I'm supposed to stand in the middle of a lightning storm?_" Cisco asks him from the roof.

"Really, Ramon. The chances of being struck are slim, at best." Harry tells him. "All we need is one lightning bolt to strike the satellite. The satellite circuitry is connected to the breach room. Barry's in the breach room. Just do it."

"_Yeah, I'm doing it_." Cisco states.

"Are we sure that Peter was able to finish it?" May asks since Peter is sleeping off the fight in the medical room.

"I looked over everything, it's gonna work." Harry promises her and they start powering up the machine.

The entire labs start shaking as they start injecting chemicals into his system as Cisco gets the lightning bolt to strike the satellite.

The energy starts going into Barry's body as Harry activates the particle accelerator, but instead of doing what they thought, Barry started turning into dust and vanishes.

-

In the halls, Wally and Jesse were running when they got hit by the accelerator wave.

In the cortex, the wave flows through an unconscious Peter, as it hits him, all of his wounds start healing faster than they've ever before.

What everyone was unaware of, the accelerator explosion didn't affect Peter in any big ways, but it gave his healing a boost of energy so he'll be back on his feet sooner than they thought.

———————————-

**_Who do you think wants to kill Spider-Man from Earth-2?_**


	39. Alliance

The team finds Jesse and Wally in the halls and make sure they're all right while Peter is still unconscious.

Cisco touched what was left of Barry's suit and got a vibe and sees that he's alive somewhere.

"Cisco says Barry's still alive." Henry says as he enters the cortex where Harry is with Jesse after May gave her a checkup.

"I vibed him in a center of a storm." Cisco explains what he saw. "It was like a vortex or something."

Realization strikes Harry. "He's in...He's in the Speedforce." He explains to them.

"Can-can you get him out?" May asks him.

"I don't know if I can." Harry tells them and starts thinking about a way to save him.

"It's a good thing you're here, May. Caitlin's usually the one doing this, but..." Joe says as she finishes up with Wally and Iris takes him home.

"Well, her heart rate is normal. She should be waking up, she just isn't." May explains to him.

"This is just like when Barry was in a coma that no one could explain." Cisco says.

"What did you do with him?" Henry asks.

"Wells, he brought him here. Me and Caitlin took care of Barry while Wells treated him." Cisco explains.

"Are there records of the treatment?" Henry asks.

"They'd be downstairs in the storage room, in the morgue." Peter says and they all look to see him awake already.

"At least we have one hero up and ready to go." Cisco says seeing his friend up and alive.

"How do you feel?" May asks him.

"I feel great. Come on, let's get those records." Peter says and Cisco follows.

-

While in the halls, Peter's senses start going off for some reason.

"Hey, you guys keep going, I'm gonna check something out." Peter tells them.

Peter walks into the breach room in time to see a breach open up. He watches and waits for someone to come through, but who he never expected coming through was Killer Frost and she seems to have been beaten.

"Frost?" Peter asks, shocked she's not only alive, but came here.

"Hey, Spidey." Frost greets him while tripping on herself from the pain.

"What are you doing here?" Peter asks while helping her stand. "Not that I'm not happy you're alive. Shouldn't you be with Zoom?"

"Nope. Zoom wants me dead. Sent dozens of metas to kill me. I tried helping your girl out, but Zoom caught her." Frost apologize to him.

"Hey, don't worry about that right now. You did what you could." Peter says and helps her into the cortex where everyone sees her.

"Killer Frost?" Harry asks, confused.

"Hey, it's okay. She's on our side." Peter assures them.

"Did I miss something?" Joe and May ask, since neither of them never heard of her.

"Guys, this is Caitlin's doppelgänger, Killer Frost. Frost, you know mostly everyone here." Peter introduces them and she notices May.

The questions were interrupted by Cisco and Iris running back in.

"We've got a new problem." Cisco says and notices Frost. "Okay, explanation later. Look, our particle accelerator experiment seems to have reanimated one of the dead metas in our morgue."

"Reanimated?" May asks.

"You mean like brought back to life?" Joe asks him.

"You ever seen _The Walking Dead_? It's _The_ _Walking Dead_, but without higher brain function and with major rage issues." Cisco explains. "Still unsure if our brains are on the menu, though."

"The living dead?" Frost asks and looks to Peter. "Your earth is more exciting than mine." She admits.

"Who was brought back?" Peter asks, ignoring Frost.

"Tony Woodward." Iris tells them.

"The bully from school who turned into the metal man that kidnapped you during my time as Venom?" Joe asks remembering hearing about him from Eddie and Iris after he was separated from the creature.

"History repeats itself first as tragedy and then as farce." Harry says and they know that they need to get to work solving their problems.

Harry and Cisco are going to work on the machine to find out what exactly happened to Barry.

Henry and May will be watching Jesse for improvement while Peter and Joe take on Tony.

"You wanna give me a hand?" Peter asks Frost knowing she's probably itching for some action.

"Either stay here and get awkward stares from everyone, or go and fight the living dead?" Frost sarcastically asks him and he gets her answer. "Let's do it."

The three of them start working on finding Tony and is getting dozens of sightings of him everywhere.

"It looks like Tony just attacked Jitters." Peter says looking at the footage.

"He knocked over a hydrant on 4th and Stevenson, doesn't go in the building. Then he smashes a humvee in front of the Big Belly Burger, But doesn't go in the building. Gets to CC Jitters, he actually goes in." Joe recaps while viewing all the locations on the map.

"Your earth has Jitters as well, another thing our universes have in common." Frost comments to Peter and gets back on the subject. "So, why would he trash some coffee shop?" She asks them.

"When I was in Iron Heights awaiting trial, I had a cellmate who always swore he was gonna break out. At a Pre-trial hearing, he stole a deputy's gun and escaped in a police cruiser." Henry tells them and promises to get to the point soon. "Now, the poor, dumb bastard could have gone anywhere, right? But he was apprehended two hours later. 'Cause he went to his old girlfriend's house looking for her."

"So you think that's what Tony's doing, even in the state he's in right now?" Joe asks Henry.

"I think people are creatures of habit, sometimes at a level stronger than conscious thought." Henry explains to Joe.

"No, I don't think Tony had a girlfriend." Iris says. "I mean, not the way that he was hitting on me when he...came to Jitters." She says, realizing that he's after her again.

The next place he visited was the West house and that means they can set a trap to wait for him.

-

At the prescient, Caitlin is trying to find a way to escape when Zoom returns and removes his mask.

"You miss me?" Hunter asks her.

"Not in the slightest." Caitlin tells him, wishing to be free.

"How many times do I have to explain I'm not gonna hurt you?" Hunter asks her.

Caitlin just glares at him. "But you're not hesitant to hurt my friends." She states.

"They're getting in the way of my plans." Hunter explains to her.

"If the police can't stop you or Barry, Spider-Man's still out there and he will not stop until you're gone." Caitlin promises, knowing he'll stop at nothing until he's gone.

"Yeah, I'll admit, Peter's got some guts, I'll give him that much. And sure, he fought off multiple enemies at once, but he's not fighting the Sinister Six, he's gonna be fighting an army." Hunter tells her.

"Did somebody say my name?" A familiar voice calls.

Caitlin gets a spark of hope hearing Peter's voice, but it dies out as soon as she sees who walks into the room. It was definitely Spider-Man, but it wasn't her Spider-Man.

This Spider-Man is wearing a suit that is completely black, apart from a giant white spider emblem that takes across from his shoulders entire torso. She realizes that this Spider-Man is still attached to the Symbiote, so it must be his Earth-2 counterpart.

The fact that this Peter is still attached to it means he never got rid of it.

Hunter looks to the doppelgänger. "You're late." He informs Peter-2.

Peter-2 just shrugged at the maniac. "I needed to take care of something. You asked me to hunt down Frost, but not on our Earth anymore." He says and looks over to Caitlin. "Woah, who's the brunette?" He asks Zoom.

"She's with me." Zoom says with a scowl.

The evil wall crawler raises his hands to the evil speedster. "Whoa, back off, big boy. I don't see why you can't share." He tells Hunter.

"Aren't you already seeing someone?" Hunter reminds him, and Caitlin wonders who this Peter is dating on Earth-2.

"Yeah, but you should see her in the sheets. She's quite a screamer, and the suit doesn't like that very much. Speaking of which, she heard of your plan and wants in." Peter-2 tells Hunter.

"Good. I'm gonna go rally up the troops." Hunter tells him and points to Caitlin. "Keep an eye on her from time to time. But don't you dare touch her." He warns Peter-2.

"Got it. Don't touch the chick." Peter-2 recaps and the evil speedster leaves the two of them.

As soon as he left, Caitlin finally spoke. "P...Peter?" Caitlin asks the doppelgänger.

Earth-2 Spider-Man removes his mask in a liquid like way and Caitlin sees he looks exactly like her Peter.

"So you know who I am, huh?" Peter-2 asks her.

Caitlin let's a small smile form while thinking of him. "Peter Parker on this earth is a close friend of mine. He actually wore a suit similar to what you're wearing right now, but he defeated it." She tells him.

Peter-2 just scoffs at that statement. "That's probably the stupidest decision ever made. Did he tell you what it does to me?" He asks her.

"You mean besides turning him into an emo freak, and massive prick?" She asks him.

"It gave me true power. My uncle used to always say _with great power comes great responsibility_." Peter-2 tells her and Caitlin remembers Peter constantly saying that. "I never knew what power was until this suit. Before, I was strong. But with it, I am invincible."

"That's the suit talking. The Peter Parker I know knows that suit isn't what made him stronger, it was his friends and family that care about him." Caitlin states.

"You mean the same people who constantly use me, no matter how many times I save them?" Peter-2 asks her. "Yeah. I've been abandoned by my friends. And my family. Everyone."

"My Peter feels the same way sometimes. But he knows that I would never use him. Not me, Barry, Cisco, May or Joe. Even when it feels like the whole world is against us, we always have each other." Caitlin tells him and just watches as he gets annoyed by his doppelgänger.

Peter-2 just kneels down in front of her, still not touching her like he promises lightning brains.

"You talk a lot of praise about my doppelgänger. You see, Zoom already told me about my goody two shoes twin, and how much he means to you, and he'd probably be the first one to come to save you. So me and fasty made a deal. If the other me shows up, I gets dibs. I wanna see just how powerful he is without the Symbiote. And then I'm gonna make him wish he never got rid of it."

Caitlin narrowed her eyes in anger at the evil arachnid. "You can try. But my Spider-Man has already fought that Symbiote. Twice, actually."

"Well then if I come across him, he better bring his A-game." Replies Peter-2. "Hope you're comfortable in those handcuffs. Because you're not going anywhere." With that, the evil wall crawler leaves her.

-

Outside of the West house, Peter and Frost are waiting outside for Tony to make his appearance.

"Is this how it is to be a hero? Just waiting for something to happen?" Frost asks, suddenly sounding curious.

"Some of them are like this. Other times, you're running for your life, dodging bullets, or blocking punches." Peter answers referring to his experiences. "Why, you interested in turning over a new leaf?" He asks her.

"It's just...ever since Zoom killed Ronnie, and you saved my life I've been reevaluating some things. Especially since I had a lot of time to myself in that cell." Frost tells him.

Peter laughs at her attempive humor.

"Well, all things considered, I believe everyone deserves a second chance. Maybe after Zoom is gone, you can go back to your Earth and make up for some of your mistakes." Peter offers and she likes it better than being hunted for the rest of her life.

They hear someone screaming and alarms going off and know it's go time. They look to see zombie Tony and Iris having him chase her.

"Remember the plan?" Peter asks Frost.

"Make sure the zombie chases the doppelgänger of the detective that wanted me dead. If he gets too close, either you swing in or I blast him. Just make sure he makes it to Star labs so we can learn how to kill him." Frost recaps the whole plan to him. "Except I could easily just freeze him." She reminds him.

"Yes, but we know that cold doesn't hurt him when he was alive, let alone in death." Peter says and they start making sure Tony makes it to Star labs.

-

They were able to bring him to Star labs without a hinge and they meet Cisco and Harry oh the breach room.

"You guys ordered a _White Zombie_, right?" Frost asks and Peter actually laughs at that quip.

"Great. You guys should be on this side of the room. Especially if you're wearing jewelry or you have any metal plates in your body." Cisco says and explains how he set up electromagnets to turn off his brain again.

They all move to the side of the room and Tony enters the room. "There he is. Hi." Cisco greets and activates the electromagnets just for it to fail on them.

"Frosty, you're up." Peter tells her.

Frost doesn't need to be told twice and shoots a blast at Tony and freezes him onto the wall, but it won't hold him for long.

"Run." They all say and run to the breach room.

"Plans A-G failed us." Cisco informs Henry, May and Harry.

"Is there anything in here that can stop him?" Joe asks them.

"Barry could stop him if we could bring him back." Henry tells them.

"Are we seriously that looked down on?" Peter asks them. "I mean, her I get." He says looking at Frost. "No offense."

"No, I'm with you." Frost states agreeing with him that she hasn't exactly made up for her past in any big way yet.

They hear Tony trying to break in.

"Peter, you got any more gadgets or anything on your suit?" Cisco asks his friend.

Peter then looks over his systems for what he has left. "Few web grenades and a taser web." Peter tells him. "I didn't really have the time to restock, and the electric gloves were a one time gadget. Nearly burnt my hand off with those things."

Frost goes to the door and starts freezing it shut.

"I won't be able to hold him back forever, so somebody think of something." Frost warns them as they start coming up with a plan.

"Is there any other way out of here?" Joe asks anyone.

"The breach room was designed to be sealed off." Peter explains.

"Okay, it's me that he wants, I'll just lead him away." Iris states.

"No you won't. You'll never even make it past that door." Joe informs her. "If he came back from the dead and still wants you, what makes you think he's gonna let you go now?"

Frost just starts getting annoyed by these people. "Are your guys all like this?" She asks Peter.

"Is it sad to say mostly?" Peter asks when a flash of light enters the room and they turn to see Barry has returned.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're here." Cisco says honestly. "Because were all about to die." He says and they fill him in on how Tony is now Frankenstein and how the magnets aren't working.

Frost can't hold her powers anymore and passes out, and Peter catches her as Tony enters the room. Barry then grabs Iris and uses her to lure Tony to the workshop the long way so that they can start working on the machine and they can't generate enough energy to power it.

Barry starts using his speed to power the magnets with his own lightning and they work enough to shut off his brain again.

-

Back at the prescient, Caitlin is being interrogated by Hunter if she's with Zoom or against him.

"I'm gonna go out there, spend a moment speaking to my friends, and when I come back, you'll give me your answer." Hunter explains to her. "If you're still here, I'll know you've chosen to stay with me. If you're not here, I'll know you've chosen your friends instead. And I'll show you as much mercy as I will show Spider-Man." He warns her and leaves to talk to his troops.

Caitlin knows her decision, without a second thought, she just has to wait for the moment to leave.

Zoom enters the main room at the top of the stairs with the Symbiote King next to him.

"**My brothers and sisters...my friends...I've brought us to this New ****world which lay before us, defenseless, ours for the taking. The humans think this planet belongs to them. Who's world is this?!**" He asks the dozens of metahumans.

"Our world!" They all start chanting to him and Caitlin takes this as her chance to actually escape.

Back to Star labs. Back to her friends.

Back to Peter.


	40. Metapocalypse

The streets of Central City have become a war zone. All of Zoom's metahumans are attacking all the police as Spider-Man and Frost are trying to help hold them back.

Barry also speeds around the city and puts out all of the fires around the city they put out.

-

The three return to Star labs after getting all of the metas out of the streets.

"We're used to taking these guys down one at a time, not 100 at a time." Barry states to Peter as they get out of the elevator.

"And yet, you don't seem to be breaking a sweat." Frost says to him.

"I know we can do it." Barry says as Cisco runs up to them.

"Guys, you have to come see this." Cisco tells them and they follow him into the cortex to see none other than Caitlin;

"Caitlin?" Both Barry and Peter ask seeing she escaped.

May and Henry were just making sure she's okay.

"She's in shock. A little dehydrated and malnourished. But she'll be fine." May assures them and Peter just gives her a hug, happy to see she escaped.

"I'm okay." Caitlin assures him while hugging him back.

"What happened? How did you get away?" Barry asks her as Peter starts separating from her.

"He...let me go. I didn't think he would, I thought it was a trap." Caitlin tells them and looks to Peter. "I thought you were dead."

"He tried to get rid of me. But like any spider, you keep trying to get rid of me, I keep coming back." Peter jokes.

"Snow. Jay's not here. You're safe." Harry assures her.

Caitlin just starts tearing up. "He's gonna overrun the city, you can't stop him." Caitlin tells the heroes.

"Yes, we can." Barry assures her. "Listen to me, he's not going to succeed. We've got this. This is our earth."

"There's three of us, there's only one Zoom." Peter assures her.

"And I know from being in the Speedforce that the universe is with us, not Zoom. And if the universe is with us, how could we possibly loose?" Barry asks and everyone is concerned how he's so happy after everything.

Peter then helps Caitlin stand up and starts walking her to the med bay.

"Come on, you've been through a lot you should get some rest." Peter tells her.

"Wait, he was in the Speedforce?" Caitlin asks him.

"That's a long story, and even I don't know the full story about it." Peter says and tries explaining it as best as he can.

-

At Mercury labs, Tina McGee is looking over the latest breakthrough her scientist have had.

"Dr. McGee, have you seen dr. Parker?" One of the colleagues ask her.

"I think he said he's being held up in traffic or something with all of these metahumans running around." Tina tells them, even though she never talked to Peter recently.

Outside, a dark figure walks up to the building and lets out a sonic cry and the building starts to shake.

-

At Star labs, Peter is watching Caitlin as she sleeps, not wanting to leave her side and to make sure she's safe.

Then he hears the metahuman alert go off, but he doesn't know if he should go with Caitlin needing him.

"Guys, it's Mercury labs." Barry says, and that's all Peter needs to know.

-

The two heroes make it to see the whole building coming apart.

"Can you stabilize the building like that ferry?" Barry asks Peter, referring to an incident years ago.

"This place is coming apart, there's no stopping it." Peter says and they both split up to look for people who are still trapped inside.

Barry speeds everyone he can find out as the floors start collapsing.

Peter keeps looking and find Tina McGee holding onto a falling platform and quickly falls down, while avoiding all the rubble and grabs her by the waist and swing them away from the destruction.

As he lands, they watch as the place he's been employed at for years gets destroyed.

"Thank you, mr. Parker." Tina thanks the hero and they both look shocked she knows who he is. "I'm not stupid." She states seeing Barry's face and Peter's eyes going up on shock.

-

They bring Tina to Star labs to see what she knows and how she knows.

"So how did you know?" Barry asks.

"Peter's identity?" Tina asks as they all wait for an answer. "Come on, Peter, I'm a scientist. You know we're paid to be perceptive. And every time Spider-Man appears, you just so happen to disappear. Not only that, but you did happen to leave some of your designs for certain gadgets for Spider-Man around your workstation. But what really gave it away was when that monstrous creature attacked the labs looking for Spider-Man." She states and May looks at Peter with her _I told you so _look.

"Yeah. I know, I'm bad at keeping my secret from smart people." Peter admits to her.

"Okay, now that the cats out of the bag, did you happen to see who it was that caused your building to collapse?" Barry asks her.

"I didn't see anything. It happened so fast." Tina tells him.

"Maybe the security cameras picked up something." Caitlin offers and Tina explains how there's a black box for the building that Barry just need to find to get the footage.

"This wasn't some random attack, every time Mercury labs is attacked, there's always a reason." Barry guesses since this isn't the first time it was attacked.

-

Barry retrieved the black box when they get an alert from the CCPD and see the Flash symbol burning the building side and Barry starts walking to take care of him. Peter quickly chases after him.

"Hey, Barry, where you going?" Peter asks his friend.

"Look, Peter, I know you can handle Zoom, but it's gotta be me. You need to be here for Caitlin, she needs you more than the city needs you right now." Barry tells Peter and he understands and Barry speeds off to deal with Zoom.

-

They're working on a seismic frequency to stop all of Zoom's men at once, when Cisco suddenly throws his marker across the room.

"I thought throwing things was Harry's way of dealing with stress." Caitlin states.

"That's how frustrated I am. I'm just running out of ideas as to how to make this work." Cisco replies to her. "Where's Barry? I need some of that _walking on sunshine _thing he's got going on." He states while looking around the room. "Speaking of sunshine, where's Frost?"

"She decided to hit the streets to help the police stop the metas." Peter explains. "And speaking of Barry, should we be worried about how happy he's been since his trip to _Pleasantville_?" He wonders.

Caitlin just smiles at her friends when she turns around and sees Zoom. "No...no!" She shouts seeing Zoom.

Cisco and Peter see she's frightened but there's nobody there.

Peter just quickly runs over to her to help her calm down.

"Cait, look at me." Peter says and she starts calming down. "Breathe. You're gonna be okay, all right? Zoom's not here. You're safe." He promises her.

Caitlin's breathing becomes steady and she pulls Peter into a hug. Peter quickly returns it and holds his friend tight happy to have help her out. Their moment gets ruined by the metahuman alert going off.

"Metahuman alert." Cisco tells Peter.

Peter is now conflicted. He knows he has to go, but he doesn't want to leave Caitlin like this.

At this moment, Caitlin chooses for him. "Go, I'll be fine." She promises. "Barry's gonna need your help if this meta can take down a building."

Peter wants to protest, but he knows she's right.

He quickly stands up and walks over to grab his mask and looks back over to Caitlin.

"Be safe, okay?" Peter asks of her.

-

Barry had just arrived at the scene to see the figure as Peter also swings on in.

"Why is it always so difficult to choose?" The female meta asks and they recognize her, Laurel Lance.

"Why does the multiverse have a sens of irony?" Peter asks seeing her.

"I heard my poor doppelgänger died on this earth. Poor Black Canary." Laurel-2 mocks to them.

"Is this the part where you tell us your villain name?" Peter guesses.

"You can call me Black Siren." She informs them.

"Okay, that's a pretty good name." Peter admits and gets a arm slap from Barry. "What, I can't compliment her for actually having a good name?" He asks his friend as a new figure approaches the group.

"My god, was I seriously this annoying?" He asks and the heroes turn to face the Symbiote King/Earth-2 Spider-Man.

"That is some serious self reflection, am I right?" Peter asks Barry.

"So Spidey's doppelgänger and Laurel's. Our work is cut out for us." Barry states as Peter-2 approaches Siren.

Laurel-2 pits her arms on the evil Spider-Man's shoulders, while he puts his arms around her waist.

"Hey they're, sexy." Black Siren greets him.

"Hey, babe." Peter-2 greets and removes his mask and draws her into a kiss.

That action leaves both of the heroes in complete shock.

-

At Star labs, they're watching the action on the monitors and are just as shocked as the heroes.

"I could've gone my whole life without seeing that." Cisco comments and they agree to that.

-

The two villains finally separate and face the heroes.

"So my doppelgänger is alive. He just bonded with the Symbiote, like a fool." Peter mocks the evil web slinger.

"You're the only fool here, Spider-Man. In fact, I actually had to ask Zoom to keep you alive, just so I could get first dibs at you." Symbiote King explains to him.

Peter starts walking closer to the evil twin.

"Well, Caitlin already warned me about you so I'm not entirely surprised. And I've been wanting to see what happened, to see how far I've fallen to have to rely on that alien ooze for strength." Peter says mocking the enemy, as he always does.

"I'm gonna make you suffer, then I'm gonna kill you." Peter-2 promises his twin.

"You're gonna hae to catch me." Peter says and starts running. "Flash, you take Siren!" He yells out to his friend as the evil him starts chasing after him.

-

At Star labs, they see that Peter has his doppelgänger chasing him.

"Okay, you have a plan?" Cisco asks hoping he's not winging it this time.

"_Yeah, I was kinda hoping you guys would have one._" Peter admits to them when he comes with an idea. "_Wait, Cisco, pull up all of the buildings in Central City with any type of bells. Preferably big ones._" Peter asks and they see he has a plan.

They do as their friend asks and sees he's swinging staring towards one.

"Okay, there's one bell tower three blocks from you." Caitlin tells him. "Now take him down, Spider-Man." She tells him.

-

"Yes, ma'am." Peter says and keeps to the bell tower and recognizes it as the one he used to get rid of Venom the first time around years ago. "Wow, once again, irony."

He starts running on the side of the buildings to get there faster so he can give himself and edge by slamming into that bell.

Peter quickly comes to a stop when he notices his doppelgänger is missing.

"Where'd you go?" Peter asks as he know his senses can't register the Symbiote so he's in the dark.

Suddenly a dark web attaches itself to his back and sends him backwards into the darkness where his counterpart was hiding and he gets backhanded across the roof and through a billboard onto a random building.

"Ow. I'm gonna feel that in the morning." Peter promises while standing back up to see his body double lurching over the edge of the building.

"_Peter__, think you can make it to the tower?_" Cisco asks his friend.

Peter turns to see the bell tower is just too far away, and there's no way he can keep his doppelgänger far enough to get there first.

"No, I don't think I will." Peter admits and sees there's no other way. He has to fight off the criminal head on.

The dark Spider-Man just keeps approaching the hero. "There's nowhere for you to run now." He states.

"You're right. I'm tired of running. It's time to prove who's the better Spider-Man." Peter states and charges at the monster and the monster does the same.

-

Caitlin is watching the fight of Spider-Man against Spider-Man and Peter isn't exactly wining.

This doppelgänger is faster, stronger, Caitlin sees that Peter's fighting as hard as he can but he needs a hand in order to survive the fight.

Then she remembers last year when Peter and Cisco created a machine to stop him in the workshop. She quickly gets up and runs into the workshop with Cisco following her into his workshop.

"Caitlin!" Cisco calls out for her as she holds up the Symbiote Killer as Peter and Cisco call it but that gets Cisco worried.

"Caitlin, what are you doing?" Cisco asks her.

"This is the gun you and Peter perfected last year in case Venom ever came back, right?" Caitlin asks as she tries to learn how it works, fast.

Cisco is now starting to get more worried before answering. "Yes, but you're not considering going out there, are you?"

"Peter's outmatched, underpowered, And it's only a matter of time before he kills Peter." Caitlin states while trying to find out how to power up the gun.

"And if you go out, then you're finished." Cisco reminds her.

"I don't care!" Caitlin shouts at her friend. "I'm not standing on the sidelines and watching someone I love die. Zoom took everything from me, I'm not letting him take Peter." She tells him and raise the gun to him as she gets it powered up. "I'm going out there, and you can't stop me."

Cisco is surprised at her actions, but knows she's serious. "Then, at least let me drive you?" Cisco asks her and she agrees to that and lowers the gun.

"Also, can you teach me how to operate this thing?" She asks her friend.

"I'll show you on the way." He promises and Caitlin starts making her way to the van when Cisco realizes what she said. _"Did she just admit she loves Peter?" _He thinks to himself and a grin spreads on his face.

"Definitely going with SnowParker." He decides on a shipping name and follows her.

-

Peter is thrown off the building and slams, face first into the pavement of the street. The Symbiote Spider-Man leaps down and places his foot on his back.

"You're weak without the Symbiote." Peter-2 states seeing he's won.

"You know what your problem is?" Peter asks and quickly flips around and webs his doppelgänger in the face and activates a taser web. That causes the dark Spider-Man to scream out in pain.

"I never relied on my powers. I used my brain." Peter informs the monster, but he didn't see him create a weapon with his hand and swings it, slapping Spider-Man into a bus stop.

The Spider-Man double starts regaining his strength back and starts walking towards his hero self. "You're nothing but a forgotten hero. And nobody is gonna remember you." He informs Peter and gets ready to kill him when a sonic blast sends him into the nearest wall.

Peter turns to see Caitlin holding the Symbiote Killer and the Star labs van with Cisco in the driver seat.

"And nobody will remember a monster like you." Caitlin quips back to the unconscious man. "That suit made Spider-Man stronger, but after some time, it also makes him weaker." She continues on and Peter limps toward her.

"You're aware he can't hear you, right?" Peter asks her. "And didn't I ask you to stay in the labs?"

Caitlin just smirks and looks back at him. "Be glad I got here when I did. You can't exactly save the city when you're dead." She states to him and he can't argue with the results.

"Well, let's get my dark shadow back to the labs." Peter says and they walk over to the unconscious Symbiote man and start dragging him to the van.

As they're dragging him, Caitlin laughs at how Peter's doppelgänger starts snoring loudly. Peter just smiles seeing her laughing like her old self again.

-

Later on, Barry couldn't stop Black Siren, so she's someone who still needs to be stopped while Peter looks at his evil doppelgänger who's now locked up in the pipeline.

Peter also injected him with the anti-venom he made last year so now he doesn't have the Symbiote anymore...and sadly he wasn't wearing anything underneath the suit.

So now he's in the pipeline and starts waking up to see he's only in boxers.

"You're welcome, by the way." Peter states to his double who's looking around confused to where he is.

"I had Barry run to my apartment to grab you one of my boxers for you to wear so you weren't in there, naked." Peter explains to him.

"Where am I?" Peter-2 asks them.

"Somewhere where you will never hurt anyone ever again." Cisco tells him. "Once were done rounding up your girlfriend and the rest of the metas, you're going back to your earth and to a nice cozy cell."

Evil Peter starts trying to call upon the Symbiote, but of course it doesn't work. "What did you do?!" He asks them angrily.

"We destroyed it, for good. You won't be harming anyone ever again." Peter replies to the man and start walking away from him.

"I will destroy you! You hear me?!" Peter-2 keeps shouting threats to them as the doors close.

"Yeah, threaten us with something we haven't heard before." Cisco dares him as they leave.

-

"Met your friends tonight." Siren tells Zoom at the prescient. "They got my boyfriend." She informs him.

"They're good, I didn't expect them to be that good." Hunter admits to her. "Besides, I kept my promise. He got a crack to fight his doppelgänger and he lost." He explains to her, since that was their deal and he lost the fight.

"And now I'm the only one of your men who's still standing." She reminds him.

"Then why don't you go knock down a few more buildings? Like I ordered." He asks her so that while they're distracted by her, he can put together his machine he's been creating to destroy every other earth except this one.

-

At Star labs, they're working on a frequency to make sure it works well enough.

"This is how we're going to defeat Zoom's army." Cisco explains.

"This is where the scientists dum it down to the people without PhD's can understand." May reminds him.

"Fair enough. So all matter vibrates at its own frequency. You disrupt that frequency, you disrupt the matter. So we found out that All Earth-2 people vibrate at their own, more erratic frequency." Cisco explains easily to them.

"Higher frequency." Harry corrects him.

"Different frequency." Cisco corrects him.

"Higher." Harry corrects again.

"So I ran this all past Hartley, right? And he postulated that we could create a sort of dimensional tuning fork. So if Barry runs around the city, fast enough to create a refracting field, the device can send out a pulse that'll bounce off it it, split apart, and collide with itself over and over." Cisco keeps explaining when Peter takes over.

"Amplifying it to an Higher frequency on the Earth-2 spectrum, and when it hits anyone from Earth-2 it'll disrupt their nervous system." Peter finishes.

"Wait, Frost, Jesse and Harry are from Earth-2. How do we plan to keep the pulse from hurting them?" Joe asks hoping they planned it through.

"Look at that, the detective cares." Frost comments.

Harry comes in with a few pair of headphones. "We designed these headphones to protect us from the pulse." Harry tells them when the metahuman alert goes off.

"It's Black Siren, she's in the high rise development, west side of the city." Peter warns them.

"Hundreds of people live there." May warns them.

"Ramon, we're up. Set that pulse up right now. Allen, you need to start generating the retraction field." Harry tells them.

"Black Siren can destroy that building at any moment." Barry states when Peter and Frost get the same idea together.

No, she won't." Peter asays to Barry and they all look to him. "Me and Frost got this covered." He explains and Cisco gets the worst idea idea ever.

-

Black Siren is getting ready to take down the buildings when she notices Reverb and Killer Frost.

"I thought Zoom killed the two of you." She states to them.

"Zoom thinks that, doesn't he?" Frost says, since he must've told his henchmen that he killed her for betraying him.

"And we'd like to keep it that way. For now." Cisco says, with the voice of his doppelgänger.

"You two think that you can pull one over Zoom?" Siren asks them, unaware of the masked spider hero above, waiting for Frost to attack Siren so he can use an impact web on her.

"I told you." Cisco says to Frost, keeping up the charade.

"Give her a chance." Frost asks Cisco.

"What chance?" Siren asks.

"She's not ready." Cisco mumbles.

"Excuse me. Do you know what I'm capable of?" Siren asks him.

"Try it, and I'll shatter your entire nervous system wrought breaking a sweat." Cisco warns, remembering his doppelgänger threat on Earth-2.

"You really think you can take on Zoom." Siren says seeing their plan.

"We can. You don't even know how powerful you are. With a single call, you can are down a building. I'd call that impressive. But why stop there? Why serve a master when you can be one?" Cisco asks her and she's starting to see through their ruse.

"If I we're interested in an alliance with you two, what's your plan?" Siren asks.

"We ambush Zoom at CCPD. With our three powers combined, he'll be no match." Cisco makes up a plan fast enough.

"I like the sound of that." Siren says and walks over to a pipe. "Just one more thing. Catch." Siren calls to Cisco and he catches it.

"You know, all doppelgängers...there mirror images of themselves. But you didn't know that, did you?" She asks Cisco.

"Reverb was left handed." Frost explains and Cisco sees he messed up.

"Run!" Cisco says when Siren gets ready to call and Frost gets ready to freeze Siren when Cisco beats her by shooting a vibe blast at Siren sending her flying, strong enough so that Peter could web her to the ground.

"Well That was interesting." Frost comments when her head starts to hurt.

Peter realizes that they activated the device and he quickly grabs the headphones from his belt and places them on her head and she begins to feel better.

"Thanks, Spidey." She tells him.

"No problem, Frosty." Peter tells her.

-

Thankfully the device worked and all of Zoom's henchmen were taken down so Barry and Peter were on meta cleanup. By that night, they all gather to the West household to celebrate not only for the defeat of Zoom's army, but to celebrate Henry's return.

Everyone starts getting into conversation, and Tina asks to speak with Peter regarding Mercury labs.

"So it's gonna be awhile before we can get the building back up, but what about the other labs?" Peter asks her.

"That's not entirely why I asked to speak to you." Tina confesses to Peter and now he's getting confused. "I have been entertaining the thought about retiring recently."

Peter is shocked to hear this news and wonders what that means for everyone.

"And I thought if I was going to leave my laboratories to anyone, how about the man that knows that science is meant to help people and not destroy them?" Tina explains and Peter thinks he's following.

"I would like you to be the new owner, CEO and above for Mercury labs." Tina tells him and Peter nearly lost all control over his body hearing those words.

"Everything that is related to Mercury labs will be yours. I also cut connections with Oscorp so they can't hold you to anything anymore after the Lizard incident. So the facilities are yours to do what you want with. Rename it if you wish, sell it if you want, it's yours." Tina says and pulls out the paperwork she actually had on her since she knew Peter would be here.

She also pulls out a paper with an address written on it. "This was started a few days after I learned you were Spider-Man. Call it a _Spider-Cave_ if you will. It's off of all of Mercury labs books. A secret facility, with only one person who knows what's going on. You'll meet him when you visit." Tina tells him and hands him the papers.

Peter looks down at the papers in his hands and remembers what Gideon told him last year about him owning Mercury labs and it becoming Parker Industries.

He gets interrupted from his thoughts when he turns and sees Cisco is having a vibe.

"Cisco, what'd you see?" Peter asks his friend.

"What do you mean see?" Wally asks, and Peter completely forgot he doesn't know about any of them.

"Jungle hair gets visions." Frost explains.

"I don't understand." Cisco says, and now they're getting worried. "I saw Earth-2 splitting in half. Straight down to the poles. Tell me I didn't just see the end of the world!" He begs when a flash to lightning comes in.

It smashes Peter and Frost through the wall and Zoom stops and grabs Henry by the neck.

"**Our story continues, Flash.**" Zoom says before speeding off with Henry and Barry is close behind him.

Peter and Frost get up as they vanish.

"I think we're not done yet, Spidey." Frost comments while helping the down spider.

"I was thinking the same thing." Peter replies while taking her hand to stand and hope Barry can save his father.

But what they didn't know was Zoom took Barry to his childhood home to make him exactly like Zoom by watching his parent die...and Barry couldn't stop him.


	41. Truth revealed

After Barry watched his father die, he speeds after Zoom to take down this madman once and for all.

They fight around the city through streets and alleys, running up buildings until Barry got the upper hand finally and starts beating the life out of him.

"Go on, Barry. Embrace your anger." Zolomon tells Barry as he starts phasing his hand. Barry knows he just watched his father die because of this man, but still can't take it upon himself to kill a man.

That decision was taken from him when a Zoom speeds in and kills his time remnant.

"**Let me do it for you.**" Zoom says and removes his mask while Barry is confused when he had the time to create him.

"So close, Barry." Hunter says to Barry. "You see, Barry, there could be two of you. You just have to be willing to kill yourself. You're almost ready." He comments before speeding off and pushing Barry to make sure he doesn't follow.

-

They had a funeral for Henry and hurried him next to Barry's mother. Even Frost looked sympathetic for the heroes for loosing a friend she didn't even know.

Joe gave a speech about how love was the most important thing to Henry and Barry promises to put an end to Zoom once and for all.

Everyone went back to the house and wait to do something when Peter remembers the address Tina gave him.

Everyone starts coming up with a plan to stop Zoom.

"What's that?" A voice asks and Peter looks to see Caitlin eyeing the address.

"Before dr. McGee left, she told me she was planning on retiring. And wanted me to take over Mercury labs, then gave me this paper with an address, she says leads to some warehouse for Spider-Man." Peter explains to her.

"You thinking about checking it out?" Caitlin asks Peter, and he doesn't know if he wants to know. "What if I went with you?" She asks and Peter would feel better with her.

-

Peter and Caitlin come up to the warehouse, and it seems to be a normal warehouse. They walk up to the doors and sees it requires a card scan. Peter takes out his Mercury labs I.D. card and scans it, the door then opens up and Peter looks to see only darkness.

"There doesn't seem to be anything special about this place." Peter comments when the lights come on and they see an entire base of operations.

They sees multiple manikin cases with different styles of Spider-Man suits, multiple tables filled with gadgets and inventions, and a dozen computer screens in the center.

"Okay, this is pretty cool." Caitlin comments on everything and they're both left to wonder who's behind all of this.

"I'm glad you like it." A new voice says. The two of them turn to see a black man with white hair and matching goatee wearing an all black suit. "When dr. McGee asked me to build some gadgets for Spider-Man, I jumped on the opportunity to help." He tells them and they have no idea who he is.

"I'm sorry, I should've introduced myself. Lucius Fox, former head of technology at Wayne Industries." Fox explains to them and shakes their hands when Peter suddenly recognized him.

"Wait, Lucius? Aren't you supposed to be in Gotham with Wayne Enterprise?" Peter asks him.

"I was, but Bruce left Gotham, and Wayne Industries went bankrupt over time. That's when dr. McGee reached out and heard about my unemployment and offered me a place at Mercury labs, but on one of her secret assignments." Fox tells Peter and he wonders what kind of gadgets he's got made for him.

He gets interrupted by his phone saying that they're needed at Star labs.

"Okay, we need to get going, but we need to have some sorta talk about this later." Peter tells Fox.

"You'll know where to find me when you need me." Fox replies as they leave.

-

Barry explains to them that Zoom wants to race to prove who's the fastest man alive once and for all.

"He's obsessed with being the fastest." Barry explains to them.

"Why should we trust him?" Peter asks the obvious question.

"He just wants to race. You know, it actually makes sense in a completely off our rocker sort of way." Cisco says.

"That can't be everything he wants." Joe states since there has to be more to it than that, especially with Cisco's vibe.

"It isn't." Harry confirms. "This magnetar that's being developed by Mercury labs, turns out that it can act as a pulsar." He tells them.

"I'm sorry, what's a pulsar?" Frost asks.

"It's a power amplifier with a highly magnetized, dense rotating core that can easily be weaponized." Peter explains and pulls up the schematics for the device.

"Yeah, that's not dangerous at all." Iris comments as they see the device can be used to destroy the planet easily.

"That's what I saw is gonna happen to Earth-2." Cisco tells them.

"This thing is powerful enough to destroy a planet?" May asks and looks to Peter.

"Don't look at me, I'm not in charge of it." Peter states since it was McGee that confirmed the project.

"More than just a planet, if it has the right power source." Harry confirmed their fears.

"That's why he wants to race." Barry realizes. "He wants to siphon the energy I create when I run."

"He wants to siphon the energy off of the two of you." Harry corrects him.

"When he held me captive, he said he used to measure his success by victims, but now he was going to measure it by how many number of worlds he conquered." Caitlin tells them and the pieces are starting to come together.

"He doesn't want to just destroy Earth-2...he wants to take out every other planet in the multiverse." Harry tells them and now they're worried for the infinite number of other worlds that are in danger.

"One pulse to destroy them all." Cisco says, misquoting _Lord of the Rings_.

"I guess I don't have a choice. I have to race him." Barry says and puts on his suit to go running in the accelerator.

-

Barry makes it to the doors to the pipeline and Peter followed him.

"You know giving the bad guy what he wants isn't exactly the right thing to do, right?" Peter reminds Barry.

"It's not that easy, Peter." Barry responds.

"Barry, I know how your feeling right now with Zoom killing your dad." Peter says being reminded about when he almost killed his uncle's killer. "What he wants is you filled with anger, and he needs your speed to get what he wants. If we have something that he wants, we're the ones with the advantage."

"All I have to do is beat him in a race, Peter. That saves the multiverse, this whole city, all of us." Barry responds to him. "I'm not letting someone else I love die if I can prevent it."

Peter understands his case, but why he's doing it is easy to miss unless it's someone who has been through the same pain.

"You don't want to just race him, don't you? You want to kill this maniac." Peter states to the speedster.

"Of course I want to kill him, Peter." Barry confirms and gets closer to him. "I want to do a hell of a lot worse than just kill him. I want him to suffer for everything that he's done. And he's going to." Barry promises and Peter isn't liking this.

"Barry, you have to calm yourself down." Peter states to him.

"I have to be willing to do whatever it takes. I'm sorry, but I'm racing him and there's no gadget in your suit that can stop me." Barry warns his spider friend.

"Okay, I understand." Peter says calmer than Barry was expecting and starts walking away. As Barry's back was turned, a blast of mist hits him and knocks him unconscious.

"But I also understand what these emotions can do to you." Peter tells his now unconscious friend as Frost approaches him.

"That was cold, even for me." Frost states to Peter.

-

Later in Barry wakes up and sees he's locked up in a cell inside the pipeline.

"Why'd you put me in here?" Barry asks them.

"Because you're too angry right now." Joe tells him. "You can't race him like this. Without a plan, you're gonna loose."

"Keeping me in here is gonna get everyone killed." Barry informs them all.

"Letting you out of that is going to get the multiverse killed." Frost replies to him.

"I'm the only one who can stop him, you all know this." Barry reminds them.

"You race Zoom in his terms, you'll loose." Harry tells Barry.

"This is not your decision to make!" Barry argues with them all.

"It is this time. We all made it together." Joe says and Barry looks betrayed.

"Bro, I went back and forth." Cisco interrupts and keeps talking until Peter slapped him upside the head. "Yeah, we all made the decision." He finishes.

"Don't do this. Guys, come on." Barry keeps arguing as they close the doors while he keeps yelling.

"You sure this was for the best?" Joe asks Peter.

Peter looks back at the door sympathetically for the speedster, but he knows this was the better choice out of the two.

"Yeah, we made the right call. I know what he's feeling, if we didn't stop him, he could've done something he'll regret later on." Peter says and Joe understands. "When I lost my uncle, I went searching for the man who killed him...I was so close to finishing him off when I remembered my uncle, and know that's not what he would've wanted. I honored his memory by being better than the man that took him. Barry doesn't see what he's doing, he's blinded by anger, like I was. And he would've rushed into that fight blind, and you can't fight when blinded."

-

They all return to the cortex and get everything they need to stop Zoom.

"Got his location." Cisco informs them.

"He's at the industrial park on Lealeawood." Jesse reads off the computers.

Peter looks to Caitlin seeing she's a little scared.

"Caitlin, we will understand if you don't want to be there for this next part." Peter assures her.

"He may be a monster, but there's a human side of him somewhere. I've gotten to that part before, maybe I can reach it again. Don't worry, I'll be careful." She assures her friend.

"Okay, you guys get going. I'm bringing May somewhere I know she'll be safe." Peter tells them and leaves as they go over the plan again.

Peter brings May to the warehouse where Lucius is working. "Lucius, this place doesn't happen to have anything to stop a speedster, does it?" Peter asks his new worker.

Lucius smiles at the arachnid. "We have metahuman seekers surrounding this whole building so no metas could break in." Lucius informs Peter.

"Okay, May, you're gonna stay here so Zoom can't get you." Peter tells his aunt and she understands why. "Lucius, you're coming with me, grab anything you created to stop a speedster that's mobile."

The two of them leave and as they go, Lucius activates the protocol to keep May safe while they're gone.

-

They meet up with everyone at the industrial park and quickly introduce them to each other and get the plan into action. Harry is in location with the Boot in hand.

Cisco is waiting in location to open a breach while Peter is waiting, ready to smash Zoom into the breach.

Caitlin walks out into the open and starts calling out for Zoom. After a few calls, Zoom stoped working on the device and speeds out to her.

"How did you find me?" Hunter asks her.

"Dr. McGee said the magnetar was stolen from her labs." Caitlin explains and says she knew it was him and assures that no one else is here and she wants to join him this time.

"_He's almost in possession, Caitlin, keep on going._" Fox informs her and she keeps talking to him and waits for her opening.

Hunter keeps approaching her and gets into position.

"I knew you'd eventually come around, Caitlin." Hunter states to her. "But it's too late." He tells her, but before he could kill her, he gets attacked by a blast of ice coming from her.

The hologram glitches and reveals it was Frost who was standing there while Caitlin was working the hologram from the van.

"What's the matter, Hunter?" Frost asks him mockingly. "Too slow?" She asks, when Joe shot him with the Boot and Cisco opens a breach and Joe tries using the tranq and it's not working.

Peter makes a decision and grabs the tranqs from Joe and swings in.

Hunter tries getting the Boot off of his neck when Peter injected him with the tranqs. Frost then sends another blast of energy at him, but it accidentally sends Peter through as Zoom grabs onto him and it closes.

The team now looks in shock as to what's just happened.

-

They return to Star labs and Cisco is trying to vibe the two of them, but all he can see is flashes of Spider-Man and Zoom trying to kill each other and it seems that Peter's already injured.

"Did you see Spider?" Frost asks him.

"No, the vibe keeps changing." Cisco tells her.

"They must be on the move, that's why the vibe is in flux." Caitlin assumes.

Harry and Fox returns from trying to shut down the magnetar. "There is no way of shutting it down without the planet splitting into pieces." Fox explains to them and that's bad news for them.

"So what's the plan now?" May asks the team since she knows that they won't stop with Peter gone. "I mean, did Barry go stop him?" May wonders since all she was told was Peter was taken by Zoom.

"No, Barry's in a cell in the intake." Jesse explains and now May is confused.

"It's a long story." Frost tells her.

May just looks around the room. "Well, there had to be something to get him back." She says.

"May, before we went to stop Zoom, we all agreed that if we got him off this earth, we would close the breaches for good, and never open them again, for anyone." Iris says and May knows Peter was trying to keep her safe by making that promise, since he most likely knew it would end like this.

"No, this isn't happening." May states and starts leaving the room.

Caitlin knows how she's feeling and chases after her to stop her.

"May, where are you going?" She asks her as she seems to be determined to get somewhere.

"I'm getting the only person who might be willing to save my nephew." May responds to her when Caitlin grabs her shoulder.

"You're going to Barry, aren't you?" Caitlin asks her.

May turns to Caitlin and she notices the tears in her eyes.

"Peter's the only family I have left, Caitlin." May tells her. "He might have promised to keep me safe, which is most likely scenario, but I never agreed to this plan."

Caitlin knows how she feels and doesn't see any other way of bringing Peter back safely.

"You're gonna need me to show you how to open it." Caitlin tells May and she sees that she agrees with her now. "Let's go get Peter back."

The two women start walking to the pipeline to release Barry.

-

Earth-2, Peter has been beaten up and is in the same chains that once held Jesse.

"You know you can just kill me now, because you ain't destroying the multiverse." Peter states to Zoom.

"Come on, Peter, you should know Barry better than that. If he thinks he can save you, he's going to do anything." Hunter says when Peter sees the man in the iron mask is still here.

"Who is he?" Peter asks the masked lunatic.

Hunter thinks for a minute and decides to tell him. "I got my speed the same way Barry did, when I got struck by the dark matter and electricity, I became Zoom, the fastest man alive. It wasn't long until I had this earth on its knees. But it wasn't enough. I wanted more. I wanted to be faster. So I created a speed drug."

"Velocity-7." Peter guesses since V-8-9 were created on his earth.

"It made me faster than I ever thought possible, fast enough to break through the dimensional barriers, fast enough to run to other universes, other Earths. And then one day, on one of those Earths, I discovered him." Hunter continues and Peter fills in the blanks.

"He's a speedster as well?"

"Yeah, you can say that." Hunter responds. "It was right about the same time I discovered something else too. All that V-9 I'd been injecting myself with had a little side effect."

"It was slowly taking away the exact thing it was giving you." Peter states to him.

"I searched for a cure. I tried everything. I even tried manipulating the Speedforce, but let me tell you, the Speedforce, it doesn't like its rules being broken. It's been sending its enforcers after me ever since." Hunter explains and Peter is guessing he's talking about the Time Wraiths they've delt with, twice.

"So you brought him here so you could steal his speed." Peter says.

"I tried, but it wouldn't happen. But then the skies parted, and I saw Barry, and then I stole his speed. I beat the rules of the Speedforce." Hunter states.

"Then why keep him here?" Peter wonders.

"A trophy. Like how you keep all of those newspapers about the enemies you defeat. And a little idea I had for fun." Hunter says and Peter hopes he explains more of that.

"You see, I got so tired of being the villain, I decided to be the hero as well. I even borrowed his name, Jay Garrick." Hunter tells him and Peter looks and understands why he's here now.

"You know what's gonna be great, Spider-Man? After I beat Barry and prove I'm the fastest, he's gonna rot in a cage just like Jay is in right now. Then I'll have a Flash from two worlds, and one Spider-Man." Hunter mocks him.

Peter's senses alert him or something, him and Hunter turn around to see a vision of Barry in the Flash suit. "_I'll race you. Say when and where. I'll be there_." Barry promises.

"Cisco's learned how to bring people into his vibes." Hunter comments.

"_There's one condition. You bring Peter back, but if he's harmed any further, it's off_." Barry tells Zoom.

"Fine. But he doesn't go free until after the race." Hunter promises.

-

The team make it to the location and see a giant wheel shape race track. They see a flash of lightning and Zoom appears with Peter handcuffed.

"Brought the whole crew with you, huh?" Hunter asks. "Can't say I blame you. It's gonna be one hell of a show."

May and Caitlin don't pay attention to him and focus on Peter as they see the bruises on his face alone.

"Let him go." Caitlin tells Hunter.

"After we race." Hunter reminds them.

"Cut it out already, we know you plan to power up the magnetar so you can destroy the multiverse." Harry states to him holding up the Boot.

"Bravo. You figured it out...almost. I don't want to destroy all of them. This earth is at the center of the multiverse. The quickest access point to every other earth in experience. One trans dimensional shockwave, and poof." Hunter explains and that mean only their world will be left alive, and thousands of lives will die.

Hunter then speeds Peter off to keep him back. "Don't worry, I'll save him." Barry promises Caitlin and May.

"Make him pay." May tells him.

Hunter returns and explains the rules to Barry, 500 laps around and if he doesn't beat Zoom, that means he wins and there's no stopping it. And if he decides to stop racing, Peter dies.

The two of them start racing and running around the track, as they're racing the magnetar gets powered up. As they keep racing a time remnant of Barry appears, the time remnant remnant speeds off from the race and rescues Peter.

"Go, all right? I'll explain later, go!" The time remnant promises Peter and he runs off.

The other two speedsters are racing when Zoom notices the remnant and tackles it to the floor. "**A remnant? Stole my trick, Flash.**" Zoom comments as the magnetar powers up and starts powerful up.

The real Barry finishes the race and speeds in to take on Zoom when the remnant starts racing around the magnetar.

"What's the time remnant doing?" Frost asks seeing him run in circles.

"He's creating his own pulse." Peter realizes. "So when that's out of phase, so will the magnetar."

"His body can't handle that." Caitlin tells them and they don't know what'll happen.

The time remnant keeps running until his body starts to flake apart and turns into a pulse of energy and shuts the magnetar down.

Barry and Zoom continue fighting until Barry finally has him pinned to the ground.

"You're a hero, Barry. You couldn't kill me before...you won't kill me now." Hunter tells Barry when they all hear screeching and see Time Wraiths coming and they start flying around Zoom and start, what looks like, start burning his flesh before carrying him off into the Speedforce.

-

Once Zoom was gone for good, they were able to save the man in the iron mask and learned it was Barry's father's doppelgänger who was as Hunter said was the flash of Earth-3. He also explained to them all how Hunter stole his suit as well, all except the helmet that Harry gave him to use.

Cisco even offiered Fox a place at Star labs along with the rest of the team but fox explains how he likes to work for Mercury labs, and will stay Peter's personal inventor for now.

But now it's time to say goodbye to their Earth-2 and 3 friends as they're all going home. The team says their goodbyes to Harry and Peter needs to talk with Frost fast.

"You know, I knew this would happen, but I'm actually sad to say goodbye to someone for once." Frost tells Peter.

Peter just chuckles at her. "Just stay out of trouble, don't make me have to jump Earths to fight you again." He warns her jokingly.

"You know things wouldn't work between us, right?" Frost asks him.

Peter's smile starts fading.

"I mean on my earth, you still have someone here perfect for you." She explains and looks towards Caitlin who's hugging Harry goodbye.

"She's been through so much and you're the one to be there for her. Don't let her slip through your fingers." Frost tells him and Peter knows maybe it's the best time to tell Caitlin how he feels.

"Frost? We going?" Harry asks her, angrily.

"Just because I've changed sides, doesn't mean I can't still freeze your ass to the wall, Wells." Frost warns the man as she approaches them.

Jay grabs onto everyone and Cisco opens a breach for them and the travelers vanish through the breach.

-

Everyone except for Lucius and May, as they turned in for the night, all return to Joe's house for a job well done. Joe, Wally and Cisco were on the other side of the room talking while Peter looks out to see Barry and Iris talking on the porch.

"Aren't you a nosy spider." A voice tells him and Peter turns to see Caitlin.

Peter just laughs and rolls his eyes at her.

"I just wanted to make sure Speedy Gonzalez out there is holding out. Considering everything that happened. I mean, I never knew my parents when I lost them. So I don't know how he feels right now, but I know how it feels to lose a father." Peter explains to her, referring to Uncle Ben.

"We both know how that feels." Caitlin reminds him and Peter knows she also lost her father.

"You know, I thought things couldn't get any crazier after time travel and Thawne...god, I was wrong." Peter quips to her.

"You were wrong about a lot of things you said last year. Remember when you said you could never picture me as a villain?" Caitlin reminds him.

"Yeah, I was wrong about that, too." Peter agrees with her.

"Peter, there's something I never told you, it's before Ronnie died." Caitlin tells him and Peter looks to her confused.

Caitlin begins to tighten her lips, _"Well, this is it, you made it to the cliff, now it's time to jump."_ She then speaks, "Ronnie asked me to marry him...and I told him I couldn't do it." Caitlin tells him and Peter is shocked to hear this now.

"Why couldn't you do it?" Peter asks her and now Caitlin wrestles with the feeling in her stomach.

"Peter, ever since I lost Ronnie, you've always been there for me...help me regain my hope when it's lost. You know how to make me laugh. How to make me feel better when I'm down..whenever you're around, I feel the weight on my shoulders...disappear, and I want to keep having that feeling." Caitlin says and knows there's only one thing left to say. "Peter, I love you." She finally tells him.

Peter doesn't say anything and stares to his friend who just spilled her guts out to him.

Caitlin sees him not responding and looks away seeing she made a mistake. "Look, I know you probably don't feel the same way. I just had to get this off of my chest after two years of sitting on them, I'll be okay just being your friend, so we can-"

Caitlin didn't get to finish that though when Peter suddenly did something unexpected...he kissed Caitlin Snow. She is shocked for the first second, but that's replaced when she starts kissing him back.

Caitlin doesn't know how to explain in words how it feels, but she can say it's about a thousand times better than the kiss she received by Everyman from last year.

Peter kisses Caitlin and it feels better than when Frost kissed him and froze his lips. After a few seconds the two finally break apart. Caitlin looks to him waiting for an explanation while the spider hero has a big grin on his face.

"I've been having feelings for you ever since I returned to Central City last year, and I never told you because I thought your heart would always belong to Ronnie. But I'm glad you feel the same way." Peter tells her.

Now it's Caitlin's turn to be speechless as she looks to her friend. She's even happier now she knows Peter feels the same way and responds the only way she knows how, she grabs Peter by the face and pulls him onto another kiss, they stayed like that until they break apart while breathing heavily.

They then suddenly hear someone whistling at them and turn to the others who are looking right at them with smiles on their faces.

"It's about damn time." Joe states to the two of them.

"How long were you all watching?" Peter asks his friends.

"Somewhere around the first kiss." Cisco tells him while covering his eyes, not wanting to watch his friends kiss each other like the lovebirds he knew they were.

The recent couple just laughs at their friend for being childish unaware of what their speedster friend is about to do.

Barry knows that they won, but he doesn't feel complete anymore, and he knows there's only one thing that he can do to feel complete again.

-

Barry speeds down the streets and treats the time barrier and runs back to that night...the night his mother was murdered, except this time he stops Thawne from killing his mother.

He did it...he saved his mother and changed history, but was it worth it...?

—————————————

_**Yes, we're doing Flashpoint.**_

**_And FYI, yes I realize that every time they get together or confess their feelings, Barry time travels. It's just a happy accident...at lest happy for me. _**

**_I'm in trouble..._**


	42. All power, no responsibility

The butterfly effect is the idea that small things can have non-linear impacts on a complex system. The concept is imagined with a butterfly flapping its wings and causing a typhoon.

You could not remove a single grain of sand from its place without thereby changing something throughout all parts of the immeasurable whole.

A word unspoken.

A feeling towards something never discovered.

An apology never delivered.

It could change everything and anything all at once.

Now if you had the chance to change something you regretted, would you jump on it and never think of the consequences if it was important to you?

-

New York, one week after the spider bite. November 5th...eight hours until the death of Ben Parker.

A 15 year old Peter is being dropped off at school by his uncle. "Thanks for the ride, uncle Ben." Peter thanks his uncle and gets ready to leave.

"Wait a minute, Peter. We need to talk." Ben tells his nephew.

"We can talk later, I gotta get to class." Peter tells him.

"Well, we can talk now you've still got some time if we hurry. If you let me." Ben tells him.

"What do we have to talk about?" Peter asks Ben.

"Because we haven't talked for so long, I don't even know who you are anymore." Ben tells Peter since he's been acting weird since his trip to Oscorp. "You neglect your chores, you're doing all these strange experiments in your room, you started a fight in school." Ben lists down the past week to him.

"I didn't start that fight, I thought you believed me on that." Peter points out to his uncle. He had no control of these abilities he's been getting recently and one of the school bullies tried fighting him because of an accident.

"You sure finishes it." Ben reminds him since he was actually able to stand up against a person who was stronger than him for once.

"What was I supposed to do, run away?" Peter asks.

"No, you're right, you shouldn't run away, but..Peter, look, you're changing. These are the years when a man changes into the man he's gonna become the rest of his life. Just be careful who you become. I mean, that kid probably deserved what he got. But just because you can fight doesn't mean you always should." Ben explains to Peter.

"I'm not becoming some kind of criminal because I just snapped, I was sick of being beaten up all the time. And I wasn't the only one getting beaten up. So quit worrying about me, okay? I know I'm different, I'm working through some things right now. So stop lecturing me about it, please." Peter tells his uncle.

"I don't mean to lecture, and I don't mean to preach, and I know I'm not your father." Ben tells Peter.

"Then stop pretending you are." Peter states to Ben.

Ben feels hurt because of those words but knows deep down he doesn't really mean it. "Right. I'll meet you here around the regular time, Okay?" Ben asks Peter.

Peter looks to his uncle and feels the weight of what he just said and regrets it. "Uncle Ben, I'm sorry." Peter tells him and Ben looks back up to him. "I...I just need to figure some things out. But I'm sorry for what I said." He apologizes.

Ben smiles at his nephew. "Don't worry, I know you didn't mean it." He assures him.

Peter smiles at his uncle and gets out of the car. "Love you, uncle Ben." Peter reminds him.

"Love you too, kid." Ben tells him before driving off for work.

-

Peter goes through school regularly and waits for Ben outside when the final bell. After waiting some time, Peter decided just to walk him.

When he got to his street in Queens, he saw police cars and an ambulance at his house. He broke into a run and got there in time to see a body bag being wheeled away.

Peter couldn't breathe when he saw the body of his Uncle. A Captain George Stacy came up to him.

"Peter." said George.

"What happened?" Peter asked.

"Peter, this isn't the best time to..."

"What happened?" Peter repeated.

"Someone broke in, he shot Ben and stole the car, we'll get him Pete." George said.

Peter ran from the scene with George being unable to catch up with him due to his abilities. He kept running until he was far enough away from the police, and then started looking for his uncles killer.

He also found a jet ski mask in the trash and decided to use that to at least cover his identity.

-

Peter tracks the man down to an abandoned building with the things he stole from the house. "Who's there?!" He asks and starts shooting around the room. He gets afraid and runs to the door.

But Peter was already on the other side and starts fighting him off. The killer tries killing him with a knife, but Peter knocks it out of his hand and Rios off his mask.

"Please, don't hurt me. Just give me a chance." He pleads to Peter.

"What about my uncle? Did he get a chance?!" Peter asks before pushing him.

But what Peter didn't realize was that the wall was already falling apart so when he hit the wall, he fell through it.

Peter just watched as he fell and hit the ground. Death on impact.

"There's your chance." Peter says heartlessly before leaving.

-

A few weeks later, Peter went to live with his aunt May in Central City, but things just went downhill fast. May got fired from her nursing position and is desperately looking for a new job.

The two of them were just out to dinner, since she was able to save enough for the two of them to eat out.

"What's the matter?" May asks Peter as he's not eating his food. "I thought you loved larb."

"Is it too larby? Not larby enough." May keeps guessing. "How many times do I have to say larb before you talk to me?" May asks him.

Peter hasn't been feeling like himself ever since he stopped his uncles killer.

"Come on, you know I larb you." May tells him.

"I'm just...I'm still grieving I guess." Peter replies to her.

"I understand, sweetie." May tells him. "And you know you don't need to grieve alone, right?" She reminds Peter when one of the waiters bring them something.

"We didn't order this." May tells the waiter.

"It's on the house." He explains and leaves.

"That was nice of him." May states.

"I think he larbs you." Peter jokes and May mockingly looks shocked at Peter.

-

The two of them start walking back home, since May's car broke down and they haven't gotten it back yet.

They were a block away from their home when they were ambushed by a man with a gun. "Don't do anything stupid, and everyone gets to live." The thug warns them. "Wallet, purse, everything."

May panicked and hides Peter behind her not wanting him to be hurt. "Please." She begs the man. "This is all I have left." She pleads with him.

"You've got three seconds." He warns May.

"Peter, run." May tells Peter before trying to wrestle the gun from the man.

Peter does as his aunt told him acting on impulse. But when he realizes what was happening, he runs back to help his aunt.

As he's running back, he hears a gun go off and starts running faster.

When he makes it back, he sees his aunt was shot.

Peter runs up to his aunt. "No, aunt May...please, stay with me. Stay with me, May." Peter pleads to his last family member as she gasps for air.

"Peter, my beautiful boy..." May says while smiling as her life leaves her body.

Peter screams at the top of his lungs in anger and looks up to see the man who shot her running away.

Peter, with all his might, chases after the man and tackles him to the ground.

He then starts to beat the life out of the man, the hatred, anger fueling his strength as he takes away the life of the man who took his last family member.

As of this moment, Peter Parker was alone in the world.

-

2015..

Peter's life was never the same since that fateful night. Since then, he's been on his own. Every man for himself, while bringing out his own sense of justice to the world.

Ever since that night, he's been training himself to be better, faster, stronger.

When he wasn't in the gym, he was practicing with guns, when he wasn't practicing with guns, he was learning how to treat his own injuries. He never had time for friends anymore, they just got in your way.

After he came of age, he spent a few years in the marines to get the weapons training and how to do it faster than he could ever.

And his powers only gained in strength as he took the law into his own hands.

**Vigilante in Central City?**

**Hero or criminal?**

**Drug trafficking stopped by the vigilante.**

**Vigilante named Punisher.**

**Who is the Punisher?**

**Trickster killed by the Punisher.**

**Dr. Octopus killed by Punisher.**

**Kid Flash nearly stopped the Punisher.**

-

The news would keep on coming up with things like that for Peter. He didn't care what they called him as long as they stayed out of his way. Some even believe that there's more than one of him, but there's only one Punisher.

He doesn't plan to stop until every criminal is out of Central City, so no innocents will have to share the same fate as his uncle and aunt.

Peter as of this moment is hunting for another criminal that escaped the police with nothing but a gunshot wound. Peter's only interested in people when they don't care about human lives, and these men apparently work for the Kingpin. He already hunted down the rest of his men and killed them. Kid Flash was there seconds after him, and saw the massacre he left behind.

Peter's only disguise is a pear of boots he got from his time at the marines and a jacket with a skull on it that belongs to his uncle. (Ben was a fan of heavy metal.)

As Peter makes his way through the hospital, one of the officers recognized him and tries to stop him.

Peter quickly grabbed his hand and took his gun away from him and knocks him out.

-

Patty Spivot is the detective watching over the last of the gang members when she hears screaming outside.

"No, he's coming to finish the job." He warns Patty.

Patty takes her gun out and moves to the door and sees the man walking with a riffle in his hands.

"We gotta move." Patty tells him and starts dragging him out of the room.

As they exit the room, Peter is on their trail and states shooting at the man.

Patty gets him out the back way and knows it'll take him a minute to catch up.

"Where is he?" The man asks looking around, completely afraid.

"Get in." Patty tells him.

He gets into her car and starts driving away.

On the rooftop of the hospital, Peter has his riffle aimed at him when a flash of lightning comes up behind him.

"You didn't learn your lesson last time, kid?" Peter asks the speedster.

"What can I say? I don't like crazy people who kill other people." Kid Flash tells Punisher.

"Well, lt looks like I'll have your cowel on my wall after tonight." Peter tells Kid Flash.

Peter turns to shoot him and he dodges all of the bullets. The speedster stops and Peter sees the familiar black kid wearing the yellow suit with only a mask that covered his eyes.

Peter grabs a grenade from his belt and throws it. Wally catches it and looks to Peter annoyed.

"You really thought I couldn't stop that?" Wally asks the madman.

"No, I was hoping you would." Peter tells him when the grenade sends a shock through Kid Flash and he drops in pain.

Peter makes this time to get away as the hero is down.

"Next time you try and stop me, I won't be so nice to keep you alive." Peter warns him and leaves.

Before the end of the day, the last member of the gang was dead...and several officers were injured in the process, but not killed. Peter has a code, kill criminals, victims and innocents get to live.

-

In New York, Miles Morales, a fourteen year old kid has gotten bit by a spider and is gaining powers.

——————

**_In case you're confused, this timeline Peter doesn't get the great power, great responsibility speech._**


	43. Rivals

Barry was in Jitters mumbling to himself about talking to Iris when a news report comes on behind them.

"_The latest from Central City, where the mysterious criminal/vigilante known as Punisher killed an entire gang of criminals. Followed by the attacks by the metahuman criminal known __as the Rival is once again terrorizing the populous with his incredible speed." _The news says and Barry sneaks away and speeds off to catch up with the action.

-

Kid Flash knows that Punisher is too skilled to stop and he seems too equipped and skilled for him so he's going after the Rigal to stop him.

"Need our help, Flash?" An officer asks him.

"Nah, I'm good. When I'm done with this fool, he might." Wally replies to him. "What have you got against my city?"

"The city's just fine. It's the people in it who need to be educated. And I have no rival!" Rival tells him.

Barry watches the fight from down the street as Rival starts shooting lightning everywhere. One bolt comes shooting towards Barry and Wally saves him as Rival escaped.

"This guy and Punisher are becoming pains in my ass." Wally comments before speeding off.

-

Barry was able to actually ask Iris out before making it to the CCPD where he's asked about the Punisher or Rival.

"Punisher is not leaving anything that could clue us in on his identity, Rival is the same. We'll figure out who they are when Flash stops them." Barry tells the Captain.

"Well, the Flash better hurry up. Pun intended." Captain says and wonders where Joe is.

-

Barry gets some time off to check up on Thawne he has locked up in a warehouse inside a metahuman cell. What's been 15 years for everyone else was just a few months for him. Living in this alternative reality has been the best thing he's ever done.

His family is alive, there's a new Flash so he doesn't need to be, all that's left is Punisher. Whoever he is...

Thawne has been growing a beard ever since Barry locked him up. "There better be curly fries in there." Thawne warns him.

"Human beings can go almost three weeks without food so I'd sound a little bit more grateful if I were you." Barry replies to the man who murdered his mother.

"Well, you wouldn't do that to me, Barry. After all, you're the hero. I mean, haven't you met the Punisher? Or are you the Punisher?" Thawne asks Barry.

Said Barry is confused and scoffs at the man. "I'm not that maniac. I don't even know who he is." Barry tells him.

"Well, you'd be surprised just how much your little reverse _It's a Wonderful Life_ can affect the people you care about." Thawne says and laughs at the irony of that. "So what should we call this brave new world you've whipped up for us? I was thinking Flashpoint."

"So you don't want this?" Barry asks while holding up the food bag.

"You may have figured out a way to dampen my speed with this glass cage, but I will get out of here and I will destroy your life, Flash, one way or another." Thawne says as Barry drops the food into the cage.

"You're never getting out of here. And you're never going to hurt anyone ever again." Barry promises him. "I have everything back that you took from me. Even what Zoom took."

"This might be paradise for you, but what about everyone you knew back home? This is a mirage. A fiction that will end the two of us, unless you let me out of here!" Thawne states and slams his fists the wall.

"You're not listening, Thawne. Why would I want to leave this place? I don't even need to be the Flash here. And the Punisher is cleaning up the streets." Barry informs him.

"Oh, I know about him all right. Punisher wasn't supposed to happen, even in my timeline. You created Punisher, Barry. How do you feel about that?" Thawne asks him. "Yet again, I guess Peter Parker doesn't exactly have anyone to run back to anymore." He tells him coldly.

Barry then starts getting worried to what he's saying. "What do you mean by that?" Barry asks him.

"Do you even care anymore? While you're sitting around hiding, like a lost boy, our common enemy is coming for the both of us. Time...it's already screwed with you and everyone you care about. And pretty soon, it's gonna take me right down with you."

"You know you've got some nerve. Peter's probably in New York with his uncle somewhere like he was supposed to be." Barry tells him, since if there's no Spider-Man in Central City, it must mean Peter never got bit and he's still living in New York.

"Then maybe you should have a conversation with this Punisher." Thawne bets Barry. "And when you see who he is, you'll beg me to kill your mother."

-

Barry spent some time with his parents before getting to work and was staring to have his date with Iris when she ran off with the officers. Barry sped off to watch the Rival and Kid Flash fight before Barry learned that it was Wally.

Then he learns that Iris and Wally have been doing this for years together.

"We need to take down the Rival." Barry explains to them.

"Well, I'm open to suggestions we've been trying for months. No luck." Wally tells the new guy.

"Well, what about the Punisher?" Barry asks.

"That maniac that shoots people?" Iris asks Barry while scoffing. "He's a criminal who kills other criminals."

"There's someone else who could help us." Wally suggests. "Cisco Ramon." He explains and Barry wonders how they know him.

-

The three of them go to former Star labs, now Ramon Industries when Cisco made billions with his tech and became the richest man in America. Barry sees him as said Cisco notices the group. Barry also sees that he's dating/possibly married to Lisa Snart.

"Well, I told you to never come back here after you brought Punisher down here when he put a bullet in my tech guy, Otto." Cisco reminds Wally as he walks them into the cortex that looks completely different than it did before.

"I make you a friction proof suit so your clothes don't explode at Mach 2, And you leave me out of your Punisher/Kid Flash civil war on how to clean up the streets. That was the deal." Cisco reminds him.

"Okay, listen to me, mr. Ramon. We need your help. I'm sure you've seen the Rival on the tv. He is terrorizing the city to prove he's the fastest." Iris explains to Cisco.

"Okay, send Punisher to stop him. He's taken Kid Flash here down all the time, I'm sure Rival would be a walk in the sky park carrying a rifle easy. But you know what happens you mess with a speedster unprepared? You get a vibrating hand going right through the rib cage." Cisco explains, and they're still not on board with him joining them.

Barry was unable to get him to help them, so he decides to talk to the Punisher himself.

-

Said Punisher was taking another gang of criminals down when a figure comes behind him. "I keep warning you cops to stay away." Peter tells Barry.

Barry quickly recognizes the voice and gets shocked. "Peter Parker?" Barry asks.

Peter turns to look at Barry and he sees his once friend has gone from a coded hero to a man with no rules.

"How do you know me?" Peter asks him.

"You're Peter? What happened to you?" Barry asks his friend.

"You seem to be pretty smart, figure it out yourself." Peter tells him while reloading his gun.

"Peter, we need your help talking down the Rival." Barry explains why he's here.

"Who's we?" Peter asked.

"Flash." Barry tells him.

"I'm not partnering up with that kid." Peter promises and starts leaving.

Barry walks after him, when his head starts spinning once again for the third time today. The first time was with Iris and he started loosing memories of his past life with her. Then the second time was with Cisco. Now it's everything he and Peter have been through together.

-

Barry goes to the one man who can explain what's happening to him. "It's like I'll be thinking of a moment from my past and then it vanishes. Why?" Barry asks Thawne.

"Flashpoint. It's a side effect. See, I told you before you don't know what you're doing. This new reality has already taken your friends down, and now it's staring to overwrite the reality you and I know. So your original life, your friends, family, pretty soon will just fade away." Thawne explains to him.

Thawne then realizes that the reason it's not happening to him is because he hasn't had access to his speed in months. Barry has been running around forever since he got to this timeline so he's loosing his memories the more he uses his speed and Barry won't even remember he's the Flash. And there will be no changing it back.

"You know what you have to do. You have to take me back to that night and let me finish what I started." Thawne warns Barry.

"Go to hell!" Barry tells Thawne.

"You already brought Parker down there, and nw you're dragging us all down there! Now who's the villain, Flash?!" Thawne asks as Barry leaves.

-

Barry then speeds across the city, grabs Wally, Iris and Peter and brings them to Ramon Industries.

"What did I tell you, Flash?" Peter asks while raising his riffle at him.

"Hey, this wasn't me." Wally says.

"What's going on?" Cisco asks them all when they notice Barry in the Flash suit.

"Who's this loser?" Peter asks.

Barry removes his mask to his old friends. "The man who's gonna help you stop the Rival." Barry tells them.

"Great, this guy." Peter mumbled.

Barry explains everything to them, and obviously they don't believe a single word he says.

"All right, this is as simple as I can possibly make it." Barry says while walking up to the glass. "Imagine this line is time, I went back in time stopped the reverse Flash from killing my mother and in doing so created an alternate timeline. A new existence where you're Kid Flash...Peter's the Punisher. And Cisco's a billionaire." Barry explains.

"So you're saying there's a timeline out there where I'm not rich? Boy that's a glitch in the universe." Cisco comments.

"So how did you know me in that life?" Peter wonders since he said that Punisher didn't exists.

Barry thinks for a minute to figure how to explain it to him. "You were Spider-Man. A hero for 15 years, you explained how your uncle inspired you to use powers you were given for good. Stop criminals, but never taking a life. You kept the people you loved safe." He tells Peter.

"So I had someone I cared about?" Peter asks Barry.

"Yeah, your aunt. You even had a girl." Barry tells him when Peter just gets up and walks to his face.

"Then allow me to share my feelings about this _Flashpoint_ of yours." Peter tells Barry before punching him in the square jawed in the face. "My aunt died! In my arms." Peter informs Barry who's shocked to hear that.

"Okay, I mostly deserved that." Barry says. "Look, I need your help. The Rival needs to be stopped, and we can stop him if we work together."

"I can stop him myself." Wally states looking at Peter mad.

"Ha, you can't even stop me." Peter comments on his statement.

"Well, I'm not interested. I don't know how many times I gotta tell you freaks; I did my bit for queen and country." Cisco says.

Barry then looks around and realizes they're missing someone. He takes over Cisco's computer and searches for Caitlin Snow and speeds off.

He speeds back and brings Caitlin with him. "What just happened?" Caitlin asks them.

"Stop bringing strangers into my lab. Who is this?" Cisco tells him.

"This is dr. Caitlin Snow. In my timeline, she's a part of the team." Barry tells them.

"I'm sorry, did you just kidnapp her?" Peter asks the speedster.

"What? No, I didn't...Okay, technically I did. She's a scientist we need her." Barry explains.

"I'm not a scientist. I'm an ophthalmologist." Caitlin tells Barry.

"Really? An eye doctor?" Peter asks the new girl.

"A pediatric eye doctor. Aren't you the Punisher?" Caitlin explains and asks him.

"And...were done." Cisco says and Iris drags Barry out of the room.

"Have I been kidnapped?" Caitlin asks Peter.

"It's unclear at the point. But we're both in the same boat if so because I don't know any of these people." Peter reassures her and it works...slightly.

Barry and Iris come back after a conversation that has nothing to do with the situation they're in. "Turns our kiddie eye doc actually had a good idea." Cisco says as Caitlin explains how she used the speed cameras in the city to register for near sonic velocities and they have a location for the Rival.

-

Barry speeds Peter and Wally to the location where the Rival is.

"Okay, Look, I'm gonna go at him head on, give Peter some time to get a trap ready. When he turns to fight you, Peter activates the trap and we get him."

Rival speeds out and sees the three of them.

"Whoa, Punisher, Kid Flash and a third guy? Over preparedness now, huh?" Rival asks him.

"I'm so gonna kick your ass." Wally says as Peter walks off while Rival removes his mask to show he's not scared.

"My name is Edward Clariss. Rivals should know each other's names. You might as well tell me since none of you will make it out of here alive." Rival says and the two speedsters start fighting the Rival when Wally thinks he can stop him head on.

Rival gets taken down, and while they think they won he grabs a pipe and shoved it through Kid Flash. Peter tries shooting him from a distance, but Rival saw that and threw the bullet back at Peter, causing the bullet to

Barry tries fighting him, but the more he runs, the more his memories keep disappearing, causing him to forget everything that helps him run.

"You know, I'm wondering, where's Punisher? He run off?" Rival asks when several guns start going off and Rival catches all of the bullets they fire.

"Did you really think I couldn't catch all of them?" Rival asks when another gun fires from behind him.

Rival drops to the floor and Barry sees Peter holding a gun. "No one escapes the Punisher." Peter states as he drops from the bulletwound.

Barry rushes over to his friend to check if he's okay.

"Peter, you gotta stay with me." Barry says getting deja vú.

"Nah, I'm clocking out this time." Peter informs Barry while staying calm, bleeding out. "Just tell me one thing, Barry...was it worth it?"

Barry is taken back by the question and realizes what he means. He wasn't talking about stopping Rival. He was referring to the fact he messed with his life, everyone's lives. Everyone's been paying for Barry's happiness. The wouldn't have happened if he never went back in time.

"No, it wasn't. I turned you into the very thing you swore to never become. I took away the people who mattered to you." Barry confesses to Peter.

"Then do what you know I would do...set things right." Peter says for his dying breath.

-

Barry knows what he has to do and asks Iris to help him do what needs to be done and asks Thawne to do what he said Barry would do.

He begged the Reverse Flash to kill his mother.

As they go back and set things right, Thawne returns Barry to his appropriate timeline.

"There we go. Things are back to how they should be. For me at least." Thawne tells Barry and speeds off to get to his appropriate place in the timeline.

Barry then enters the house and sees Caitlin and Peter are missing and starts getting worried.

"Hey, where's Peter and Caitlin?" Barry asks them.

"Probably getting a room." Joe comments from the couch and drinking some more. Cisco on the other hand is trying to get the image of his friends kissing out of his mind. He's happy for them, it's just strange to see after all these years.

"I'm sorry, what?" Barry asks shocked to hear this.

"Yeah, while you were outside, they confessed they liked each other and didn't waste anymore time." Wally states while laughing.

"Can we please talk about anything else other than my best friends making out?" Cisco asks and the others just laugh at the man.

"Hey, where's Iris?" Barry asks not seeing her.

That kills the mood and Joe leaves the room. "I'll see you all in the morning." Joe says and turns it in for the night.

"You know Iris isn't here, Barry. They don't talk anymore." Wally informs Barry before leaving.

Cisco gets up and calls it a night himself.

Barry is left in shock to what has happened, and wonders why things are different.

—————————

**_I didn't kill Cisco's brother, so he's not gonna get mad at Barry for that. _**

**_1)There was no real reason to do that._**

**_• What, you thought I was gonna erase Caitlin and Peter admitting their feelings to each other?_**

**_ I have the feeling that you all waited long enough for them to be together._**


	44. Wrinkles

Barry runs to the Arrow cave to talk to Felicity about everything and she's sorta confused at what he's saying.

"Okay, why don't you just run me through...walk me through what happened. And we'll try to figure it out." Felicity offers.

-

12 hours earlier, Central City.

Barry knew that some things had changed but e had to deal with a man robing a jewelry store without Spider-Man.

While the cyclist was shooting at him, Barry was able to dismantle his motorcycle quickly.

"You're not gonna get too far on that thing anymore, are you?" Barry asks him and takes his bag.

"I will be taking these back to the jewelry store you stole them from. But you can keep these if you'd like." Barry says and hands him the bullets as the police come up to arrest him. "Gotta do everything myself today. Spidey seems to be taking the morning off." Barry comments before speeding off.

-

At Caitlin's apartment, she starts waking up when something was tickling the length of Caitlin's left leg. She tried to push it away without opening her eyes, but it always came back. For a moment, she thought that it was her cat.

Only one problem with that, she didn't have a cat.

She pushed it away again before the cloud around her brain began lifting itself. It was definitely not a cat. It was a leg.

That's when she felt an arm draped over her waste, pulling her tighter behind. She heard a soft hum of contentment and that's when the memories came flooding back to her, like a dam had broken down.

Caitlin remembered her and Peter making it to her apartment and them making out like teenagers and him pushing her against her kitchen counter, bringing her closer to him.

She remembered unbuttoning his shirt and throwing it on the floor. She could still feel him chuckling in her neck when he had tried to take her sweatshirt off but she hadn't wanted to take her lips away from his in order to do that.

And she could still see the laugh twinkling in his eyes when he had managed to take it off.

She could still hear the happy groans and muffled moans as their mouths fused back together and their hands travelled up and down each other's bodies.

She could see flashes of herself taking his hand and leading him to her bedroom where a night of passion had followed.

She remembered him humming "_livin la vida loca'_" on their way to her bedroom where she had playfully slapped his shoulder, as he had to get his Spider-Man suit off.

She could still see them stumble on her bed, laughing like little kids and turning serious again just seconds later.

That's when she felt his breath tickling the back of her neck, bringing her back to the present and that's all she needed to let warmth spread from head to toes.

Caitlin put her hand on Peter's that was currently lying on her stomach and he just spooned closer to her. She cracked an eye open and saw sun come through her curtains. She had absolutely no idea of what time it was, and she definitely didn't care.

She felt Peter stir behind her as he was waking up. He moved up to place a kiss delicately on the back of her neck where he had been peacefully breathing just moments ago. She then turns her head to meet his still sleepy eyes.

"Morning, Snowflake." Peter whispered, a smile illuminating his whole face. The sight was breathtaking.

She let a hand run through his small stubble, go up to his ear and then to the back of his head to bring his face closer to hers. He stopped just a breath apart from her, rubbed his nose on hers, and finally closed the distance between their lips. The kiss was sweet and short.

"Hmm…Morning to you, too." Caitlin whispered against his lips. She let her fingers play with his hands and turned completely on her back to look up towards him.

"How did you sleep?" Peter asked softly.

"Pretty good actually. I had my personal superhero-blanket protecting me through the night. It even woke me a little around 3 am." She said, eyebrows lifting seductively.

Peter starts blushing at the mention and buried his face in the crook of her neck.

Caitlin chuckled at his response and buried her hands in his hair, playing with it.

"You didn't seem to complain at the time." Peter mumbled, his voice vibrating against her skin.

"I wasn't and I'm not going to start now." Caitlin replied cheerfully while laughing.

She wished she could just freeze time, stay here like this forever, just the both of them, happier than they'd ever been. She felt her heart swell and herself turning into a puddle. Caitlin was on cloud nine, keeping the man she loved so close to her as he was pressing kisses along her neck after two years of sitting on their feelings.

"Hmm…I could get use to this." Caitlin whispered, closing her eyes, losing herself in the moment.

Peter immediately stopped, pulled back and looked at her, surprise written all over his face. She opened her eyes, flushed under his stare and tried to hide her face in her cushion. With one hand on her chin, he turned her face back to his.

"You really mean it?" Peter asks her.

She nodded softly and felt herself being pulled back towards him.

They met for a passionate kiss, tangling themselves deeper under the covers. When Peter broke the kiss, he whispered "Me too" against her lips. They both giggled and snuggled closer to each other.

She never thought that two people could be this perfect. When she was with Ronnie, she thought she was happy. But this was an even bigger feeling than what she felt with him, and she never wanted to stop feeling it.

"I can't believe it actually happened." Caitlin tells Peter while kissing him, since she never thought she would be this happy ever since Zoom kidnapped her.

They start kissing once more when Peter's phone goes off and he sees its work.

"Oh, great. I gotta go. A meeting about transferring everything from Mercury labs name over to me." Peter explains to her. "So I gotta get to my place and get something nice for the fancy people."

"Well, you better get going, I'm gonna go to Star labs since were late." Caitlin informs Peter and she got dressed and move on with their day.

Peter just put on his suit to get back to his place and leaps out her window.

-

Barry was speeding to Star labs after stopping the criminal. "What kind of idiot still thinks I can't outrun bullets?" Barry asks as he enters the cortex to see Cisco, Joe, Iris and Wally.

"That guy is the poster boy for what you shouldn't try to do when fighting against team Spider-Flash!" Cisco cheers while holding his coffee.

"So where's Peter, he not show up to help?" Wally asks.

"Apparently he has a meeting with the board about Mercury labs and Caitlin will be here soon." Cisco says.

"I should get back to the paper." Iris says while standing up.

"It's okay, I was just leaving." Joe tells her, knowing she doesn't want to see him.

"Hey, guys look. I'm sorry. I just know you guys aren't speaking to each other right now, but I was just thinking maybe we could talk about why for a minute." Barry offers and they get offended.

"Look, I'm sorry. I just thought it would be good for you guys hear it said out loud." Barry explains.

"This is because of what he did, Barry, not me." Iris states while pointing at Joe.

"Iris..." Joe tries apologizing but as always Iris interrupts him.

"What? What could you possibly have to say?" She asks and Joe takes Wally with him.

Barry also returned to work to meet his said to be CSI partner Julian Albert who is the metahuman expert of the CCPD while Barry is just the CSI.

-

"There's a whole new guy at work you didn't even know about?" Felicity asks him, breaking out of the flashback.

"Yeah. And he's worked there for over a year. And he doesn't like me very much apparently." Barry informs Felicity.

"Well, that's impossible. Everybody loves Barry Allen. You're like pudding. Everybody loves pudding." Felicity states to him.

"Not everyone." Barry says.

Felicity is just wrapping her head around everything to try and understand to help him.

"Okay, so altering the timeline caused Joe and Iris to not talk anymore, there's a new guy at your work who doesn't like you, you never kissed Iris, and in both timelines Peter and Caitlin finally get together." Felicity recaps to him. "Note to self; call and ask why I haven't been told he's in a relationship." She tells herself for later and Barry looks annoyed. "Back to your current situation, admittedly, that is an issue."

"And there could be more things. I haven't seen Peter's aunt. Maybe something happened to her." Barry says since he could've done to his Peter what he did to Punisher-Peter.

"Well, has anything here changed?" Felicity asks him and Barry looks around and grabs her computer to look.

He then finds that not much has changed in there lives and not much has changed in the way of Peter, Cisco, May or Caitlin's lives. Everything seems fine with their lives until he comes up on a photo with Diggle and a little boy.

"Whos that young boy with John?" Barry asks Felicity.

"He didn't have a kid before?" Felicity asks him.

"He has a kid, baby Sara." Barry tells her.

"Baby John." Felicity corrected him and Barry can't believe what he did.

"Okay, you know what. I don't want to know anymore." Barry states.

"I know this is a lot of pressure, but everything's gonna be fine." Felicity assures him.

"I screwed up their lives." Barry reminds her.

"Maybe you should tell them." Felicity says.

"I'm not gonna tell them. That's gonna make everything worse and Peter might punch me like he did in the other timeline." Barry replies.

"Peter punched you?" Felicity asks.

"Yeah, in that reality he was a vigilante known as Punisher. That timeline killed his aunt and uncle." Barry explains to her.

"Okay, if there's one thing I've learned from you, is that with you, anything is possible. Because you're Barry Allen. And sweet, loving, kind Barry Allen. The Barry Allen who's just like pudding, can fix this. So go fix this." She tells him.

Barry then runs off to Central City to do as she says, not knowing that the man who is the Rival in Flashpoint is about to gain his abilities with the help of a man known as Alchemy and his philosopher stone.

-

Before he could fix anything there was a crime about a jellyfish like substance body skin on shore. Barry took a sample after sneaking it while Julian wasn't looking and took it to star labs.

"You know, there's really not that much here." Caitlin says.

"Yeah, no, I know. It's basically touch DNA. I had to steal the sample because our metahuman expert wouldn't let me take one." Barry tells them.

"You mean Julian Albert?" Cisco asks.

"You know him?" Barry asks.

That question gets some weird looks from the other two since he never stops complaining about him.

"Yeah, we've known him for a while." Cisco says before leaving to work on something.

"So, I was told you and Peter..." Barry starts while smiling at Caitlin.

Caitlin starts blushing and looks away from the speedster thinking of her new relationship with Peter.

"Hey, I'm happy for the two of you. I've known Peter had feelings for you for some time." Barry tells her. "Also, where is he?"

"Oh, after the meeting he had, he now has full control over all of Mercury labs properties so he's going to be making some changes. Staring with the name, and then he's meeting up with Lucius Fox to take a close look at some of his gadgets dr. McGee had him working on." Caitlin says and Barry wonders if this is because of Flashpoint or it was gonna happen no matter what.

"Do you think you guys and Cisco could come to my house for dinner tonight?" Barry asks.

"Maybe. But why?" Caitlin wonders.

"Maybe with you guys I could fix things between Joe and Iris. Besides, I kinda wanna know what happened while I was gone for you two to get together and sneak off." Barry explains to her.

Caitlin smiles and decides to do it. "But you do know you have to talk Joe and Iris into it." Caitlin reminds him.

"I'm on it. Quick question, isn't that Peter's shirt?" Barry asks while leaving and Caitlin looks to see she's in fact wearing Peter's shirt and she hadn't even realized it.

-

At the Spider-cave, Lucius is showing Peter all of the gadgets and suits he created for him.

"This suit I got the idea for when you were fighting Electro. It's a suit that actually absorbs the electricity that you get hit with and is able to store it into the gloves offering you to use electric punches." Fox tells him.

"Okay, I feel like McGee is spoiling me with you." Peter admits while feeling like a kid on Christmas.

Fox then shows him all of the gadgets he has lauded out on the table.

"This is a reconnaissance drone designed to scan structures, a mini microphone to hear through walls. And it even holds taser weapons inside I like to call Whistling Birds, they search for any heat signatures from either human or even main systems of anything from computers to cell phones. Best part is he can fit and disguise as the symbol on your suits chest. I just haven't worked out all the bugs yet, ironically." Fox explains to Peter as the drone that's shaped like a spider starts flying in front of Peter.

Peter puts his finger in front of the drone as he looks close at its spider-like face.

"Okay, I'm gonna call him Drone-y. Because I'm not gonna remember any of that." Peter says and notices a motorcycle. "Hey, what's that?"

"Oh, the speed-cycle? You wouldn't be interested in that." Fox says to Peter who just smiles.

They take the cycle to a large opening in the room and Peter starts speeding around the room with it.

"On the handles in front of you, you have cable web shooters for when you need to get down from high places. I got the idea for it from watching you swing around the city. I calculated you could make it from 80th street in 3.7 minuets, while using up fairly expensive webbing at maximum muscle stress. And then by the time you get to your mission, you have half of the webbing you could use to stop the crime. The cycle gets you there in a minute and a half. It's also got a boost for when you need to get there faster." Fox explains its functions to Peter from the systems to the cycle's speaker.

Peter spins and brings the cycle to a stop and Fox laughs at his smile.

"So what do you think?" Fox asks him.

Peter thinks for a minute when a idea enters his mind. "Does it come in black and red?" He asks Fox.

-

That night, Barry told them what time dinner was happening and no one has felt more uncomfortable being in the room.

Iris' looks could kill someone while Joe was focusing on his dinner and the rest of the team were just trying to find somewhere to look without feeling awkward.

May couldn't make it tonight since she had the night shift at the hospital, but promises to see if she can make it.

"This is nice." Barry says out of the blue.

"You can thank grandma Estar." Joe says to Barry.

"No, I mean, it's good. I just meant all of us here together." Barry says and gets nothing back as everyone just stays quiet.

"I've been in uncomfortable positions, but this one is the most uncomfortable." Peter whispers to Cisco.

"Epic fail, party of six." Cisco agree with him.

They all go back to an uncomfortable silence when their phones start going off.

"Oh, thank god." Cisco says a little too loud and looks at the phone. "Metahuman app. We gotta go." He calls and everyone is rushing to get out.

-

Barry speeds off with Spider-Man close behind him to meet the metahuman and sees someone he thought he would never see again. Rival.

"Remember me, Flash?" Rival asks as Peter shows up.

"Clariss?" Barry asks as he removes the mask.

"Oh, you do remember, Flash? Good, yeah. Because I remember everything, too." Clariss tells Barry and Peter.

"Did I miss the part where you explain who you are, or did I show up too early?" Peter asks them.

"Spider-Man. Or should I say Punisher?" Clariss asks Peter.

"Who the heck's Punisher?" Peter asks, completely confused.

"That doesn't matter right now. You see, what does matter is that I know your little secret. You changed the timeline." Clariss says and Peter looks surprised.

"What's he talking about?" Peter asks Barry who looks scared.

"Because if I recall correctly, the only speedsters in my other life were me and that smartass Kid Flash, and the only other pain being Punisher. That is until you showed up and stole everything from me!" Clariss reminds him.

"I didn't steal anything from you. I was just trying to put things back to the way they're supposed to be." Barry says.

"This is how my life was supposed to be! For years, I felt something was missing. And now I know why." Clariss states to Barry.

"Can you two even hear me?" Peter wonders.

"Your Rival, back again." Clariss says and Peter is seriously confused, but likes the name. "Believe me, Flash, this time, you're not gonna steal my life with a bullet from our friend, Punisher." He says and Barry races after him, leaving Peter behind.

"I'm seriously getting tired of speedsters." Peter says since he has no way of keeping up with them.

-

Peter returns to Star labs and tells them what he saw and what powers this guy has.

"We finally get rid of Zoom, and there's another evil speedster?" Joe asks Peter.

"Who is this guy?" Wally wonders.

"Barry said his name was Clariss." Peter says as Caitlin comes in.

"Hey, I got the test results back from that husk Barry gave me this morning. Is weird because there's no traces of dark matter, but there are traces of the Speedforce." Caitlin tells them.

"So this husk belongs to the speedster?" Joe asks.

"It appears so. His name like Peter said seems to be Edward Clariss. Strange how Barry already knew him. How'd you know him?" Caitlin asks and looks to the speedster.

"Can we talk for a second?" Iris interrupts and drags Barry out of the room to talk in private.

Later, Peter and Caitlin were talking about what Fox was showing him, when he gets a text from Felicity.

"Hey, did you tell Felicity we're dating?" Peter asks her.

"No, why?" Caitlin answers and wonders.

"Because she's just asked me why I haven't told her we're going out." Peter says.

As they're talking, Joe comes in wondering where Barry is when he suddenly appears.

"Speak of the speedster, and he shall appear." Peter states.

"I need to tell you all something." Barry tells them. "After Zoom killed my dad, after we defeated him...I wasn't in a good place and I felt like the only way I could fix that was to run back in time and save my mom."

"You stoped Thawne from killing your mom?" Caitlin asks.

"So is she alive?" Wally asks as well.

"She was. For a few months. I lived with her and my dad. I had a completely different life. I wasn't even the Flash for most of it." Barry explains to them.

"You created a whole other existence?" Peter asks. "Like _Back to the Future 2_?" He asks.

"And why would you leave?" Cisco wonders since he had the life he always wanted.

"That life started to spin out of control." Barry explains to them. "This guy, Clariss, he was a speedster there. He was known as the Rival. He caused a lot of problems. I even met Peter's doppelgänger, who was less than happy when he learned what I did and gave me a punch across the jaw." He says and rubs the place where Punisher punched him.

"In that timeline, your parents, aunt, and uncle were all killed and you turned all that rage into hatred and became a vigilante known as Punisher." Barry says and that causes Peter to look shocked.

"That's why he called me Punisher at the fight?" Peter asks.

"Yes. Either way, I decided to run back in time again and let things happen as they were supposed to, in hopes of resetting the timeline." Barry explains to them. "But when I came back, things weren't the same."

"You mean people. Like us." Caitlin says.

"Yeah, I created another timeline. It's the one we're in now. Not as different as the last one. Not in large ways, but in some ways, smaller ways, anybody that was close to me and I can't fix it perfectly again," Barry finishes.

"That's a lot to take in, Barry." Joe states.

"We got along in that other life, my dad and I, didn't we?" Iris asks him. "That's why you've been trying to get us to talk again."

"I can tell you what's different, all of you, if you want to know." Barry offers to them but he explains how he can't change any of the changes.

"So you decided it's okay to change things when someone in your family dies?" Peter asks, a little disappointed in his friend who he thought got over the time travel thing last year. He then leaves the team to get some air.

-

Peter decided to start walking around the city to keep clearing his head after the news. The thoughts of him being a murderous vigilante in a timeline he looses his family not leaving his mind. If it weren't for his aunt, everything would've changed just as he warned Barry last year.

As he's walking, he hears Caitlin chasing after him a while after he left. "Hey, where you going?" Caitlin asks him.

"Fox texted me saying he wanted to show me something about the updates I asked him to give some of the gadgets. Also needed to clear my head." Peter says.

"Yeah, it's a lot to take in I suppose. But you know he was emotionally compromised since he just got his father back and he was killed a day later." Caitlin reminds him.

Peter of course understands why, but it doesn't take away the thought of him being a Punisher in a different life.

As they're working, they get an alert about Barry and Rival.

"We gotta go." Peter says and grabs Caitlin and starts swinging to the warehouse.

-

Barry got some information about the Rival being at the waterfront and gets hit by a blast of energy from someone new.

"Oh, Flash, a little quaking in your boots wouldn't be inappropriate." Clariss quips what Barry said in Flashpoint.

Barry looks up and sees someone wearing a dark hood and outfit while covering his face with a strange mask while he's holding a glowing stone stone. He shoots Barry once again with the stone and he goes flying.

"And who are you?" Barry asks him.

"I am...Alchemy." He tells Barry who's seriously confused now.

"Okay, and what do you want?" Barry asks while getting up.

"To help people achieve their true potential..such as he has." Alchemy says pointing to Rival as he hears a motorcycle from somewhere.

"And why are you doing this?" Barry asks him.

"Because I'm preparing this world." Alchemy says when Rival speeds and slams Barry into the wall.

"Remember what happened here last time, Flash?" Rival wonders. "It's where I died. And I'm not gonna waste this second chance I've been given." Rival promises and keeps going on when a motorcycle comes crashing in and hits Alchemy while it also hits Rival.

Barry is confused when he looks to see Spider-Man on a strange sort of speederbike. It looks big enough to lay down on since that's almost how Peter's sitting on it. It has two huge wheels, several buttons and dials near the helm and looks customary designed with red and black design and a few spider symbols around it.

"I was supposed to do that, right?" Peter asks while his voice is shaking at the speed he was going.

"More or less." Barry admits.

"New bike, getting used to the speed. Oh, that's why you're always running like that." Peter realizes.

Barry laughs at his friend when Rival gets back up. "Oh just like last time, huh? Except your little speedster sidekick isn't here this time." Rival says and speeds at the two of them. Peter uses his senses to predict his attacks while Barry uses his speed to fight back.

But Rival seems to be just as fast as Barry, maybe even a little faster. Rival speeds Barry into the warehouse where he hits his head against some piping and more piles on top of him.

Barry speeds in to help his friend and starts fighting Rival off who isn't letting down his guard quite yet. Rival takes Barry and slams him into some boxes and grabs a pipe while he's at it. "Time to look for a new rival." Clariss says but before he could use the pipe on Barry, a blast of energy comes in and Barry sees Cisco.

"Stay away from my friends." Cisco says with his hand reaching out after sending the blast.

Barry gets back up and states fighting off Rival once more and punches him towards Cisco.

Cisco uses his powers and blasts him back when Peter gets back up and latches onto the ceiling and punches Rival in the face knocking him out and dropping his body to the floor.

"Sorry it took so long." Cisco apologizes to his friends.

"You were just in time." Barry assures his friend.

"A few minutes ago could've been better though." Peter replies.

"What are you gonna do?" Cisco asks and they all laugh almost forgetting about Clariss.

-

The three return to Star labs and Cisco even breached the Spider-Bike so it would be at Star labs when needed and start looking for what they can about this new Alchemy guy who Peter didn't realize he crashed into.

And all of their searches come up with nothing, and Clariss isn't talking either.

"Okay, Alchemy is the one who gave Clariss his speed back. He could possibly do it again." Barry tells them.

"He's kinda like a Doctor, that way, don't you think." Cisco says when an idea pops in his head. "Dr. Alchemy!"

"Okay, well, that explains why he didn't have any traces of dark matter in his cells." Caitlin says to them. "He didn't get his powers from the particular accelerator, he got them from Alchemy."

"What was that?" Cisco asks her.

"Dr. Alchemy." Caitlin corrects herself and he smiles at her.

"Didn't Alchemy...dr. Alchemy have something glowing when I hit him?" Peter asks Barry.

"Yeah, it looked like a stone or something. He also said that he was preparing this world." Barry says.

"For what, like the second coming or something?" Wally asks them.

"I think everyone who had powers in Flashpoint is going to get them back." Barry says and gets a little worried for what it could do if it happen to his family. Could he be turned back into the Punisher? Could Wally become Kid Flash again?

"Well, we already found four other husks, which means there's at least that many running around Central City as of now." Joe adds on. "I got to get to the prescient." He adds before leaving.

"Stop by Jitters oh the way?" Iris asks and Wally joins them and leaves.

When Barry and Peter left, Joe and Iris realized that everyone makes mistakes in a single moment and they have to live with the consequences and then they started talking again.

"You know, I've just been thinking it was pretty cool having you out with us, Cisco." Peter says to his friend.

"Hey, I'll always be there for my friends." Cisco says before he starts leaving and looks back at them. "Maybe one day all three of us could fight bad guys together. It'd be pretty bitchin'." He then takes his leave.

"Well, I gotta go take the Spider-Bike back to Fox for a few improvements, and possibly talk about tuning down the boost. That's too much for me, I don't know how you handle it all the time." Peter says but before leaving, he kisses Caitlin and she quickly kisses him back before he separates. "See you tonight." He reminds Caitlin about their date he managed to plan put for them.

"I'm happy for you two." Barry tells Caitlin. "I always knew that Peter held his feelings for you. Actually, out of everyone it seems you two were the least affected when I messed up the timeline. I mean, unless you're secretly moonlighting as an ophthalmologist."

"A what?" Caitlin asks, not understanding him.

"Kidding, its nothing. Flashpoint joke." Barry explains to her. "Have fun on your date. I'll see you later." He says as he takes his leave.

Caitlin looks at her hand as a mist of ice forms around it.

She's becoming Killer Frost.


	45. Date night

Peter Parker, the man who never gets to have a normal life, is finally getting ready for his date with Dr. Caitlin Snow. The woman he's fallen in love with over the years of working with her, and even more while being a part of the team. The woman who he didn't think was into a nerd like him, but it turns out it's one of the things she loves about him.

He's been trying out different outfits with May to find something that's going to be good enough for the date, but he thinks he can constantly do better than what he's currently wearing.

Then at the possibly thirtieth outfit, May finally threatened to make sure he's late if he got changed again. Knowing she was telling the truth, Peter stopped with a casual look.

Just something someone would wear as a normal day out. A nice jacket, casual shirt, dress pants and some shoes he had in his closet. And his Spider-Man suit underneath just for emergencies, and to pick her up.

-

Caitlin Snow, the woman who everyone leaves eventually, is getting herself ready for her date with Peter Parker. The man who she liked the moment she met him, and started to love him over his visits to Star labs.

She is in her apartment deciding what to wear and decides on the same dress she wore to their karaoke night for the night. She put her hair up into a bun and is wearing some heels she threw on.

After all this time of hiding these feelings, she can't believe she's finally going on a date with Peter who just happened to be Spider-Man.

She also knows she eventually needs to tell him about her powers. She's just scared if she does, he might just leave her in worry she might become Killer Frost and try to kill him. She remembers what he told her after learning about her doppelgänger, even remembers how he was able to see the light in her. But she would never forgive herself if she hurt him, so hiding it is the best she can do right now.

-

Caitlin makes it outside her building and texts Peter.

"**Hey, I'm ready for you-CS**". Caitlin texts and waits for a reply and it takes a minute but it also comes along with a picture of Spider-Man swinging.

"**I'm swinging by to grab you now-Peter"** it reads and she hope he means metaphorically.

But he did not mean metaphorically when Peter came by and scooped her up and she screams for a good second out of surprise.

"Hey, Caitlin. You look nice." Peter says casually as he swings them through the city.

-

Peter stops swinging and lands on top of the clock tower, one of Central City's best spots, where Caitlin sees he already had dinner there for them.

Once he put her down safely, she gave him a quick hit in the chest.

"Don't do something like that again!" Caitlin says while laughing regarding the pickup. "You do realize I'm wearing a dress?" She reminds him as he removes his mask.

"Luckily no one was looking. But I'm sure someone heard your scream. My god, who knew dr. Snow was screamer?" Peter asks. "Then again,.." he says playfully regarding their activities which earned him another smack from Caitlin.

"If you're done injuring me, I'd like to get out of the suit to start our date." Peter says and pushes the button to stretch his suit out and his outfit is revealed.

"You clean up nicely, dr. Parker." Caitlin comments on his clothes.

"Only for you, dr. Snow." Peter says before kissing her passionately. Relishing in the fact that they can kiss now they've finally expressed their feelings and leaves them both wondering what took them so long to express them.

Caitlin just retaliates and kisses him back, still loving how his lips feel against hers. After a while, they break apart and start eating and Peter pours them some wine.

"Where did you get the idea of a picnic on a clock tower for a first date?" Caitlin wonders since it's a strange place, but still beautiful.

"This is somewhere I like to go when I need a moment of peace and quiet." Peter says and Caitlin agrees with him.

It's seriously quiet up there since it's about 40 stories high up and the nearest traffic is quiet streets. And the sight is beautiful, it shows the best parts of the city, even a bit of Star labs could be seen from the distance.

"It's so relaxing." Caitlin says as she feels the wind flow through her hair. "So how was work?" She asks him, staring up a conversation.

"Well, following dr. McGee's advice, I'm working on what to call the Industries now, since she asked to change it from Mercury labs. Been spitballing on some ideas. Nothing permanent so far." Peter tells her.

"How about...Personal Artificial Resourceful Kinetics Enhancement Researchers Industries?" Caitlin asks, remembering the newspaper articles from last year that they saw in Eobard Thawne's time vault.

"So it would spell out P.A.R.K.E.R. Industries?" Peter asks and remembers what Gideon said about Wayne Industries and starts to like the idea. "Actually, jot that down so I can remember it. I'll run it by Fox, see what he thinks." He asks her and she laughs at him.

"God I love that sound." Peter admits to her.

Caitlin starts to blush to how easily Peter can make her laugh as she starts playing with her hair that's blowing in the wind. "Well, only you can bring out this side of me, Peter Parker." She tells him.

"We are quite the pair, dr. Snow." Peter says to her remembering their talk the first few weeks of teaming up to fight criminals and how far they've come.

"Yes we are, dr. Parker." Caitlin says and leans in on him again when their phones go off interrupting their moment.

"Cisco." They both read and it says they need to get to Star labs right away.

Peter helps Caitlin stand up and holds her around her waist and swings towards Star labs.

-

They make it to Star labs to see everyone in the breach basement...and there's a breach open.

"Why's there a breach open?" Peter asks them.

"That's why we called everyone." Cisco says while holding the speedster tranq and Joe is holding the Boot.

"Can you close it?" Iris asks as if they haven't already tried that already.

"Wouldn't have called if I could." Cisco tells her as the breach starts glowing.

"Somebody's coming through." Wally says to them.

Peter steps in front of Caitlin and raises his hand with a web grenade and they wait for whoever it is to come through.

They watch as Harry Wells comes out and sees them.

"Oh, Wells. It's just you." Said Peter relieved and lowers his hand.

"Guys, I need your help." Harry tells them.

"With what?" Barry wonders.

Another person exits the portal and they see yellow lightning running around and stops to reveal Jesse wells.

"With that." Harry says and now they see part of the problem.

"Hey, guys." Jesse greets the team.

"Jesse's a speedster?" Peter asks, feeling like he missed something.

"Yeah. It's pretty cool, right?" Jesse asks them.

"When did this happen?" Caitlin asks the Earth-2 members.

"A few days ago." Jesse tells her.

"So, when I got Allen his speed back, Wally and Jesse were hit with the dark matter while Parker was unconscious. Turns out she was affected. She was totally affected." Harry explains to them.

"But I didn't get speed, so could it have been from something else?" Wally asks sounding a little jealous.

"No. I mean, I doubt it." Harry tells him. "Dark matter affects people in different ways at different times. Sometimes not at all, so be thankful that she was affected, and I want to run some tests and find out just how much." He explains to why he's here.

"You've come to the right place then. Let's head down to the speed lab." Caitlin says.

Harry and Barry look at her confused to what she means and ask. "Speed lab?"

-

They all head to another section to where they once held the Reverse Flash in the trap which was transformed into a testing room for anyone with powers, but mostly for speedsters.

"This is insane." Barry says looking around.

"Something tells me you've never been in this room before." Cisco comments on his surprise look.

"Wait, you've never...Allen." Harry asks confused when realization hits him. "I suppose that means you traveled back in time again." He guesses.

"Yeah." Barry answers honestly.

"How many times did I tell you not to do exactly that?" Harry asks Barry and looks to Peter. "How many times have I warned him not to do that?" He asks Peter.

"Maybe once." Peter says and realizes the question was rhetorical.

"You figured that out pretty quickly, Harry." Iris tells him.

"Yes, it was easy because we've never been here either." Harry says speaking for him and Jesse.

"Other Earths, other timelines. One doesn't affect the others." Peter guesses.

"Exactly." Harry says. "So when did you do it? After we returned to Earth-2?" He asks Barry.

"Look, Harry, only a couple things are different." Barry promises him.

"Oh, I'm sure. Not." Harry replies.

"You guys are doing _not _on Earth-2 now?" Cisco asks him.

"No. That's all him." Jesse tells him.

"Okay, let's just get Jesse on the track and see what she can do." Caitlin suggests to them.

"Let's do it." Jesse says as she speeds in and everyone watches her run around the labs at high speeds.

"Damn. She really can move." Joe says watching her run while Wally leaves still a bit upset and Iris leaves to talk to him.

While she does that Barry tells Joe it might be better if he never gets powers and Joe agrees. Peter overhears them and doesn't agree, if he's destined for powers, they will show in their own time. It's gonna be his choice if he wants to be a hero.

That was one of the many reasons why he never told May about his powers, he thought she would try talking him out if it. If Wally gets powers, no one should stop him from using them.

-

Next morning, Barry and Joe had to go to the prescient since somebody was attacked that night...by a lamppost. Hey, in this world is that even strange anymore?

They're just watching Jesse running around the labs and see nothing wrong with her.

"So how'd I do?" Jesse asks as she comes to a stop.

"Blood pressure, heart rate, metabolic rate all excellent." Caitlin tells her looking over everything from the monitors in the labs. "And you've hot some serious speed, girl." She says happily.

"I think you're good to go." Caitlin says but Harry protests.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I still wanna run a few more tests." Harry says.

"Like what?" Peter wonders while sipping his coffee since Caitlin ran every test there is known for speedsters.

"Like more..tests." Harry tells him harshly, but that's nothing new for Harry.

"Hey, so. Is Wally here?" Jesse asks.

"No. Not yet." Caitlin says and Jesse leaves to get some food.

"Harry. What are you doing?" Cisco calls him out.

"Being thorough." Harry tells him.

"Harry, you're stalling." Peter informs him seeing through his lies.

"Okay, fine. I'm stalling." Harry admits. "So what?"

"So what? So why?" Cisco asks him.

"I got to explain myself to you all? Oh, I guess I do, because none of you are parents." Harry says sarcastically. "That's my daughter, okay? And she spent weeks on his very earth watching Allen and Peter here defeat meta after meta after meta. And Zoom, and watches Killer Frost on our earth redeem herself from her past." Harry says and that caught Peter's attention since he was wondering how Frost was doing since she left.

"And then bam. She's got speed, and now she wants to be a hero like the two of them. And I think that's a great idea. Not." Harry says and Peter sees that he does do that a lot.

"Harry, we can help her." Peter offers. "We can train her like we did Barry."

"I don't want you to train her, okay?" Harry explains to him. "I brought her here for you to talk her out of it, not talk her into it, all right, Ramon? You should talk to her. You're a meta." Harry asks Cisco.

"Why me? Why not Peter?" Cisco asks Harry.

"Dude, I'm the last person to try to talk someone out of doing something, especially about using powers." Peter states and they both agree to that.

"Okay, Snow. Caitlin. You and her, you've had a special relationship. You talk to her." Harry asks calmly with pleading eyes.

"No we don't." Caitlin says to him. "And I don't know anything about having powers, so I'm the last person you should talk to, so don't ask me." She stutters out and leaves in a hurry.

"That was strange." Peter comments and looks to Cisco. "Has she been acting strange recently to you?" He asks his friend.

"I don't know, maybe she's getting used to the while dating you thing." Cisco says and Peter can see it's something else.

"You and Snow are dating now?" Harry asks Peter.

"Yeah, it happened shortly after you left." Peter explains to Harry.

-

Later on Barry returned with news of a child metahuman who escaped the prescient and could lift metal objects with her mind.

"Her name's Frankie Kane, but she's calling herself Magenta." Barry says as Caitlin pulls up her file.

Cisco thinks the name could've been better and Joe says that Frankie might be stuck with a new personality when she becomes Magenta while Peter focuses on how she's even younger than he was when he got bite by the spider.

"According to her medical records, it's a condition she's been dealing with her entire life." Caitlin tells them. "I'm sure all the yelling at CCPD is what triggered it." She guesses.

"So Frankie is Jekyll, Magenta is Hyde." Peter recaps for the others.

"Classic Good versus Evil." Harry says agreeing with the scientists.

"Or she's pulling a _Primal Fear_." Cisco suggests.

"You mean she's faking it." Harry says and that means they have the same thing on Earth-2.

"She's not faking it." Barry informs them all. "I saw the struggle going on inside of her. Magenta's trying to take over completely." He tells them.

"Was she raised in the fosters system?" Peter asks Joe.

"Yeah, all her life. She went from home to home." Joe says and Peter gets an idea and does a quick search on all of her foster families.

"Yeah, and it doesn't seem like any good ones." Peter says getting information on them and feels sorry for this girl. "Her current foster father, John, the one who was hit by the streetlamp, he's got a few disorderly conducts. He could know a few things when he wakes up."

"There's something else," Barry tells them all and they listen in on the information, "she got her powers from Alchemy. When I said his name, she knew who he was, so Magenta must've existed in the other timeline too." He tells them.

"Whos Alchemy?" Harry asks them.

"Dr. Alchemy is a magic man in a cloak who can somehow restore the powers that people had in Flashpoint." Cisco informs him.

"And what's Flashpoint?" Jesse now asks them.

"It's what we call the alternative timeline Barry created when he went back to save his mom." Caitlin explains.

"So Magenta is another side effect from your time trip." Harry states. "Genius. Not."

"Okay, have you always done that, or is that something new?" Peter asks since he's been saying that a lot recently.

"Look, anybody with those powers and as angry as her needs to be tracked down. Fast." Joe says to them and leaves.

Jesse agreed to help without being asked and Harry pleaded to Caitlin to talk to Jesse.

But that talk didn't exactly work and got Jesse mad that Harry put them up to talking her out of using her powers and she leaves. Wally decides to go talk to her and Peter sees this as an opportunity as they're alone to talk to Harry.

"Look, Harry, I didn't ask for my powers. Just like you didn't ask for Jesse to get hers." Peter starts off and Harry decides to listen to what he's saying. "But if you keep pushing her to stop using her powers, the more she's going to want to prove you wrong. I know you care for Jesse. May was the exact same way with me, even before she learned I was Spider-Man. If you want her to be safe, her powers will be able to keep her safer than her ignoring her powers."

Harry thinks about what he said and understands what he's saying. "What would you have me do, Peter?" Harry wonders.

"Rather than assuming that these powers will get her killed and talking her out of it, maybe you should help her understand what is happening to her and instead of turning her back to you like right now, she'd turn to you for help." Peter suggests and there's only one more question Harry has for him.

"Would you let your own kid do what you do?" Harry asks Peter who's taken aback by the question.

That question does make Peter think for a minute and decides to go with the best response.

"I would let them have the choice. To either be normal, or do what I do. Once they've made their choice, I'd let them choose that choice." Peter says honestly since he believes everyone should have a choice and it should be theirs to make, nobody else's.

"It's just, I make mistakes. Then I want to make up for those mistakes. Then I just make more mistakes. Next thing you know, my daughter might not want to speak to me again." Harry says.

"Sometimes you have to believe that your choices you make now will be the right ones in the long run." Peter says to him. "You can keep pushing her to stop using her powers and she keeps pushing you away, or you can show her that she doesn't need powers and let her decide what to do." Peter says before Joe tells them that Frankie's stepfather is waking up and he's leaving to talk to him.

-

After a while, an alarm starts going off in the labs and everyone returns to the cortex.

"What kind of an alarm is that?" Barry asks them all.

"It's Joe's panic button." Peter tells him.

"His what?" Barry asks, confused about what he's talking about.

"The panic button. It's an app based off of the alert Peter put on Ronnie's phone back when it was just the two of them and we decided to put it on everyone's because we kept getting kidnapped." Cisco explains to Barry.

"At least something's an improvement in this timeline." Barry states when they get a location on where Joe is.

"That's the hospital, Joe said he was gonna talk to Frankie's foster dad." Peter reminds them.

"Well, it seems he's not the only one looking for him." Replies Harry as they see a tanker is floating above the hospital.

"That's a tanker floating in the air." Cisco comments on it.

"She's gonna kill him and everyone else in there." Caitlin says worryingly.

"We gotta go." Barry tells Peter.

"What are you gonna do? Can you lift a tanker?" Cisco asks Peter.

"My super strength is limited, and I can't lift that." Peter says as he gets into his suit.

"Start thinking." Barry says before speeding off and drops Peter into his Spider-Cycle.

-

Barry runs down the streets and Peter's bike was able to almost keep up with Barry's speed as they make it to the hospital.

Barry runs to the top of the hospital where the tanker is.

"There's not enough time to get everyone out of the hospital, even with the two of us. This things coming down." Barry says about the tanker as Peter drives up and sees Magenta.

"What if you created a wind tunnel?" Peter asks from the ground.

"No, I won't be able to create enough updraft to keep the tanker up." Barry tells him.

"No, I don't mean with your arms." Peter explains while getting off of the cycle. "By running in a figure eight fashion. Acting like a propeller and let the wind build upon itself." He explains and they see that could work.

"_That'll create the supersonic resistance we need. Could work._" Harry says and Barry starts getting to work on it.

While he's doing that, Magenta closes the doors to the hospital to stop everyone from escaping and Peter approaches her slowly.

Magenta looks up to see why the tanker isn't falling and sees Flash.

"No!" She says while Peter walks up to her.

"Frankie, you have to stop this." Peter tells her and she just now notices him.

"_Peter, what's your plan?_" Cisco asks him. "_Barry can't hold that thing forever._"

Peter doesn't respond and just looks to Frankie.

"Frankie isn't here anymore. There's only Magenta." She tells him when Peter sees a new Flash of lightning help Barry.

Peter thinks and realizes Harry listened to his advice and that's Jesse helping him keep the ship from crashing down.

"Looks like we have a minute to talk to ourselves." Peter tells her. "Look, I'm here to help you. Okay, killing your foster father and everyone else inside that hospital isn't going to give you what you need." He states.

"You have no idea what I need!" Frankie/Magenta tells him. "It's not just John I want to get rid of. I want them both gone." She says while trying to bring the tanker down harder.

"_Peter, you better hurry. The tankers going down._" Harry warns him.

"I know you're still in there, Frankie. I know there is still good in you." Peter tells her, ignoring the others to focus on her. "Listen, I know what it's like to have all this anger inside, thinking the only way to be free of the pain is to cause pain to the one who gave it to you. But it does nothing but make you responsible for the pain." He says remembering when he tried finding his uncles killer.

"How do you know that?" Magenta asks him.

Peter quickly removes his mask to appear to her as a human and not as a hero. "Because I almost did it myself. I lost someone important to me, and I was filled with this anger and hatred.I had the chance at revenge at who took him from me. But I chose to be better, proved that I was stronger by letting him live. Don't let John destroy the good that you have. Be stronger than him." Peter asks of her.

"He said I was weak. That I was pathetic!" Frankie/Magenta states angrily. "He said I was a horrible person." She says while tearing up.

"He's blaming you for what he's caused in his life. He's the bad one here, but that doesn't mean too need to kill him to stop the pain. This isn't because of you." Peter promises her and walks to her slowly, to not anger or scare her.

"I just want him to stop hurting me." Frankie/Magenta say while tears start falling from her eyes.

"This isn't the way to do it, and you know it." Peter says to her. "John never forgave himself for all of his mistakes. That's why he took them out on you. He couldn't face who he really is. He couldn't move forward. But you can do what he could never do. Prove to him you're a good person." He asks her and sees she's thinking of it.

Frankie/Magenta think about what he told her and wonders if he's right.

She thinks for a good while before Peter watches as the ship starts floating away from the hospital and the doors open and everyone rushes out.

Frankie cries and starts apologizing and Peter draws her into a hug.

"It's okay. You're gonna be okay." Peter promises her while holding onto her while stroking her hair to calm her.

-

Peter and Barry bring her to Star labs scared and tired as Caitlin gives her a lookover for anything wrong with her and she's perfectly healthy, but she asked for Peter to stay with her and he did.

"So no one else got hurt?" Frankie asks Caitlin.

"Luckily, no. You don't have to worry about that." Caitlin promises her.

"What about John?" She asks Caitlin.

"The DA's prosecuting him for what he did to you." Peter tells her as he's sitting next to her, holding her hand, since Joe took John there the moment he could. "So he's gonna be serving some time, and never going to be anybody's foster father again." He promises.

"It's just so strange being responsible for all of this and not remember any of it." Frankie says.

"What do you remember?" Barry asks her. "About getting your powers."

"I started having dreams of Magenta. It was like living another life and then I was getting them all the time. And the more it happened, the more painful they became. Then I started hearing a voice. It was a man named Alchemy. He said he could give me what I wanted and make me powerful again. I thought I was going crazy." Frankie says while tearing up again and Peter lets her break down on his shoulder while he rubs her shoulder.

"Magenta is not here because of anything that you did. There may be a darkness inside of you, but all you need to do is face it and it'll make it easier for the good side to win." Peter explains to her knowing she can do it.

"You're letting me go?" Frankie asks.

"None of this is your fault, Frankie." Barry tells her.

"I know someone who has been where you are and she is willing to help you and look after you for a while." Peter says to her.

"What if Magenta tries to come back?" Frankie asks not really sure about this.

"Then you fight her." Peter explains. "And I'll be in touch if you need anything." He promises to her.

"Thank you. All of you." Frankie says on their way out.

-

Peter starts walking her out to the elevator where his friend is waiting and Frankie smiled before giving Peter another hug.

"Thank you for everything. And for believing in me." Frankie tells Peter who hugs her back and quickly pecks her head.

"You're gonna be okay, Frankie. I believe in you." Peter promises as she walks out to meet his friend.

Peter just smiles where she once stood when he noticed Caitlin watched everything that happened.

"Peter Parker; brilliant scientist, excellent superhero, CEO of a company, talented singer, great boyfriend. And now confirmed to be excellent handling kids. How long your is resume, I wonder." Caitlin jokes at him.

"Well, I remove superhero, it clears up some space." Peter quips back and she just walks up to her and places her head on his shoulder.

"No, but seriously, you did good today, Spider-Man." Caitlin congratulates him.

"Frankie's a good kid, she's just had a lot of bad luck in her life. I hope that changes for her." Peter says sympathetically. "Light will always stop the darkness. That goes for everyone." Peter tells her.

"Who's this friend you send her to?" Caitlin wonders.

"Her name is Jessica Jones. I met her a few years ago while I was in New York, said if I ever needed something give her a call. Except she said I owed her big time for this one." Peter explains to her and knows they need a permanent situation for Frankie sooner or later. He can't just leave her when Jessica, and knows she needs someone who will be there for her. "And if she ever needs help, I called a few of our other friends. Danny, Luke, there's even Matthew Murdock. I love that guy."

Caitlin now sees she doesn't ever need to ask if Peter wants kids or how good he is with them since how he handled Magenta's emotional outburst he's great with kids. But then she thinks of the demon she's facing herself and wonders if it's worth thinking of a life with Peter if she could become a killer. And she still needs to find a way to break the news to him, but she doesn't want to loose the man she finally gained.

While on Peter's side, he wonders if maybe, after alchemy is gone, maybe he can look after Frankie.


	46. Rogues

Barry is showing everyone footage of rival being attacked in his cell in Iron Heights by an invisible, giant...something.

"Forensic analysis indicates the footage is genuine. No tampering involved." Barry tells everyone.

"And we sure this is Alchemy?" Peter questions.

"Last thing he said before he died." Joe confirms to him.

"What could do something like that?" May asks the group.

"Nothing like I've ever seen." Peter says thinking of everyone he's ever fought, and not even Sandman could go invisible like that. Hard to see sometimes, but never invisible.

"It could be a metahuman with telekinesis or cloaking abilities." Harry says since both exist on his earth.

"But then how did they get into the cell?" Peter wonders.

"Julian Albert, he prefers to work alone, but I got feelers out in his investigation." Joe tells them and decides to head back out.

"Well, until then, you guys wanna train?" Jesse asks them.

"Well, now we have to think about getting back to our earth." Harry says. "We've been here long enough. Besides, Frost might be done with those Symbiotes soon."

"Wait, Frost was fighting the Symbiotes?" Peter asks Harry.

"Yeah, ever since we took down your doppelgänger, the creatures are running around like crazy making it more harder than ever to stop them. But Frost has been helping and has taken most of them down. Especially with that Symbiote Killer you gave her to weaken them." Harry explains and Peter's happy to see she took his words to heart to help people rather than hurt them.

"I still have a lot to learn." Jesse argues. "Your words, not mine." She states.

"She's right, you did say that." Peter defends her.

"Well, if you want to train, let's train...speedster style." Cisco says and Jesse goes into her new outfit Harry gave her that looks almost identical to Trajectory's suit.

"Jesse's almost as fast as Barry." Peter says watching her run on the monitors.

"Velocity's just under Mach 3." Caitlin says and sees her vitals are normal.

"Cisco, we need to test her reflexes." Harry tells him.

"Patience, Harry. If anyone's gonna teach Jesse the ways of the Speedforce, it's Barry." Cisco assures him.

They watch the heroes continue to run until Jesse took a trip and Barry gave her the same speech Oliver gave him his first year.

Harry then agrees that maybe they should stay a little longer and Jesse leaves with Wally.

"Not what I meant by staying longer!" Harry yells even though they're far gone.

"Are you really sure you have to leave?" Caitlin asks Harry.

"I still have a lot to fix on my earth, and I'm responsible for Frost for the time being." Harry explains.

"Yeah, but you know it's more fun when you're here helping us fix stuff in our earth." Cisco states.

"Yeah, it just hasn't been the same without you." Peter agrees with them.

"The team doesn't feel complete without Harrison Wells." Caitlin explains to him.

"Then let's change that." Harry says. "There a whole multiverse of Harrison Wells out there. Want one? Let's go call one." He explains and they're liking the idea of that.

-

They go into the breach room and start setting up a satellite.

"How sure are you that this will work?" Cisco asks Harry.

"Pretty sure." Harry tells him while working on the satellite dish.

"Okay, But how's this going to help us find another Harrison Wells?" Caitlin asks him.

"You ever go fishing, Snow?" Harry asks her.

"No." She answers him.

"All right, when you fish you use lures. Lures attract the fish. The satellite is the fishing pole for the lure where we're going to cast our very tempting bait out into the world's largest ocean." Harry explains while continuing to work on it.

"How?" Caitlin asks.

"Cisco opens a breach, and this satellite will shoot a message embedded with a tachyon enhanced laser out into the multiverse, and any earth that is technologically advanced enough should be able to receive it." Peter explains to her.

"Okay, let's say this somehow works. Just 'cause they can solve a riddle doesn't mean they're a right fit for the team." Cisco states.

"Riddle. Did you say riddle?" Harry asks Cisco. "How dare you, sir. This is not a riddle. Thus is a complex algorithmic cryptogram Designed to test deductive reasoning, IQ, problem solving skills, anything that our team will need to combat threats, metahuman or otherwise." He states to them.

"Okay, so you're just sending out an intergalactic IQ test to all of your doppelgängers in the multiverse." Caitlin recaps Harry's plan.

"Not just a test. Think of it as an invitation. Think of it as an elaborate _help wanted_ ad." Harry explains.

"Will it test their attitudes, too?" Cisco asks. "Because I'm not sure I can stomach another Wells with your bedside manner." He states to Harry.

"I care for you too, you jack wagon." Harry says jokingly.

"Okay, system is calibrated." Peter tells Harry.

"What are we waiting for then?" Harry asks as Cisco places his goggles on and starts opening a breach and Harry starts sending the signal for a second and then they stop.

"That's it?" Caitlin asks expecting more.

"Yeah, that's it." Peter assures her.

"Now what?" Cisco asks, removing his goggles.

"Now...we go eat a Big Belly Burger." Harry says while leaving.

-

Later Barry brings in information on a new metahuman who can travel through mirrors. They pull up his record and Caitlin looks at his photo.

"Good looking guy." Caitlin says and Peter looks at her confused. "For a criminal." She says to him and Peter chuckles at her.

"Well, he's more than just a criminal now." Barry tells them. "Apparently, he's a meta who can travel through mirrors."

"Oh, I got this one." Cisco says and starts thinking of a name. "He's a..." but he gets interrupted by Harry.

"Mirror Master." He tells Cisco. "We had a Mirror Master on our Earth, Evan McCulloch. Wasn't a meta, though. He had a gun that allowed him to travel through mirrors." He explains to them.

"Really? How'd that work?" Peter asks interested in tech like that.

"Must've had dimensional warping tech that changed everything into two dimensions." Harry tells him.

"Well, Scudder is hellbent on finding Snart, and he's going after anybody that worked with him in the past." Barry says and that's not gonna work out for anyone since last they heard, Snart was with Sara, Ray, the Hawks, Mick, Jax and Stein on a Time ship trying to stop Vandal Savage. "Joe's interviewing one of them right now."

"Well, all of his associates are either presumed dead or gone AWOL, except this one." Cisco says and pulls up the file.

"Rosalind Dillon." Peter reads.

"It says she has the ability to induce crippling vertigo." Caitlin says while Cisco and Harry start stuttering to find a name.

"Top, like a top. That's her name." Cisco says beating Harry. "What, you want to go?" He asks Harry.

Peter and Caitlin just watch their childish behavior and get back on the problem.

"Do we think she can lead us to Scudder?" Caitlin wonders.

"I'll have to see if Joe gets any answers out of her." Barry says since Iron Heights has a entire new wing for anyone with powers. That same place is holing Peter's Sinister Six enemies.

-

Joe comes to Star labs and tells them how he saw Mirror Master appear inside of Rosalind's cell and escaped with her.

"So you saw Sam Scudder and Rosalind Dillon escape through a glass window?" Caitlin asks.

"Like I said, he grabbed her hand. They walked to the window, and then poof, they were gone." Joe responds to her.

"So, mirrors, windows. Sounds like he can travel through anything with a reflective surface." Barry says.

"How does this work exactly?" May asks.

"He must be able to link Einstein-Rosen bridges to anything with high solar reflectance, right?" Peter guesses.

"So he creates wormholes through reflections." Caitlin replies.

"Okay, I understood half of the bridges, but completely understood the wormholes." May says now mostly understanding.

"Look, I can't pretend to understand or care about the science behind it, but we need to find them before something really bad happens." Joe says to them. "So I'm gonna go old school at the precinct. I'll see you later." Joe says and leaves when Peter and Cisco's phones go off.

"What's that?" Caitlin asks him.

Peter takes a look and sees their device worked.

"We've got pings." Cisco and Peter says at the same time.

"Looks like your doppelgängers out there cracked your code." Peter tells Harry.

"Already? That was fast." Caitlin states looking over Peter's phone and all the pings.

"Let's take a look." Harry says and they leave Barry and Iris alone and she leaves him.

"Well, looks like I'm left looking for these metahumans that apparently no one else cares about right now." Barry tells himself.

-

Harry, Cisco, Peter and Caitlin are watching the holograms on the multiverse Harrison Wells that cracked their code.

Right now they're watching one where it seems they're trapped in the old west.

"I-I solved the derivative you done beamed up. My name is Wells, Harrison Wells. You can call me Hell's Wells. They call me that because of my past. I won't get into it with you now right and proper." Wells says and they don't see it working out and move on to the next.

"This is Earth-17." Cisco says and it pulls up a British Wells.

"Salutations to all of you out there in the multiverse. I have Of late, wherefore I know not, received a communiqué from the citizens of Terra-Prime."

"Terra prime?" Caitlin asks.

"Nerd." Cisco and Peter say at once.

"Pass." Harry says and they move to the next one. And this one seems to be a mime.

"Bonjour. Moi, je suis Harrison Wells." He greets them and continues on talking and none of them speak French.

"Okay guys, were 0-3 now. This is our last one." Caitlin tells them.

"She's right and it's from Earth-19." Peter says and pulls it up.This Harrison Wells looks normal, and a little enthusiastic and is wearing a fedora like hat.

"_Hello, Hello, Hello. Hello, out there in the multiverse, whoever you may be. I really enjoyed cracking the cryptogram you broadcast. I like the cute trick, emddding the secondary measures in the primary data string. Its clever. Most people wouldn't have thought of it. I caught it, and that's the point. You need a genius, I guess, to help you in your fight against these awful meta-hominids. Well, I got to tell you, to me, that sounds like fun. So...I'll enclose my curriculum vitae. You already know we speak the same language but take a look. Tell me what you think. Until our next communion. Oh, where are my manners? Thank you._" He says and it finishes.

"I like him." Peter says seeing potential in this Wells.

"Not bad." Cisco agrees.

"Not bad at all." Caitlin says and they look to Harry waiting for his opinion.

"Pass." Harry says and gets up to leave.

"What?" Cisco asks.

"Wait a minute. That guy cracked the code, and he wants to do it." Caitlin says.

"And he's nice, plus not evil." Peter says.

"Yeah, and that's a combination of Wells we haven't had thus far." Cisco comments.

"All my life, everyone I've ever hired to work for me, I have trusted my gut. My gut tells me that's not the guy." Harry says and now they're out of Harrison's.

-

Later on, Peter and Caitlin were just waiting around for other Wells to contact them when they get an alert that Mirror Master and Top are committing a robbery. Peter then changes into his suit and grabs his Spider-Cycle and makes his way to the robbery.

"We keep this up. Baby, we'll be set for life." Scudder tells Top.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Rosalind asks and they start kissing and making their way to a mirror when Peter webs it to stop their escape.

"Yeah, So were not gonna let you leave here with that," Barry says as he and Jesse had shown up at another entrance.

"Hey, look at this. Flash. Heard a lot about you." Scudder tells him and looks to Peter. "Spider-Man, nice to see you again, and new girl. Who are you?" He asks Jesse.

"The names Jesse Quick." Jesse says.

"So I'm sorry, Scudder, but your crime speee ends here." Peter says and starts approaching them.

"Oh, I don't think any of you have much of a say in it." Scudder states and backs away. "I'm gonna take whatever I want."

"I thought you were looking for Leonard Snart." Barry states.

"Why bother? His reign is over." Scudder replies to him. "There's a new king in town."

"And I'm the queen." Rosalind tells them.

"Ugh, I'm gonna be sick." Peter says annoyed by the cliche.

While they were talking, Scudder made it to a reflective surface and escaped,

Barry and Jesse run out to locate them.

"Fox, think you can track the dimensional energy?" Peter asks Lucius.

"I was able to spot where they will be. It seems they are on their way to the roof on the building across from you . Might be time to try out your cycle's features." Fox tells him and Peter knows what he means.

Peter makes it to the cycle and shoots a web up the side of the building and the cycle starts driving upwards onto the roof where Jesse and Top are.

"Nice skirt, Top." Jesse says as Peter gets ready to fight her off.

"Top. I like it. Because they spin, spin, spin." Rosalind says and Jesse starts feeling off balance while Peter feels the same.

Peter turns to see Jesse tripping and starts falling and he makes a quick second decision and runs and leaps after her but not before shooting Top with a taser web and she starts spazzing as Peter falls and grabs onto Jesse and saves her from falling.

"I can't get my balance." Jesse says when Barry speeds up to them.

"Don't worry, you'll be okay." Peter promises.

"What happened?" Barry asks.

"Top hit her with her powers." Peter explains to him. "Where's Mirror?" He asks when his senses go of.

"Right here." Scudder tells him and grabs Barry's shoulder and drags him into a mirror before escaping.

"That's not good." Peter says seeing Barry stuck in the mirror.

-

The good thing that came out of this being that Rosalind was in police custody since the taser web would've also gotten him trapped so he left her.

They just have to find Scudder and stop him, but they have to get Barry out of the mirror.

"?ereh fo tuo em teg ot woh wonk ew oD" Barry asks and none of them know what he just said.

"?gniyas m'I tahw wonk neve syug uoy fo yna oD" Barry asks again.

"What's he saying?" Joe asks. "Is that some sorta mirror language?" He wonders.

"Mirrors show objects in reverse, maybe he's speaking in reverse." May guesses and that surprises some of them in the room.

"I sometimes wonder if I got my scientific mind from you." Peter tells her.

"Only one way to find out." Cisco says and grabs a device from his desk. "This is an old backmasking trick they used for the Man from Another Place, where they record his audio backwards and then play it forwards." He says and places the device on the mirror.

"Like the Ozzie's Osbourne records." Joe says.

"Okay, Barry, say something." Iris says and he does and Cisco forgot to put it on.

Cisco activates it and they understand him.

"Get me out of here." Barry begs them.

"Okay, how do we do that?" Joe asks.

"Have you tried phasing?" Peter asks.

"Yes. It's not working." Barry tells them.

"If Scudder used this mirror as a wormhole, then these molecules are in a hyper state of flux." Harry says.

"All we need is something really cold to slow them down." Caitlin states.

"I can help with that." Cisco says and they leave.

"Wanna see if Fox has anything to help us?" Peter asks Caitlin.

"Yeah, sure." Caitlin agrees and May walks out with them because she has to get to work.

"Keep him company." Joe asks Iris and they all leave.

-

Cisco and Harry are in the workshop and plan on using the cold gun design and a cold sequence that fox made to help Spider-Man stop evil speedsters, but he recalibrated it to freeze the mirror.

"I don't think this is gonna work." Harry states.

"What do you mean, you don't think it's gonna work? I designed this to go to absolute zero." Cisco replies

"I realize that but we need the mirror to maintain zero-point energy long enough for Barry's molecules to pass through it." Harry explains.

"Absolute zero's more than cold enough to do that." Caitlin says.

"Normally, But we have to account for the internal energy of the mirror's molecules, as well. So absolute cold might be the lowest possible temperature, it's not the lowest enthalpy state possible." Harry explains what he means.

"So what do we do?" Peter asks.

"What if we send this to the other Wells and see if he can figure something out?" Cisco offers.

"No. What? Oh, everybody's replaceable now, is that right?" Harry wonders.

"What are you talking about?" Cisco asks.

"What are you talking about? It's what you said." Harry says.

"That's not what I says, I'm saying we need to figure out a solution to this, and times not on our side." Cisco explains to Harry.

"That's not gonna help...you're not contributing to the problem. You're making things worse." Harry says.

"You know, Harry, I'm starting to think you don't like the idea of someone replacing you." Peter offers a solution.

"Yeah, maybe that's why you not like the other Wells." Cisco agrees with him.

"What are you talking about?" Harry asks. "That was my idea."

"But that doesn't mean you have to like it." Caitlin agrees with her friend and boyfriend.

"It's got nothing to do with liking it, okay? You know what it has to do with?" Harry asks the group when he gets an idea. "A molecular decelerator." He says.

"If we augment the molecular decelerator on the cryogenic generator of both the cold gun." Cisco finishes and he along with Harry run off to start building.

"Well, we got off track." Peter says and Caitlin agrees.

They then drag the machine into the speed labs and start setting everything up.

"What's that?" Iris asks.

"This is how we get him out of there." Harry explains as Cisco drags the end of the device,

They set everything up quickly and start freezing the mirror but it's still not cold enough to get him out.

"We got to get it colder somehow." Harry tells them.

"Just keep trying to phase out, Barry." Peter offers since they can't do anything else when the metahuman alerts go off.

"Metahuman alert." Caitlin tells them.

"I'll get suited up." Peter says and starts leaving for his suit while everyone else goes to the cortex.

When Caitlin watches everyone leave, an idea forms inside her mind and she goes behind the mirror and starts to quickly use her powers to get the mirror to reach absolute zero,

As Peter was walking through the halls back in his suit, his spider senses go off and now he doesn't know why they would be going off now.

"Central City municipal bank just got robbed." Cisco tells them when Barry comes speeding in.

"How?" Peter asks and notices Caitlin trying to keep a cool face and look everywhere except her friends.

"We'll fight it out later. Right now we need to stop Scudder." Barry says.

"Well, he's robbing the back, got anything we can use there?" Peter asks.

"I got an idea. How long can you keep him at the bank?" Barry asks Peter.

"If I stop him from getting to a reflective surface, as long as you need." Peter says.

"Just hold him there for a few minutes, okay?" Barry asks and Peter quickly makes it to the bank.

-

Peter makes it to the bank to see Scudder leaving the vault.

"Sorry, But I don't think that's all from your checkings." Peter tries quipping.

"Don't you ever give up?" Scudder asks.

"No, not really. It's one of my issues." Peter says and starts keeping him away from reflective surfaces when mirrors start appearing from all around him while Barry and Jesse show up.

Scudder tries running through the mirrors but he keeps reappearing back in the center.

"I know weird, right?" Peter asks. "In science, we refer this to the Dorset effect. It's an infinite reflective loop that even you can't escape." He explains when Barry speeds in and places metahuman cuffs on Scudder.

"That's how we do it." Barry says and hi-5's Peter.

-

The next day, Harry has decided to give the Wells-17 a shot and see what happens.

Cisco, Caitlin, Barry and Peter are the welcoming party for him while Jesse and Harry are there so they can go home.

"Guys, I've never vibes across 18 dimensions before." Cisco states trying to keep the breach open as long as he can to get their new Wells.

"Just a little bit longer." Harry says when the breach flashes and Wells exits the breach and sees them.

"Greetings, earthlings." He says in a deep voice and that worries them for a second. "Just kidding. I don't really talk like that." He says while laughing.

"Wells with a sense of humor and knows how to smile." Caitlin comments to Peter.

"I like him already." Peter replies and she laughs at him.

"Hey, sharpshooter." Wells greets Cisco and sees Harry. "Now you...you're handsome." He says laughing.

"I know." Hey says. "Likewise, I'm sure. Harrison." Harry greets and shakes his hand.

"Harrison." Wells greets. "You can call me HR." He tells the team.

"Okay, this is the team, then." Harry says looking back at everyone. "This s Cisco Ramon. He can do anything." He says and HR shakes his hand in a strange way.

"This is dr. Caitlin Snow. She is brilliant. Currently in a relationship." Harry says and HR shakes her hand.

"With this man, Peter Parker. Or commonly known by his hero name as this earth's Spider-Man." Harry says and HR greets the arachnid hero.

"That's cool, we have a Spider-Woman on my earth." HR tells Peter who's surprised to hear that there's others.

"And last, this is Barry Allen, or as we call him on this earth, the Flash." Harry says and it's Barry's turn to shake his hand.

"Welcome to Earth-1." Barry greets him.

Thanks. Earth-1, that's weird." HR comments and they agree.

"Okay, we don't have to go through all the tears again, do we, gang?" Harry asks them.

"Well, did I..did I cry last time you left?" Cisco asks.

"I was talking about myself." Harry explains.

"Hey, don't worry about him. There's only one Harry." Cisco says before giving him a hug.

"Oh, one last thing. The decelerator, it wasn't working." Harry tells them and that's confusing them.

"That would mean Barry got out some other way." Peter says and looks towards Caitlin who's talking to Jesse saying her goodbyes.

"Okay, Cisco's out with the old, in with the new." Harry says and Cisco starts opening the breach.

"You'll never be old to us, Harry." Caitlin tells him.

Harry just looks back at her and Peter. "You two deserve each other. But lay off the quips, Snow. Leave that to your boyfriend." He warns Caitlin who laughs.

Harry and Jesse were getting ready to leave while Harry was in the middle of warning them not to do something, but Jesse speeds off before he could finish,

Oh, that was great, we were all like what was he gonna say? That's cool. I'm starving. You guys have Big Belly Burger?" HR comments and asks and they see the energized personality is something they'll need to get used to.

"Some things never change." Caitlin says.

Peter laughs at his girlfriend's joke but he knows he needs to learn something first.

-

Peter returned to his warehouse and sees Fox still working on something new.

"Do you ever stop inventing?" Peter asks the man.

"Yes, whenever you're not around." Fox tells him. "How'd it go with this new Wells?" He wonders.

"Nice guy, I think he'll definitely work." Peter says and reaches into his pocket wearing his glove and pulls out a glass he took from the labs. "Look, do you know how to run a DNA sample to test for metahuman powers?" Peter asks him.

"Yeah, of course. Why?" Fox asks when Peter places the cup down in front of him.

"I need you to test the DNA on the cup see if anything turns up." Peter explains and Fox looks at the cup.

"Whos DNA am I testing?" Fox asks and looks over the cup while picking it up.

"It's Caitlin's." Peter says and now Fox is confused. "I think she has powers." He explains and now Fox understands, since he met Killer Frost and maybe that's why she's not telling them.

"Can't you just ask her?" Fox wonders.

"If she thinks she's becoming Killer Frost, she will make sure to keep this inside as long as she can. Besides, I've got dinner with her in about an hour. And for the love of god, take the night off."

"I'll run the test and tell you what I find in the morning." Fox says.

"You'll run the test tomorrow." Peter informs him and he hears Fox laugh as he leaves.

-

At Caitlin's apartment, she is getting ready for Peter and takes a quick shower to cool down when in the middle of the shower, the water starts freezing over.

She quickly defrosts and gets out of the shower to see some of her hair is turning white like Frost's. She grabs some scissors and hope it doesn't happen while around Peter.

She doesn't want to be the cause of something happening to him.

————

**_Regarding the whole mirror talking scene, I used a website that reverses what you say if you were wondering._**


	47. Secrets

Since Barry and Iris have started dating, to help Joe get better at them, Barry had been looking for his own place so Peter offered his second bedroom at his apartment to him for the time being.

"Yo!" Barry greets his partner as Peter leaves his bedroom.

"You know, you don't need to constantly do this, right?" Peter tells him.

"Come on, it's the least I can do. I mean, I love Joe, but at some point, man needs his own space, and until I find my own space, that means your space." Barry says while working on breakfast. "And besides, you couldn't bring Caitlin here because of me, so I thought this would show my appreciation."

"Please, Caitlin hasn't been over that often so you're safe. We've been here while we were together once and that was when we were just watching a movie for date night. Besides, she's out of town for a few days." Peter says when Barry speeds breakfast over to him.

"Well, there's two eggs over easy, bacon, toast. I can't remember, do you like it buttered or not?" Barry asks reaching to the fridge.

"Barry, you're not my servant." Peter informs the speedster. "Except now thinking of it, I could probably afford one. Hell, I could afford a better apartment." He now just realizes while looking around his place. "You know, I should start looking for a better place."

"Wow, this subject got changed fast." Barry says, looking in the fridge.

"Look, don't get the wires crossed, Okay? I like having you here. It's nice to have someone around." Peter says and Barry sits down to eat. "Okay, I gotta run into Mercury labs. Just the last of the paperwork to have the name changed officially to P.A.R.K.E.R. Industries." He says and grabs a piece of toast.

"Oh, I could take you there." Barry offers.

"No." Peter says a little too quickly. "I like to swing around in the mornings, it's my morning thing." He explains before leaving.

But the truth is he's leaving to check up with Fox about the cup he gave him to see if Caitlin is a metahuman. And he also does need to get to that meeting, that wasn't a lie.

"Okay, I'll see you at Star labs." Barry says as he leaves.

-

At Star labs, HR has music playing and reveals that he has donuts and other food laid out for the team.

"Sumptuous day." HR says. "Oh, no, on this earth, I believe you day...good morning." HR corrects himself. "And it is, isn't it? I mean..." he starts beating his drum sticks to the music beat. "The music on your earth, well, it strikes a chord, no pun intended. I know PP is your pun man. Please, help yourself. I find a crew works best when it's well fed and well rested."

"Are those coffees for us too?" Iris asks seeing a tray of coffee.

"Yes indeed, ms. West." HR says bringing the coffee over to them. "I took the liberty of reading through your ledgers last night. A lot of information to absorb, but let's see how I did. Skim milk chai latte." He says handing a coffe to Iris.

"And an iced americano with two, no, three shots of espresso." HR says and hands it to Wally.

"Now, for my fleet of foot friend, you best stick to decaf." He says handing a decaf to Barry.

"San Francisco, I have prepared a French roast with a touch of creamer."

"Thank you." Cisco says taking the coffee.

"You're welcome. I also got PP a Spider-Special for when he arrives. Did you know, on my earth, coffee crop was wiped out by blight? I mean, that's one more reason to stay on this earth, for the coffee alone." HR states.

"If you stay." Cisco reminds him, since this is a probationary day to see if he works for the team.

"If I stay. Here's what I suggest, a series of team building exercises." HR suggests.

"Yeah, I'm not feeling it." Cisco says. "Our trust isn't something you can build with games. This is something that goes back three years. It's something that's been forged in fire, sometimes literally, so maybe you should just step back and observe, see what we do here, how we operate. Did you get that?"

"Excellent note. I'm gonna run with that." HR says.

"Has anyone seen Caitlin?" Wally asks.

"Peter said she went out of town for a while, and she warned Cisco to stay away from her pizza pockets." Barry says while Cisco is eating said pizza pocket.

Cisco realizes what he's eating and drops it.

"It wasn't labeled." Cisco tells them nervously.

"Okay, well, I gotta go to work. I'm running late." Barry tells them as Iris and Wally do the same thing.

-

Peter just makes it to his warehouse and walks up to see fox analyzing the cup with Caitlin's DNA on it.

"Okay, now you're allowed to tell me what you found." Peter tells Fox while he chuckles at the statement.

"Well, I did a scan like you asked and found nothing in the way of metahuman genetics in her DNA." Fox tells him while pulling up the results and they come up negative. "She's not a metahuman."

Peter sighs in relief to see that she's not hiding powers from him.

"Well, that's good to know." Peter says when their alerts go off on a metahuman in downtown. "Did you fill up the bike?" Peter asks while moving toward the Spider-Cycle.

"Did it when I got back. Took the night off like you asked." Fox says mockingly to Peter as he gets on the cycle.

Peter opens the garage doors and speeds out to reach the alert.

-

Peter drives through the screaming crowds slowly when Barry appears next to him.

"Nice to see you could make it, fasty." Peter says before turning to why they're running.

"You're seeing this, right?" Barry asks the wall crawler.

"Good. I thought my sensors were malfunctioning." Peter says looking to see a...monster.

Literally, a ten story tall creature and is rampaging the streets.

"Well, this is a new one." Peter states, getting off his cycle.

"An actual monster." Barry says not understanding why he's surprised by this point.

Everyone starts evacuating the streets while crashing into vehicles. One bus accidentally crashes into a light post, jamming the doors.

"Okay, you deal with this thing, I'll get them evacuated." Peter says before turning to help them to spot Iris. "Iris, what are you doing here?" He asks her while ripping the doors off with his strength.

"Working on a story, and last time I checked, you don't need super speed or superpowers to help people." Iris informs him while the people run away from the creature.

"Okay, just get out of here, I need to go help Flash stop that thing." Peter says and runs up to see Barry looking for it.

"_Spider-Man, eyes in the sky. Can you see it?_" Barry asks while Peter is trying to see where it went.

"I've got no eyes." Peter says trying to see where it went.

-

"I don't get it, every metahuman we've encountered has been exactly that, metahuman, so where did this thing come from?" Cisco asks.

"I don't know where it came from, man. It just vanished. That's all I know, it was gone." Barry states.

"In my experience, things are always different than they appear." HR says while walking back and forward around Cisco. "There must be a reason the darn thing can just disappear like that. Maybe it's got a sorta cloaking mechanism."

"That's a good idea, but right now, I would settle for _how do Web Boy and Usain Bolt stop it?_" Peter asks.

"How? We don't have a magic monster lasso." Cisco responds.

"Really? We don't have some sorta lasso that can make us tell the truth or something?" Peter asks thinking they would have something like that by now.

"But, you know what we could do. On my earth, we have ropes made out of carbon fiber. They are ultralight but strong enough to pull a battleship; we could restrain it with that." HR suggests to them.

"I like it. Better than my thought of just webbing it until it was stuck." Peter adds.

"I think it's worth a shot, we could spin it out down in the workshop. But it's gonna take longer without Caitlin around." Cisco says.

"I'll give Fox a call, get him over here." Peter says knowing he will be able to help.

"There was something else, I saw a transformer explode as this thing passed by it." Barry says and Peter must've missed that while rescuing the bus. "The monster didn't even lay a finger on it."

"Kinda reminds me of that Hitchcock movie where the extra covers his ears before the gun goes off." Cisco says chuckling at his joke.

"You have Hitchcock on this earth?" HR asks. "'_Murder on the Titanic!' 'Who did it?' 'Who cares? We're drowning.'" _He says quoting one of the movies. "The beast must emit some kind of electrical pulse. Is there way I could get a look at the transformer?"

"No, the whole place is a crime scene now with Julian in charge of it." Barry says.

"Oh, great. Put Spider-Man's number 1 hater in charge." Peter mumbles since Julian hates all metas as Barry leaves.

-

Tannhauser labs, Caitlin is trying to find a way to get rid of her abilities before she turns on her friends.

Or more importantly, before she turns on Peter.

"How long have you had these abilities?" Caitlin's Mom asks her.

"They started manifesting a few months ago, but I'm assuming I got them when the particle accelerator exploded, just like all the other metas." Caitlin tells her not knowing that Peter learnt that's not what she is.

"And you haven't told anyone?" She asks Caitlin.

"Just you." Caitlin admits, even though hiding this from everyone is killing her.

"I Told you, you never should have taken that job at Star labs. You could've stayed here, had access to world class facilities."

"And have all of my work be in the shadow of your reputation." Caitlin tells her.

"Of course, the only time you need your mother is when you're in trouble."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Caitlin asks.

"Come on, darling. You ran off to Central City to play scientist with that disgraced quack." She states referring to Harrison Wells.

"I was trying to make a name for myself." Caitlin informs her.

"For three years, barely a word, until trouble hits, and then here you come walking through the door and expecting mommy to drop everything in her life to get to fix it."

"You have no idea what I've been though." Caitlin replies to her.

"Dr. Tannhauser, look at this." Nigel, someone who works for Tannhauser calls out for her looking at the data back from Caitlin's tests.

She walks over and sees that Caitlin absorbed the energy from the device she cooled down.

"She absorbed all that energy? How?" She asks Nigel.

"I'm not sure yet, but if we can figure that out, this could change everything we're doing here." Nigel tells her and they look back at Caitlin who scoffs at them.

-

Back at Star labs, Cisco and Fox are working on the carbon fiber rope HR suggested to them hoping it works.

"So then the Flash, my Flash, we hatched a plan to gather all the remaining metahumans into one place for a final showdown. They called it _World War M_. It was glorious. It was like that movie where the gladiator was the lead gladiator. What was it called?" HR asks as they're working on the rope.

"_Gladiator_." Fox and Cisco answer at the same time.

"Oh, better than what we call it on our earth. _Sweaty men_, and that didn't take." HR says.

"I need to take 5, Fox." Cisco says as he leaves.

"Got it, I'll keep working." Fox says not minding HR since he's used to being alone, he's a nice change of pace. "Besides, I need to leave for the press conference today at Mercury labs." He informs the two of them. Today is when Peter announces the changes of Mercury labs into P.A.R.K.E.R. Industries.

"So, where was I?" HR asks Fox going back to his story.

-

"What exactly are you testing for now?" Caitlin asks her mother.

"Any polymorphism that could help us understand how you're able to absorb that much energy from molecules to create gelid surroundings." Tannhauser explains to her.

"You realize I've run these tests already?" Caitlin tells her.

"Then what was the point of coming here?" Tannhauser asks.

"Seriously, Mom? I'm terrified of what I'm becoming." Caitlin states to her. "I've got people I care about and I don't want to hurt them. You realize you haven't asked me once how I'm feeling?"

"I'm trying to keep emotion out of this." She tells her. "Believe me, it's for your benefit as much as it is mine."

"Right, because that's your specialty, isn't it?" Caitlin asks. "Being cold, just like after..."

"After what?" Tannhauser asks.

"After dad died." Caitlin explains to her.

"I did everything I could to save your father." Tannhauser defends to her.

"Well, you lost your daughter at the same time." Caitlin says.

"You're the one who went away, Caitlin." Tannhauser says.

"Because I had to." Caitlin replies. "You realize you never acted like my mother again after dad got sick? You would barley even look at me."

"I couldn't handle the pain." Tannhauser says and looks wats. "My work got me through it. Loosing someone like that, you have no idea what that feels like."

"Actually, I do." Caitlin says referring to Ronnie. Even though she broke things off with him before he died, it still hurt when he was gone. "My fiancé died over a year ago. And it was because of my friend I was able to push forward." She tells her mother not wanting to think of how she's going to explain these powers to Peter.

-

Back in Central City, Barry and Julian are checking out where the monster came from.

"What do you got?" Barry asks Julian who just notices his appearance.

"I said get here quick, but that was...quicker than I expected." Julian says.

"Oh, crazy Uber driver." Barry quickly comes up with a lie.

"Well, the blast pattern and the scoring on the insulation suggests that it was a power surge that blew it out." Julian says regarding the transformer.

"So it's a coincidence?" Barry questions.

"I highly doubt it. But I'll figure it out." Julian promises. "Someone in this city has to do something about these metas."

"What do you mean?" Barry asks, not following. "We have a whole police force working to stop these metas."

"No, you have the Flash and Spider-Man." Julian corrects him.

"What's wrong with them? Spider-Man's been keeping the city safe for longer than a decade." Barry says when he realizes something. "It's not just the bad metas you don't like, it's all people with powers."

"I'm just saying because of them, the police department has got lethargic." Julian tells him. "I mean, why do anything at all if the Flash and Spider-Man are going to save the day every time?" He asks while looking around at the destruction left from the monster encounter. "It's a bit like you with the rule breaking. A momentary fix, and now you're lazy, sloppy."

"I think they're actually a source of inspiration for the city. They give people hope." Barry informs Julian.

"Yes, well, that's one of many things that we'll have to disagree on, Allen." Julian says when he looks and sees something behind Barry.

"What, you see something?" Barry asks and Barry looks to see a tall building, nothing more.

"A pattern." Julian says. "The creature's movements, they seemed random at first, but they were contained to a prescribed area." Julian explains. "Like the creature was stuck in an invisible fence."

"Traffic cameras were down, right? Maybe it was being watched or controlled by somebody that needed to keep it in visual range the entire time?" Barry questions and sees that could be something with it.

"Constricting the creature's movements to the line of sight." Julian adds on. "That actually makes sense. Maybe there is a brain in there after all, Allen."

As they're talking, they hear transformers blowing up and the monster has returned and Julian calls CCPD for backup and pulls out a gun.

"Don't worry, I have four years' training in the military." Julian tells Barry.

"Even still, since when does CSI carry a gun?" Barry asks him.

"Since there were monsters in our city." Julian says as he moves ready to shoot when more wires start exploding and Barry quickly moves Julian before it could reach him.

"Cheers." Julian thanks Barry as they see Spider-Man driving after the monster on his Spider-Cycle.

"Where does he get these gadgets?" Julian wonders and wondering who he is.

-

Back at Tannhauser labs, Caitlin is getting ready to leave knowing she needs to get back to Central City for the Mercury labs conference.

"You're leaving us?" Nigel asks coming into the room seeing Caitlin getting ready to leave.

"Yeah. Things between my mother and me are...complicated." Caitlin says while grabbing her purse. "Besides, my boyfriend has a press conference back in the city and I want to be there for him." She explains and starts walking to the doors.

"We can help you." Nigel assures her.

"I don't need your help with the science. I can do that myself. I came here to get something from my mother that I realize now I'll never get." Caitlin says but knows that she doesn't need her mother when she has friends.

Nigel pulls out an remote and locks the doors and steps closer to Caitlin.

"What are you doing?" Caitlin asks, getting worried.

"Sorry, frosty, but you're not going anywhere." Nigel says and Caitlin runs to the doors to try to get out.

"Let me out of here!" Caitlin commands him. "Open these doors!"

"I said no!" Nigel shouts to her as she is wrestling with the doors. "I am sick of working day after day, night after night, only to have my work benefit your mother. With the information I can get from you, I can finally get out of this place, so you're gonna stay here until I get everything I need." He says.

Now Caitlin understands what Peter was talking about never getting professional help when he got his powers, because people might want to research him about his powers. And now it's happening to her.

"You are not going to test me." Caitlin states to Nigel.

"Yes, I am." He informs her while grabbing her.

Caitlin starts freezing his hand and takes it off of her. "No, you're not going to test me, now or ever." She says as her voice starts to sound exactly like her Earth-2 counterpart.

Nigel falls to the ground in pain as the doors start opening and Tannhauser sees what's happening.

"Caitlin! Don't do this." She pleads to her daughter. "This isn't you!"

"You don't know anything about me, mother." Caitlin says still angry at Nigel.

"I know I wasn't much of a mother, and I know I have a lot to make up for, but I know I didn't raise a killer." She says and Caitlin starts calming down. "For whatever it's worth, I am so sorry." She apologizes to Caitlin and she returns back to normal.

"It's worth a lot." Caitlin tells her mother and they quickly hug.

"Now go." Tannhauser tells her and promises to take care of Nigel and nobody will know she was involved.

-

Now in Central City at CCPD, Barry and Julian are looking over the new information on the monster.

"Every time there's been a sighting of the monster, multiple transformers blow." Barry says as they're looking at the map of transformers.

"So it's definitely feeding off of electricity." Julian says.

"Yeah, I mapped out all the streets that it's been spotted around. Never leaves a ten block radius." Barry explains.

"You know, this is exactly what I was talking about. Some metas been gifted this incredible power, and this is the best thing they can think to do with it." Julian says regarding why he hate metas.

"Why exactly do you hate metas so much? Spider-Man isn't even a meta." Barry says trying to figure out why he hates them.

"If you think I'm gonna break down and tell you one killed my parents and that's why I have to do this job, I'm not, okay? I don't need a deep, personal reason to hate these freaks, Allen. I just need to see person after person transformed, given these extraordinary abilities, and watch them be squandered." Julian says and recaps how everyone with powers have been doing nothing but commit crimes with them. "I mean, can you imagine what it would be like to have those powers? I would be helping people, improving the world." Julian says what he would be doing with powers.

"That's it? You're mad at them because you weren't chosen to become one?" Barry asks him. "I mean, it can't be easy being a metahuman with the bad reputation most of them are given and having your lives change in a way that nobody could imagine." Barry defends knowing how powers change everyone's lives forever.

"Right. So you're defending them? This internship thing we're doing is completely over." Julian informs Barry not liking this.

-

Barry returns to Star labs and sees Cisco is working on locating the creature after Fox finished the rope and left to prepare for the conference.

"Anytime the monster shows up, any transformers nearby have exploded." Barry explains to them.

"The car alarms keep malfunctioning too." Cisco says looking over the data they collected.

"Car alarms, transformers. What is the connection?" HR asks and goes motivational about how they'll solve it.

"Well, my cycle didn't have any problems going against it, and it's energy powered." Peter says.

"Maybe someone's pulling power out of the transformers and uses it to power the monster." Cisco says.

"Like a portable Tesla tower." Barry adds on.

"PS, where I'm from, on my earth, we call that a problem solved. I'm gonna go on a coffee run, I'll be back." HR says and leaves.

"Okay, now something about him seems off now." Peter is realizing about HR. "I mean, he just rephrased what we say."

"Thank you!" Cisco states trying to say the exact same thing.

"He did have the idea for the rope, thought." Barry says.

"No, reverse inception. He made you think he had the idea for the rope, but he didn't tell us how to use it." Cisco informs Barry.

"Well, Peter, your Spidey senses saying anything about him?" Barry asks looking to Peter.

"You know, this is the quietest they've ever been when there's a Wells in the room." Peter says a little surprised and worried about that. "When Thawne was in the room, my senses went into car alarms for a second. When it was Harry, they were slightly alert. But with him, it's like there's nothing. Like an average joe."

"Well, we won't be caught off guard again. To be safe, maybe you should vibe him." Barry tells Cisco.

"It'd be my pleasure." Cisco says and leaves to go find something to vibe.

He and Barry head to the workshop and find his bag of stuff.

"What even is the thing?" Cisco asks holding his own recorder when it goes off.

"_Now I seem to have won most of the teams trust, except Francisco's._" HR says on the recorder when HR and Peter enters and sees them.

"Those are my things." HR tells them. "What are you doing?

"What are _you _doing?" Cisco asks. "Who are you really? We know you're hiding something."

"You've been burned, by a man with the same face as me. I imagine it's hard to trust after something like that. So play the rest of it." HR tells Cisco regarding the recorder.

"_I've read his journals, I found nothing that can tell me why Francisco feels the way he does, but I do hope I can change his opinion of Harrison Wells and the two of us can rebuild that friendship what a fantastic C-story to within the narrative._" HR says before turning it off.

"What narrative?" Peter wonders.

"Narrative. I'm writing a novel." HR says and takes the recorder out of Cisco's hands with a smile on his face. "_The Tales Of H.R. Wells_."

"Wait, you're a scientist and a novelist?" Barry asks him.

"Yes." HR confirms for him. "That's exactly it. I'm a scientist and a novelist; I run Star labs, and also I'm an author of science-romance. That's my niche. Write what you know. And I thought, what better opportunity than come to another earth and pen yet another best seller about my adventures here?"

"Why didn't you just tell us this in the first place?" Cisco questions him.

"I guess it didn't really seem relevant, also I didn't think you guys were gonna rifle through my belongings." HR says and now they're feel a little guilty.

As they're talking, Caitlin comes up and Peter is happy to see her back and quickly kisses her as she kisses him back, missing him just as much.

"That's all I have to hide. Do you think you can trust me now, or is that not something you have on this earth, trust?" HR asks.

"Trust?" Caitlin asks causing them to jump seeing they haven't noticed her yet.

"You scared the dickens out of me." HR says as he calms down.

"Trust who?" Caitlin asks worried.

"It's nothing to worry about." Peter assures her when their alerts all go off and they see it's back.

"It's the monster." Barry says.

"Monster?" Caitlin asks, confused to what they're talking about.

"Yeah, you missed a lot. I'll explain it to you on the way." Peter promises.

"Come on, we need you." Cisco tells HR.

-

Peter and Barry make it and see the monster and transformers exploding.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Barry asks Peter as he's holding the rope.

"How about we do _Empire strikes back_?" Peter asks and Barry likes it.

"_The bigger they are, harder they fall._" Caitlin says through the comms which surprises them all. "_Come on, even I've seen _Empire." She defends.

"God, I love you." Peter says back to that and Barry sees where he can tie the rope.

"All right, here we go. I always wanted to be a Jedi." Barry says before tying the rope around the monster and tries pulling it down when it goes right through it.

"Wait a minute." Peter states to her before walking up to the creature and shoots a web at it and the web goes through it.

"It's a hologram." Peter and Barry say at once as they see the monster vanish.

"_CCPD sent snipers to kil it_." Iris' voice says through the comms.

"That's bad. The bullets will travel through the hologram." Peter states and they need to find it.

-

"HR, triangulate the signal. We need to disrupt the monster before someone gets hurt." Cisco tells him and he tries using the computers and he's failing.

"This is a different type of computer than what I'm used to." HR tried defending when Cisco finally realizes something.

"I knew it. You're a fake." Cisco says which confuses everyone. "This whole time, he's been acting like he can help us, but he can't because he doesn't know how." Cisco says before taking over and triangulates the monsters location.

"Found it. It's at Second and Fulton." Cisco says and the heroes make their way.

-

As soon as they get there, they see the monster and hundreds of CCPD cars ready to fire.

They see a sniper on the roof and he shoots. Barry slows down time to see where the bullet was heading and grabs it before it could impact someone.

"Stop firing!" Peter tells them and they see the monster glitching. "It's a hologram." He explains and they all lower their weapons and all the civilians are confused to what happened.

Barry looks around and sees Joe. "Detective West, where's Julian?" Barry asks knowing he must've learned where it came from.

"He was here." Joe says and looks around to see he's vanished.

"Cisco, find out where it came from." Peter begs into his comms.

"_Hamilton building, 25th floor. There's more power going there than anywhere else in the building combined_." Cisco tells them and Barry speeds off.

Peter looks up and sees that from that location, you could see the monster in every direction where it's been attacking.

-

Inside the building, Julian has found the man behind it and tells him to stop but he gets up and Julian fires only for Barry to come in at the last second and moves him out of the way revealing that it was a kid behind the monster.

Barry hands him over to Julian to take it over and starts leaving.

"Hey, Flash." Julian calls out and he looks to him. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Barry says while vibrating his voice and speeds off.

-

Barry and Joe learned that the kid was just sick of feeling powerless against people and wanted others to feel the same way he did.

As for HR, they learned everything about him.

"You were named Entrepreneur of the Decade by _Tech Magazine_?" Caitlin asks seeing the information HR gave them.

"That's right." HR says.

"Is any of what's on here true?" Cisco wonders.

"All of it." HR tells them.

"How? You can barley turn on a computer." Barry states.

"There are two parts to every idea. There is the inception and the execution. I provide the former." HR explains.

"So you're the one who comes up with the ideas." Iris clarifies.

"Yeah, I don't know how to implement them. I'm the idea man." HR says to them.

"So you didn't actually solve the cryptogram that we sent you?" Peter asks.

"No, that was my partner at Star labs on my earth. I'm not the face of the company. I'm more of the inspiration behind the company. Then I was exposed. People thought I was something that I wasn't. It all fell apart for me. Then I got your message. My partner brought me the message. I saw he was bringing me an opportunity to come to this earth to write this book." HR explains to them all.

"So many planets in the multiverse, and we happen to pick the one Wells who isn't a scientist." Cisco recaps.

"It sounds like you're a con man." Wally states to him.

"Was I a con man when I showed San Francisco here how to track the beast using alarms? Was I a con man when I showed him and Foxtrot how to fashion a rope using carbon fiber?" HR asks back.

"I came up with those ideas." Cisco says.

"You were prompted by my suggestions. That's how ideas work. You need a muse. I can be that." HR tells them.

"What about stopping all the metas on your earth?" Peter asks.

"More of an advisory role for me, but I was there. I remember how it happened. You don't think that's something?" HR asks them. "Let me present you with a scenario. You're confronted with something, a threat never seen before. You don't know how to stop it. Who does? That's value to you. Let me prove my worth." He begs and promises to go home if he doesn't succeed.

They decided to give him a shot when Peter's alert goes off.

"Okay, well, you do that. I need to get to Mercury labs. Press conference in half an hour." Peter says before leaving and Caitlin is close behind him.

"Should we get going as well?" Cisco asks them and he's right.

-

At the soon to be P.A.R.K.E.R. Industries, Fox had already arrived and was setting everything up when Peter comes back all dressed for the conference and just gets off the phone with Jessica, checking in on how Frankie is doing.

"Ah, glad you got my message." Fox says seeing him here a few minutes to spare.

"Hey, you deleted Caitlin's DNA tests from the computers, right?" Peter asks not wanting her to know what he did.

"You know the computers here are separate from the ones at the warehouse. But I'll also do it at the base." Fox informs him when Caitlin comes in in her dress ready for the conference herself.

"But I think you should ask her what she's hiding." Fox whispers to Peter before leaving.

"What was the whispering about?" Caitlin asks Peter who knows he's right. She should know the truth.

"Look, Cait...while you were gone, I had Fox analyze your DNA for metahuman genetics." Peter admits and sees her face changes to fear.

"Why would you do that?" She questions her boyfriend.

"I thought you were hiding something from me and was thinking maybe you were getting powers." Peter says before continuing. "But, I learned you're clean." He says which confuses Caitlin.

"What do you mean?" She asks him, now even more confused.

"You're not a metahuman, but you seem like something's still bothering you. Where'd you go?" Peter asks her.

Caitlin tries to get over the new information she received from him before answering him.

"I went to visit my mother. Seeing if we could work through some of our issues." She says and Peter is happy to hear that. "And I think we might be on the road to recovery."

"I get it. When it comes to family, you got to do what you need to do, because one day you might not be able to do that anymore." Peter says thinking to what he wished he could say to his parents and Ben. "I'm just happy you're back."

"This is my home. You're my home." Caitlin says while leaning in and kissing him. "Now let's get out there and introduce them to Personal Artificial Resourceful Kinetics Enhancement Researchers Industries." She says and they go out hand in hand to the main room of the labs where the press are all waiting.

"Thank you all for being here today." Peter starts off with and tries to find his wording. "A few months ago, I was handed Mercury labs from dr. McGee. She was a great scientist and a good friend. She saw greatness in me and believed there was no one more worthy of her legacy than me. And I plan on living up to her expectations. All of us have been working here with one goal in mind, use science to make the world a safer place. And in the last few years, the technology from these labs were used to terrorize the city we live in. So we knew Mercury labs needed to be something more." He says and looks behind him and they remove the curtains.

It shows P.A.R.K.E.R. Industries has been placed on the windows of the building and everyone claps to seeing it. Peter hoped this was the right thing to do, and from what he can see so far, he's been doing a good job so far seeing how everyone likes it.

As for Caitlin, she looks to see her mother send her a video message she needs to look at in private.

In the crowd, Fox was clapping happy to see Peter up on top of things when his own phone goes off and he sees the computer was still running Caitlin's DNA through his system.

**Unknown anomaly detection **his phone says and Fox sees that there is something inside Caitlin's DNA, but it's not a metahuman stream. It's something different. Now Fox is confused, but now wonders if he should tell Peter before figuring out what it is.

He decides to run some tests first, seeing it could be just a error in the system.

-

But what Barry never learned, was that in Flashpoint...there was another Spider-Man. And it wasn't Peter.

In the bedroom of a teenager in an apartment building in Central City, Miles Morales was peacefully sleeping when a voice wakes him up.

**"Miles Morales.**" The voice calls out and Miles starts freaking out.

As soon as he hears the voice, he starts getting visions. He sees himself, wearing a black and red Spider-Man suit, swinging throughout the city of New York.

"**Find me.**" The voice tells him.

"Who...Who are you?" Miles asks, trying to figure out where the voice is coming from as he looks to the window to see a name is being carved into it.

"Alchemy"

Alchemy is calling him.

And is offering to give back what was taken.

He's offering him the chance to become the Ultimate Spider-Man once again.


	48. Shadows

"Good morning, Central City!" Peter calls out as he drags himself off of the streets and keeps swinging through the city, loving the city that he lives in.

The feeling of the wind in his face as he swings through the city, the feeling it constantly brings him to be there for others.

If you're wondering what's got Peter Parker, Spider-Man, so happy today...there's nothing special. Things are just going his way after struggling all of his life.

He's the owner of P.A.R.K.E.R. Industries, so money is no longer a issue for him. The company has quickly became a amazing competitor for other scientific industries.

He's dating Caitlin Snow, the woman he was in love with for over a year. Who's in love with him just as much as he is with her.

Nothing is stopping his good mood any time soon.

But it does get a bit interrupted when his senses go off and he looks down to see two kids chasing a ball that's wounded up in traffic. And there's a truck heading their way.

Acting fast, Peter swings down just in the nick of time before the truck could hit the two and he scoops them up in one hand and drops them back on the sidewalk.

"Hey, you guys, no playing in the streets. Got it?" Peter tells them and hands them their ball back.

"Yes, mr. Spider-Man." The two kids say at once.

"Good. See ya." Peter says before running and some people cheer at his rescue as he starts swinging his way over to Star labs.

-

At said Star labs, Cisco and Caitlin are working on ways to stop metahuman when HR comes in with a whiteboard.

"We have a problem." HR tells them.

Yeah, we do. He's still here." Cisco says.

"Cisco, comedy of the obvious." HR says laughing and taking another drink of his coffee. "I made a pact to justify my presence on your earth and I think I got something."

"We're all ears." Cisco says as he and Caitlin look at him and the board.

"I read every news report I can get my hands on. And I have come to the conclusion that this very operation is a ticking time bomb." HR tells them and now they're confused.

"What do you mean?" Caitlin asks, seeing they've been working well so far.

"You can't spend all your time working on...whatever this is." HR says holding the meta-cuffs.

"This is a very delicate set of power-dampening cuffs." Cisco tells him while he takes them out of his hands. "We need them to stop the metahumans."

"My point exactly. It's not gonna be long before people start putting the pieces together and figure out what you're doing here." HR states. "You're working with the Flash and Spider-Man."

"Okay, and what's your idea?" Caitlin asks.

"The perfect disguise. We reopen this laboratory and I become the face of the new Star labs museum." HR says and pulls off the drape to reveal his plans.

"There's only one problem with that." Cisco tells him. "It's your face. You're kind of a known murderer around these parts. You see, the evil Wells, not to be confused with the dick-ish but not evil Wells, he confessed to killing Barry's mother."

"So basically, if you step foot outside this lab, you'll be arrested." Caitlin explains to him.

"You're just telling me this now, you rascals? What about the cryptogram? The message. _Come to this earth. Get a fresh start_." HR reminds them.

"What about your resume as a world renowned genius scientist?" Cisco asks back.

HR takes that in and realizes he's right. "That's a good point. I guess were even." He admits. "_If a string is in a knot, patience will untie it. Patience can do lots of things. Have you ever tried it?_ My dear ma used to say that to me all the time any time I had a problem. Now I have a problem. I guess I'm gonna use that adage to figure it out." HR says and walks out while asking them to think about the museum thing.

"You think everyone on Earth-19 is missing crayons in their box, or just him?" Cisco asks Caitlin who seems to be staring off into space.

"Paging dr. Snow." Cisco says and snaps her out of it. "Wow, you are out of it. Is everything going okay with you and Peter?"

"No, were perfectly fine." Caitlin says, knowing she's never felt happier when she's around Peter. "It's just...I haven't been sleeping well."

"Too much information." Cisco says thinking she _isn't _sleeping, and is with Peter.

"No, not like that." Caitlin says when Peter walks in.

"Here you guys are." Peter says seeing them.

"Yo, P-man." Cisco greets him and Peter gives his friend a high-5 as he passes him and gives his girlfriend a kiss.

"You okay, Cait? You look tired." Peter comments on her eyes.

"I'm okay, I promise. I just need a pick me up." Caitlin tells them.

"Well, I did bring coffee." Peter tells them.

"Yes! This is why you're my favorite hero. Where is it?" Cisco asks him.

"In the cortex, where I'd figure you guys would be." Peter explains and as they leave, Caitlin looks at the handcuffs and wonders if they'd work to stop her powers.

-

Meanwhile, Barry and Joe are getting worried now that Wally is starting to get dreams just like Frankie did before Alchemy started talking to her.

And the CCPD is now dealing with a metahuman shadow.

Gotta love this city.

Back at Star labs, Cisco is wandering around the speed lab where Peter and Caitlin are.

"Yes?" Caitlin asks.

"Have either of the two of you seen HR?" Cisco asks them.

"Maybe he's meditating in his room." Peter guesses.

"No, he's not there." Cisco says and goes to the microphone. "HR, you're needed in the Speed lab, now." He says into it.

"He could be doing inversion stretches in the intake." Caitlin guesses.

"You also saw that, huh?" Peter asks. "He's possibly brewing another cup of coffee."

"Not that either." Cisco says as he looks around the speed lab thinking he's hiding in here.

"Why do you need him so badly?" Caitlin asks him.

"He's going through my stuff, but now...he's just being stupid about it." Cisco informs them.

"Stupid about what?" Someone says and they turn to see someone who they've never met before.

"God, I swear I fixed the security system." Cisco promises. "Who the hell are you?" He asks the new guy.

"HR." He tells them and pulls out a pen device that he places against his face and what looks like a hologram comes off of his face revealing HR to them. "See? What you've just been witness to was my parter's likeness, Randolph Morgan." He says and sees their confused looks.

"Okay, I see what's going on here. You don't have facial transmogrification on this planet, do you?" HR asks.

"No, we do not." Caitlin tells him.

"But, man, that's cool." Peter admits.

"Well, it's a good thing I found this contraption in my satchel. Forgot I brought it. It's so fun." HR says and Cisco takes the pen.

"So fun. How does this work?" Cisco asks.

"Light refraction technology." HR tells them.

"Light refraction?" Peter and Caitlin ask at the same time.

"I think. Randolph, my business partner, he's more with the science. But this little sucker is gonna go a long way to solve my Harrison Wells facial issues." HR explains to them.

"I'm gonna hang onto this until I get my power cuffs back." Cisco says and pockets the device.

"Wait, your power cuffs?" HR asks, not understanding what he's talking about. "The metahuman power dampening cuffs?"

"Those very ones, the ones that are missing all of a sudden." Cisco states.

"What, you think I took them? Why would I need cuffs for?" HR asks, not following him. "I just got to this earth. I came alone. I haven't met anyone yet; it's gonna take a while, even when I do meet them, to get to the cuff stage. What about you two, cuff stage?" He asks Peter and Caitlin.

"Okay! Let's change the subject, because I am not having this conversation with either of you." Peter states and starts walking away and Caitlin is looking anywhere but to HR and Cisco.

"_Hey, guys? I need you in the cortex._" The voice of Barry fills the labs.

"Thank god, there's a meta." Peter says, happy for once there's a possible enemy and the two move out fast to get away from them.

-

They make it to the cortex and this case is a surprising one.

"Killed by a shadow? That's a new one." Caitlin says.

"Could this be the thing that killed Edward Clariss?" Peter asks Barry.

"Clariss was a metahuman. This victim appears to be normal." Barry tells him.

"Do we know if this shadow meta is from the particle accelerator or dr. Alchemy?" Cisco asks.

"We actually haven't found any evidence to process." Barry admits to them.

"If only we had a way, Francisco, to see what happened." HR says and Cisco understands him.

"Where was the crime scene located?" Cisco asks Barry.

"In Chubbuck, Palmer and Racine, around 11 last night." Barry says and Cisco pulls up the footage and see exactly as described, a shadow killed the man.

"Shade." HR suddenly says and confused them. "We had a meta-hominids on my planet who could do virtually the same thing, called himself Shade." He expains.

"What did he do, throw his side-eye at his enemies?" Cisco quips.

"No, I know, it's a terrible nickname, right?" HR agrees with him. "But what he could do was vibrate at such a high frequency he created the illusion that he was a shadow."

"That's how I phase." Barry tells him.

"Do you think he's doing the same thing?" Caitlin asks.

"Has to be. The heat signatures fluctuating." Peter replies to her. "Red shift is ridiculous."

"So he must be slowing down his molecules whenever he attacks." Cisco adds on.

"So we just have to figure out a way to keep them slowed down, and that should be enough to grab him, right?" Caitlin asks.

With that out of the way, Barry tells them that Wally was the Flash in Flashpoint and he might be contacted by Alchemy now he's starting to have these dreams.

"Is there anyone else who's gonna get powers we should be worried about?" Cisco asks.

"Okay, I'm gonna go tell Fox what's happening. See if he can help take down Shade." Peter offers and quickly pecks Caitlin on the cheek and leaves.

"I'll do the same from here." Cisco tells them.

"I'll supervise." HR says.

"You're gonna finds my cuffs." Cisco informs HR.

That leaves Caitlin alone remembering she needs to learn about what's going to happen to her.

She then goes to the one person who can see her future.

"Hey, Cisco." Caitlin calls out as she enters his labs.

"Yes?" Cisco says focusing on the computers.

"I took your cuffs." Caitlin admits and takes the metahuman cuffs off.

"Why?" Cisco asks, confused.

"Because I need them." Caitlin tells him.

"Is this some sorta new lovers thing?" He asks as she grabs his water. "Because if so, I don't need to know. Because you're not a meta.." he was saying when he sees Caitlin freeze his water.

"Surprise." Caitlin says and hands the cup to him. "It started a few months ago."

"So that's why you went to see your Mom, to see if she could help you." Cisco realizes. "Wait, does Peter know about this?"

"No, he doesn't. And he can't." Caitlin tells him. "I've ran multiple tests, and there's nothing anyone can do. I need a favor. I need you to vibe me in the future. Because I need to know if I become...her."

"You're not gonna become her." Cisco tells her. "Just because you have these powers doesn't mean you're gonna turn into Killer Frost."

"I think I might." Caitlin says afraid. "Please, I just need to know for sure. I need to know if I became evil because I don't want to hurt Peter. Because if I do, I will never live with myself."

Cisco now understands and hopes for the best and takes her hand and starts getting a vibe.

He sees a forest covered in snow and he sees himself dressed as Vibe fighting Killer Frost...but the vibe also changes to replace him with a white suited Spider-Man fighting Killer Frost.

It's like their two separate possible realities but the future doesn't want to decide which one is going to happen.

He exits his vibe and sees Caitlin waiting for an answer.

"I saw...you and Peter...happily together." Cisco tells her, not wanting to tell her the truth and she's relieved. "You're fine."

"Oh, thank you." Caitlin says and engulfs him in a hug.

"But I think you should tell Peter." Cisco tells her.

"No, please, we can't tell anyone about this, not yet." Caitlin tells him. "I'll tell them when it's time, just not now." She promises and Cisco agrees to that, hopping she tells Peter sooner rather than later.

Joe brings Wally in and his dreams are becoming more real so that means they need to find a way to stopping Alchemy before he gets a hold of Wally.

"I have a suggestion. Why don't we throw Wallace in the pipeline until we figure the situation out?" HR asks them.

"You want to lock him up?" Joe asks him.

"Actually, it's not a half bad plan." Fox admits who came in to help with Shade.

"Yeah, we put him in the pipeline to stop Alchemy from reaching him. While he's in the pipeline, he can't get hurt, can't get touched, and we know he's secure." Peter explains to them.

"See? PP's on board." HR says and wraps an arm around Peter's shoulder.

"Please stop calling me that." Peter begs.

"As much as I don't like it, dad, maybe they're not wrong." Wally admits to Joe.

"But only till we figure out a better way to make you safe." Joe says.

"Of course. He's not a prisoner." Fox agrees with him.

"I'm gonna cancel this movie with Cecile." Joe says.

"Whoa, whoa, wait, wait. You've got a date with Cecile?" Iris asks.

"Yeah, I was gonna bring her to the movie in the park tonight." Joe tells them.

"Well, then go." Wally states. "You've put your life on hold for us long enough."

"Yeah, go be Joe West. You're always dad." Iris tells him.

"We'll stay with Wally, and make sure nothing happens." Barry promises.

"I told her all of you were coming with me. Am I gonna be the only one that shows up?" Joe asks.

"I would love to see a movie." Cisco says, ready to get out of the labs. "What movie is this?"

"_The Shining_." Joe informs him.

"Oh, I love that movie." Cisco states.

"What? The last time we watched it, you bailed right as the Grady twins appeared." Peter reminds his friend. "It took me like a week to get you to leave your house."

"That's-that's-that was-I was younger." Cisco informs Peter.

"That was last Halloween." Peter reminds him.

"Why don't we go as well?" Caitlin asks Peter.

"Sure, I love _Shining._" Peter says. "Think we should invite May? She loves scary movies." He asks Caitlin.

"Your aunt's complicated." Caitlin admits.

"I know." Peter assures her.

"You sure you don't want to stay?" Cisco asks them.

"No, we're good." Caitlin says.

"Either way, the more the merrier." Joe tells them.

"Let's do it. Hell, this will be great fodder for my novel." HR says.

"Hold on, you guys didn't tell him?" Joe asks referring to HR's face.

"Joe, no. They told me, finally. But I think that I've worked my way around that little problem." HR says and uses his device to change his face. Then he changes it to a flash of light blurs their vision and they see HR changed back to normal.

"What did you do?" Barry asks.

"Did you just neuralyze us?" Cisco asks, referencing _Men in Black_.

"No, I gave you a neural adjustment so all of you can see me, HR, while the rest of the world sees Randolph Morgan." HR explains and they see his reflection is different from his face. "I promise, I'll be so quiet. You won't even know I'm there."

"All right." Joe says, agreeing to let him come.

"Fox, you wanna come?" Peter asks.

"No, I think I'll keep an eye out for Shade. Besides, can't sit through _Shining_." Fox says and leaves.

-

The team makes it to the park while Barry and Iris stayed behind to look after Wally.

"All right, we want to be 2/3 to the back, right in middle." Cisco tells the group.

"That's a very small sceeen." HR comments on the screen. "Like, I don't know if we're gonna be able to see from-"

"HR, the screen is perfect, Okay? We'll be able to see fine." Cisco informs him. "That's where the engineer sits when he mixes the sound, all right?"

"It's like Harry is still with us." Peter tells Caitlin since Cisco always finds a way to argue with any Wells that isn't the original.

"Why don't you worry about the snacks. We'll worry about the seats." Cisco tells him.

"Great idea." HR says and doesn't move.

"Any time now." Cisco informs him, since he's standing there.

"Oh, I don't...I'm pretty sure they're not gonna take the money from my Earth." HR says and pulls out random metal shapes.

"What is this?" Cisco asks.

"That's a helbing." HR says.

"You know what, foods on me." Peter offers and pulls out some money.

"Peter, maybe you should help him with that." Caitlin says.

"Yeah, good point." Peter says, not wanting HR to loose his money or spend too much. "You want anything?"

"No, I'm good." Caitlin assures and the two walk away. "You okay, Cisco?" She asks.

"Yeah, you know. Just trying to deal with HR." Cisco says.

"Yeah, 'cause you've been on edge ever since you vibed me." Caitlin tells him. "Are you gonna tell me what you really saw?"

"I told you what I saw." Cisco reminds her.

"I can tell when you're not being honest with me." Caitlin reminds Cisco. "Am I her?"

Cisco knows he can't hide it anymore. "Yeah. You're her. I saw you, me fighting. Like a full on Vibe versus Killer Frost. But it was changing from that, and a Spider-Man versus Killer Frost fight."

Now Caitlin is afraid, hearing in a possible timeline that she might actually be fighting the man she loves or her best friend.

"Well, have you ever vibed anything from the future that didn't come true?" Caitlin asks.

"Just Earth-2 being ripped to shreds. But that doesn't mean it can't happen again." Cisco says. "Caitlin, you have to tell them. Maybe they can help."

"No. It's too late. There's nothing we can do. Nobody else needs to know." Caitlin says and walks away when Peter returns to see her walking away.

"Everything okay with you guys?" Peter asks Cisco, confused about what's wrong with them.

"Yeah, were fine." Cisco says and they go to look for their seats when Joe finally shows up with Cecile.

"Hi, I'm Caitlin." Caitlin introduces herself to Cecile while shaking her hand.

"Peter Parker." Peter greets.

"And you must be Cisco." Cecile guesses recognizing him from CCPD.

That's when HR shows up along with May.

"May. You made it." Peter is happy to see.

"What, you think I'd miss out a chance to see _Shining_ in the park?" May asks him.

Now later the movie is starting to play when a shadow starts covering the screen and Peter's senses go off.

"Spidey senses tingling." Peter warns Joe to basically means 'not part of the movie.'

"Everybody, move!" Joe warns everyone and they start running.

Peter quickly goes to a dark part of the park and quickly changes back into Spider-Man.

Shade corners a couple and Barry speeds in to save them as Peter joins him.

"Flash and Spider-Man. Just the two I came to see." Shade tells them.

"So you like the shadows? Wanna try to catch ours?" Barry asks and the two split up and try to fight him but it's hard to fight something in the dark.

_"Barry, Peter, were in the van. Can you guys hear us?_" Caitlin asks them.

"We can hear you. And we just got tossed by a dark version of Slimer." Peter informs them.

"We can't do anything if we can't see him." Barry tells them. "Can we Light this place up?"

-

In the van, they're working on just that.

"Light's gonna slow down his molecular vibration so we can catch him." Cisco says and hacks into the car's computers to light it up when Caitlin takes off the metahuman cuffs. "What are you doing?"

"They're gonna need these." Caitlin says and leaves the van.

"She took the..." HR was saying but Cisco knows.

"She took the cuffs. Just drop it, all right?" Cisco says.

-

"Okay, the next time we get him, Light em up." Peter says when Shade comes out and hits both of them.

All of the lights come in and shade screams out in pain.

"Spider-Man!" The voice of Caitlin calls out and they turn to see her tossing the metahuman cuffs and Peter webs them to himself and runs up to Shade as he turns into a human and Peter slaps the cuffs on.

"No shadows to hide in now." Peter quips to him.

-

Later they return to Star labs to learn that Wally's dreams are becoming stronger and more painful now that Alchemy is actually reaching out to him.

"I knew I shouldn't have left." Joe states.

"It's okay, nothing happened." Barry tells him.

"He's not okay, Barry. This things coming after him, and...and there ain't a damn thing we can do?" Joe asks them.

"Well, we got shade so now we can focuse on Alchemy." Barry tells him.

"Unless Alchemy sends another meta to attack." HR says.

"You think Shade was a distraction?" Iris asks him.

"I think the attack on Wally and attack by Shade didn't coincidentally happen at the same time." HR explains.

"If that's so, Alchemy is gonna be sending another meta pretty soon." Joe says.

"What if we used Wally to lead us to Alchemy?" Peter asks back.

"No, we don't even know if Alchemy has any more metas." Barry tells Peter.

"Seven husks, we've dealt with three metas so far." Peter reminds him.

"If they come, we'll face them." Barry replies.

"And what if one of them is stronger than both of us?" Peter asks them and points to the footage of Wally. "We don't know if this is like an addiction if over time, he'll be okay. Or if it's like a problem where he actually needs to get the help to stop it. Sure, Frankie was able to be saved, but she was a kid. The rest are fully grown adults who are aware of their actions. We have to face Alchemy. Hiding isn't going to do anything except let the problem grow."

"Ignoring the problem does not get rid of it." Cisco says and looks to Caitlin. "You have to face it. Don't we?"

"Wait, now I'm lost." Peter says, thinking he was just agreeing with Peter at first but now it seems to be a different conversation.

"Come on, Caitlin." Cisco tells her.

"Not right now, Cisco." Caitlin tells him.

"I just-I can't just keep this in. You have to tell them." Cisco states.

"Tell us what?" Joe asks and Caitlin removes the cuffs again.

"I have powers." Caitlin tells them.

"What kind of powers?" May asks.

"The cold kind." Caitlin says and shows the ice mist in her hands shocking everyone. "Happy now?" She asks Cisco.

"So, what, were just gonna keep secrets from each other?" Cisco asks back.

"Well, this wasn't your secret to tell, was it, Cisco?" Caitlin asks.

"I did it because I care about you." Cisco tells her.

"If you cared about me, the you would have let me tell them all when I was ready. Because this is happening to me, not you." Caitlin reminds him with fear in her voice. "I'm the one turning evil. I'm the one who's gonna have to leave soon." She states before leaving the room.

"I vibed the two of us fighting her in the future." Cisco tells Peter. "You were wearing some white version if you spider suit at the time, but it was you. She was Killer Frost."

"I'll go talk to her." Barry says.

"No, I got it." Peter assures them and leaves to talk to her.

Caitlin was in her labs, placing the cuffs back on when Peter enters and sits down in the second chair.

"How long has this been happening?" Peter asks her.

"A few months. First, I didn't want to accept what was happening to me. And then I had to." Caitlin tells him. "And then I tried to suppress my powers. But there's no suppressing these powers."

"I just don't understand, why didn't you tell me?" Peter asks, confused.

"I thought...things were finally going well between us, I didn't want things to change." Caitlin explains to him.

"Don't you remember what I told you last year when you were worried you'd become like Killer Frost?" Peter asks her.

"That I'd be afraid of becoming her, and if that ever happened, you'd always be by my side. I have what Killer Frost never did, you all. And nothing would change." Caitlin tries remembering what he said. "I just can't believe this is my life."

"It shouldn't be." Peter breathed, rubbing his forehead. "None of this should be. I should have noticed something was up- I should have helped you through this. What kind of a boyfriend, or friend all together am I if I don't even notice that you have powers and are scared about something?"

Caitlin shook her head, wiping a couple of unbidden tears away from her eyes with the back of her hand.

"It's not...It's my fault. I should have- I should have told you when I discovered I had powers- I was just so- so.." She broke off, smothering a sob. "I was so scared, and I don't want to leave the Team and I- I don't want to leave you, but I don't want to hurt anyone-"

Peter stood up and pulled her into a hug. She let out another sob, pressing her face into his shoulder. "I'm so- I'm so sorry-"

"Shh..." Peter murmured. "Don't apologize, okay? It's okay now. Now you have me and we can work through this together. That's what couples do, right?" He asks her.

She nodded, curling into his arms a little more. "What did I ever do to deserve you, Peter Parker?" She asks him.

Peter let out a sigh, hugging her tightly. "I am so much less then what you deserve, Caitlin Snow." He states knowing she deserves the stars, as far as he's concerned.

Their moment gets interrupted by Iris coming in and sees them. "Wally's up." She tells them.

The couple breaks off and Wally offers to use him to bait Alchemy out to stop him, and if the attacks keep happening they could give Wally brain damage.

"Need I remind everyone Alchemy has a rock that can shoot lasers, so who knows what he has up his sleeve?" Cisco asks them.

"He's right. It could be a trap." May agrees with him.

"No, if we do this, we're gonna do it right." Joe says to them. "If I'm gonna put Wally at risk, I'm gonna use everything in my power to protect him."

-

Joe got the metahuman swat team ready to fight Alchemy and explained to them what they're up against but left the rest out about Spider-Man and flash identities but that they're providing backup.

They follow Wally to some strange subway off in a abandoned street.

"_Remember, when you get in there, we're not gonna have eyes._" Cisco warns them.

"Roger that." Peter confirms as they make their way down.

Wally's condition is worsening as they get closer to Alchemy.

"I'm picking up heat signatures." Peter informs them using his mask to see through the walls. "I read maybe eight in there with the leader, most likely Alchemy."

They get ready as Wally goes in to lead Alchemy into the trap and he sees several people bowing down to a figure with a hood and mask on.

"**Hello, Wallace**." Alchemy greets him.

"Are you him? Are you the voice I've been hearing inside my head?" Wally asks him while walking forward.

"**I am Alchemy**." He confirms to Wally.

"I've been having visions of another life. Where-where I have speed, where, I'm the Flash." Wally says as he stands in front of Alchemy.

"**I can give you that back, should you desire it**." Alchemy tells him.

"I just want the pain to stop." Wally asks him.

"**It will, child. Whatever you desire, I will see it so.**" Alchemy assures him. "**Now tell me, do you wish for the life that was taken from you to return?**"

"What I wish for...is all of you gone." Wally says as all of the followers pull out blades and Barry runs in to take the blades and Peter goes for the stone when Alchemy pulls it to him and uses it to send Peter flying across the room.

"**The boy has been chosen, Spider-Man**." Alchemy says and starts blasting him again. "**And you will not stand before what must be**-" he gets interrupted by the swat team shooting him down.

"Get on your knees, now!" Joe says and Alchemy drops the stone and it goes sliding across the room We're Wally sees it.

"**That was a grave mistake**." Alchemy tells them.

"It's over, Darth Vader knockoff." Peter tells Alchemy.

"**Over? You have no idea what's about to begin**." Alchemy says when they hear rumbling from the building and Barry looks as a white blur runs around the room.

"Did you guys see that?" Barry asks.

"See what?" Peter asks, confused when his senses are constantly going off in different areas.

Suddenly, all of the swat members are getting attacked by something apparently invisible and Barry tries chasing it when Peter gets smacked by the invisible thing and Wally is hearing voices coming from the stone.

But as soon as he touches it, he gets placed in some strange cocoon.

And that's when Barry gets attacked and thrown into the ceiling.

Peter and Joe get up to see Barry is being healed up by nothing but Kara.

"Who are you!?" Barry asks as he sees a giant, metal speedster in front of him.

"**_Savitar. The god of speed_**." The metal speedster says and pulls a blade from his arm.


	49. Killer Frost

Peter is helping Joe fight off Alchemy's men as Barry is still being held up and Joe grabs his gun and Peter raises his web shooters trying to figure out what they're supposed to be doing.

"Shoot him!" Barry tells them.

"I can't see it." Joe says as even Peter can't see it.

"Just do it!" Barry says and Peter throws a web grenade as Joe starts shooting and the grenade gives them an outline on what Savitar looks like when Alchemy grabs the stone and starts trying to escape.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Peter says and tires webbing him but Alchemy uses the stone to vaporize the webbing.

"**_Let's go for a run_." **Savitar tells Barry and the two disappear.

On Peter and Joe's side, they were able to stop one of the followers from getting away but they turn to see Barry is gone.

-

Barry gets pulled out of a blue vortex and thrown onto the ground as Savitar appears to beat Barry down and brings him through the portal multiple times, making him appear in several different places.

Savitar finally throws him at the water front and looks at the beaten down speedster.

"_**Had**__** enough**?" _Savitar asks Barry.

"Not even close." Barry sates standing back up but as soon as he runs at Savitar, he sends Barry flying after punching him so fast, when Barry got whiplash from the speed as he's getting thrown around constantly.

"_**Still alive down there**?" _Savitar asks Barry_. "**You are only a shadow beneath my throne. You are the past, where as I...I am the future Flash**." _Savitar informs him before grabbing him by the face and pulling out his blade again when a breach opens.

Caitlin and Cisco exit the breach and see Barry held up by a chokehold of what seemed to be air.

Caitlin bit her lip, hard. "I can't see it!"

"Just do it!!" Cisco yelled, on his knees with a hand at his head from the strain of creating a breach.

Caitlin lifted her hands, concentrated, and sent a stream of ice towards Barry's invisible foe. Soon enough, a shape began to form: large, hulking, and inhuman creature.

However, the ice cracked and there was a flash of white lightning before Barry crumpled back to the ground.

"Ooooh!" Cisco stood up with a groan, rubbing his head and taking off his goggles. "Whew-y! I'm gonna feel that tomorrow. That was a new and painful use of my powers."

Barry lay on his back in the pile of ice chips.

Caitlin walked up to him, followed by the hobbling Cisco, and helped him up. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay," Barry breathed, wobbling on one foot and a knee, hand still on the ground. "Just cold. Thanks for coming."

-

The team returned to Star labs and brought the Wally cocoon with them, not knowing what else to do and Caitlin started a quick checkup on the team.

"Barry, you're already healing; you should be fine soon. Uh, Cisco, the MRI that I did of your brain shows changes in the capillary morphology similar to that of a mini stroke," Caitlin recapped, coming over to stand by the bed where Cisco was lying, hand on his forehead. "I wouldn't try and inter-dimensional breach like that anytime soon."

"Okay, okay," Cisco said, sitting up with a worried look on his face. "You can't just gloss over that, okay? W-w-what does that even mean- am I gonna have this migraine for for the rest of my life?!"

Caitlin stared down at him, unamused. "It means that you should take a few Aspirin and you'll be fine."

"Oh," Cisco huffed. "Well, just...lead with that, next time."

"Peter, you should be perfectly fine. Just a few bruises from being thrown around like that." Caitlin assures him.

"Thanks, Cait." Peter replies happy. "And we know the risk you took with using your powers."

"I didn't do anything." Caitlin tells him.

"You saved Barry's life, possibly mine." Peter informs her.

"You've saved mine plenty of times. I'm sure I still owe you." Caitlin tells him. "I'm gonna go check on Wally."

"I'm gonna ask the obvious question...What was that thing?" Peter asks Barry.

"I don't know." Barry tells his friend. "But now we know Alchemy is just the lackey. Whatever that thing was, it's what we're really up against." He says as they leave the med lab.

"Question; you're the only one who can see him?" HR asks Barry. "Why? I mean...why?"

"They're both speedsters. Maybe it has something to do with that." Cisco guesses.

"My senses were at least able to pick him up. So that's something, but all I saw was a flash of white." Peter informs them.

"Maybe. But I think he's more than a speedster. I mean, when he had me, it wasn't like we were even moving; it was like we were instantly somewhere different, even from my perspective." Barry tells them.

"Did he say anything else?" HR asks.

"He said his name was Savitar." Barry answers.

"As in the Hindu god of motion?" Peter asks him.

"He said he was a god." Barry confirms.

"That's-that's nice. That's not scary...at all." Cisco says, not loving this.

They then leave to go check on Wally to see what's happening.

"Can you tell us anything?" Barry asks the two medical experts.

"Well...Wally's alive in there, but his vitals are really subdued." May says looking at their data.

"She's right, his brain function is seriously low. Something like you'd see in a coma patient." Caitlin tells them.

"I was in a coma when I got my powers. Maybe it's a similar process." Barry tells them.

"Is there a way of breaking this?" Peter asks Caitlin.

"When a caterpillar is in its chrysalis, it literally breaks its body down into enzyme soup before rebuilding as a butterfly." Caitlin explains to them, meaning if they do open it by force, they could kill him.

Joe starts rambling about how none of them know what's happening inside that thing and he can use his detective skills to possibly get something out of the Alchemy follower that they captured.

-

Suddenly, Peter's spider senses go off, but it's not a bad thing. It's like...there's something wrong, but not a bad wrong. It was like his senses were telling him that there's something about to happen.

But it seems more time has passed as he was staring off since Joe has returned.

"Wally!" Joe cried, rushing into the Cortex. Where he finds everyone all sitting around the cocoon lying on the bed. "What happened?"

"Uh...hey Joe," Cisco said awkwardly. "What do you mean?"

"Caitlin came by the precinct; she said that Wally was out. That he was okay." Joe explains.

May frowns, now noticing she hasn't seen Caitlin in a while. "I didn't even see her leave." She tells Joe.

Realization filled Barry at sickening speed. He got to his feet and ran.

-

When he got to the precinct his fears were confirmed. Julian Albert had been kidnapped, and a strange icy meta had gotten into an interrogation room.

"She took out the security camera so we couldn't ID her," officer Davis said, playing the feed for Barry. "I thought maybe you'd recognize her."

Barry swallowed. He did recognize her. "Uh, no. Why would she take Julian?"

"She's a meta," Davis snapped, preparing his gun. "They're all crazy. But, don't worry. We'll get her."

Barry shook his head slowly as leaned back over the cam, watching the feed on a loop. "What're you doing, Caitlin?"

-

"So they know she took Julian?" Joe asked after Barry debriefed the team on what had happened at the CCPD.

"No, they don't. They don't even know that it's Caitlin. Yet. So we need to find her before they do," Barry responded.

Peter now feels like a mess, like his whole world was starting to fall into pieces. This was worse then any sort of outcome he could have dreamed of after Caitlin had told him she had powers. She was out there, alone, scared, being hunted and they had no idea where.

"Now, what about this Savitar?" HR spoke up thoughtfully.

"Let's find Caitlin and then we can worry about Savitar." Peter snapped, cutting him off. He didn't care about some wannabe false-god when Caitlin is out there.

"You know guys, I-I agree with PP," HR said immediately. "Let's find Caitlin."

"Okay, you're right." Iris said. "When we find Caitlin, then what?"

Barry rubbed the back of his neck. He hadn't thought that far ahead. "I...I don't know- she's not thinking straight-"

"She's becoming Killer Frost." Cisco muttered. "It's just like in the vibe."

Peter's stomach tightened. "We don't know that yet." He states to his friend.

"Her mother said that the more she uses her powers, the faster she's gonna go. And saving Barry from Savitar... that must have put her over the edge." Cisco reminds him.

Guilt coiled in Barry's stomach. All of this was his fault.

"Alright, how do we find her?" Peter asked, trying to steer the conversation away from a subject that he was sure would be touchy for him.

"I don't know. I tried pinning her phone, and Julian's, but she must have ditched them both." Cisco says.

"Ahem!" HR cleared his throat importantly. "I'm a may..."

"Oh," Cisco snarked. "More suggestions from the genius over here."

"You don't call the genius, the genius calls you," HR responded immediately, and somewhat confusingly. "Question, how did you catch your Captain Cold? I've been reading about him in your files and he seems like a wily fellow-slow talker, but his MO is strikingly similar to our dear Caitlin's."

"What? No!" Cisco rolled his eyes, annoyed. "We tracked him using the satellites to scan for ultraviolet cold signatures..." He trailed off, and they could immediately tell that he had gotten something. "Oh. Okay."

He leaned over the computer, Iris standing up to peer over his shoulder at the screen. Barry walked around the desk to join them, almost buzzing with anticipation.

"No...nothing in the precinct..." Cisco muttered, peering at the computer.

"What's that?" Barry asked, nodding at a blip on the screen.

Cisco zoomed in.

"Transit food warehouse," Peter read, glancing over at Barry to gauge his reaction.

Cisco brought up a camera from inside the warehouse. "There she is. Okay, I'm gonna isolate the feed so no one else can see it."

"You guys figure out what she's making Julian do." Barry ordered, pulling away from the desk. "I'm going."

"I'm coming with you." Peter states grabbing his mask. "I got through Killer Frost, I know I can get through to Caitlin."

"Okay, let's do it." Barry agrees, knowing if there is anyone who can get through to Caitlin, it's him. He grabs onto Peter and speeds them off.

-

Caitlin and Julian were both hunched over a computer at the warehouse.

"I've found two individuals that searched for the name Savitar," Julian reported. Caitlin had frozen his arm less then an hour before when he had contacted the police. "Here are both their addresses," he continued. "Both of them are in Central City." He turned his gaze to her a little nervously. "What exactly are you going to do to them."

Caitlin was silent for a long moment, her strangely blue eyes looking unsure and almost like herself for the first time since she had kidnapped him. "I...don't know." She turned away, blinking a few times and shaking her head. "What am I doing...?" she whispered to herself.

The sound of typing made her turn. Julian glanced up from the computer, eyes opening with guilty fear. Before she thought, Caitlin sent an icicle at the computer, smashing the screen and sending it sliding off the table.

"What part of I'll freeze you to death did you not understand?!" she yelled angrily.

Julian backed into the corner as she held up her hands, swirling with frost.

She saw true fear in his eyes, and it brought her a great deal of satisfaction.

At that exact moment, a familiar flash of yellow lightning sped into the room. Caitlin's hands fell to her sides as Peter held up his own. "Stop."

Her eyes immediately faded to brown.

"Get out of here." Caitlin pleaded. She didn't want to have to hurt him. She didn't think that she could, but she needed to keep searching for Alchemy.

"You know I can't do that." Peter breathed, stepping forward towards the woman he loves.

"What're you doing?" Julian muttered behind him. "Take her out."

"You don't want to do this." Peter insisted, taking another step towards her and ignoring Julian. She turned away. "You don't want to hurt anybody."

"She's going to hurt someone! Knock her out!" Julian tells him.

In a sudden rash movement, Barry lit out with one of his fists and knocked Julian in the forehead. He crumpled back against the table, unconscious.

"Go on." Barry tells Peter.

"Caitlin." Peter pleaded.

She turned back to him, feeling tears burning behind her eyes and hating the feeling.

"Leave me _alone_." Caitlin warns him.

"What are you doing?" Peter asks her.

"I have to find Alchemy!" Caitlin exclaimed.

"We will find him," Peter told her firmly. "Together."

Caitlin tugged a hand through her hair. "No, you don't understand. I don't want to lock him up, I need him to helpme."

"Help you with what?" Barry now asks.

"I need him to get rid of my powers!" Caitlin tells them.

There. It was finally out of the bag. The real reason she was doing all of this, the reason she was panicking and the reason she had gone against every moral that she had _ever_ had. She couldn't keep these powers. She couldn't be a danger to her friends.

Peter's eyes softened in sadness under his mask and he removes it to face her.

"I don't think it works that way." Peter breaks to her.

"You don't know that it doesn't." Caitlin said, eyes glittering with tears.

"I know that I love you." Peter tells her while taking her hand in his.

Caitlin's lips pressed together to hold in a sob as he took another step foreword, reaching for her.

"I will do everything I can to help you," he continued. "You and I...we...we've been through too much together to let each other down now. Please. Let me help you?"

Suddenly, something inside of her just snapped. Caitlin's eyes went electric blue. "Like you helped your uncle?" she said, voice icy cold.

Peter felt like something had been stabbed into his stomach. "Caitlin-"

"Or Ronnie? Or me?" Caitlin continued, the icy cold Killer Frost Fury inside of her unable to stop.

Peter swallowed hard. "I can help _you_, Cait." He said, trying to keep his voice steady.

"Oh, like you fixed everything when I got these powers?" Caitlin exploded. "My fear _destroyed_ me. And you didn't even notice!"

Peter took a step back, hurt flashing across his face that even Barry was shocked to hear Caitlin say this.

The sudden sound of gun's cocking echoed across the room.

"Albert's down!" Davis yelled. "Shoot her!"

Caitlin turned toward the noise, raising her hands in icy defense, and just glimpsed the barrel of at least six guns pointed straight at her before she was moving.

Barry grabbed her around the waist and ran her out of harm's way, stopping them both behind a shipping container.

Peter quickly does some flips to avoid the bullets while placing his mask back on. "Hey, cool it, trigger happy group!" He tells the officers.

Furious, Caitlin glanced at her hand and watched a deadly sharp icicle form in her palm. Then she turned and slammed it into Barry's calf.

He cried out in pain, and the sound almost made her sick. Then the cold took over again and she glared at him. "That severed your tricep suri," she said. "Even with your healing abilities it'll take four hours to regenerate. Don't follow me." She warns him.

She hurled herself to her feet and ran.

Peter sees her running, and tries catching up with her when she uses her powers to create an ice wall so he can't follow.

Which means he needs to carry Barry back to Star labs...again.

-

Peter brings the two of them to Star labs where May checks on Barry's leg Caitlin stabbed.

"How much does it hurt?" May asked as she finished wrapping Barry's leg in gauze.

"As much as I deserve." Barry murmured in answer, pulling down his pant leg.

Joe walked into the room, putting his phone away in his pocket. "They took Julian to County General. He's still out cold. How hard did you hit him?"

Barry let out a breath. "I dunno... I didn't mean to knock him out." He reconsidered and shrugged a little, wincing as he tugged his shoe onto his bad leg. "Well...maybe I did."

Iris and Joe followed him back into the Cortex where Cisco was working.

"I hacked Julian's computer." Cisco reported, moving over to the desk. Peter walked over and stood behind him, rubbing her fingers over his shoulders. "Caitlin had him look up two addresses," he continued, hitting a few keys before his shoulder's relaxed under Iris' touch. "16 Hawthorn Avenue and 1104 Trimming Place."

"She's trying to find the acolytes," HR said from the corner, raising his drumstick.

"What would she want with Alchemy's followers?" Iris mused, looking down at the addresses and then back up at Barry.

"She must think that they can take her to Alchemy...she wants him to take her powers away." Peter says as his voice cracked a little.

Somehow, even with everything she was doing, Caitlin's motives were so innocent it amazed him.

"We know. We heard everything," Cisco glanced up at him. "What she said..."

There was nothing but silence for a minute when Cisco got back on subject.

"Well," Cisco said quickly. "Two acolytes, two addresses. Which one are we going to hit first?"

"We gotta watch both-" Barry started, turning away from the desk.

"You're gonna stay here," Peter said firmly. "You can barely walk. I'll take Hawthorn."

"I'll take Trimming!" HR called, hopping up from his chair and following Cisco towards the door.

Joe nodded. "I care about Caitlin, but I don't wanna leave Wally."

"Dad," Iris spoke up. "Barry and I will stay with Wally. You go with HR."

"Oh! Oh, yeah, I would love that. You and me: All star team up! You know, I'll make a couple cappuccinos for the road. So we're ready for tonight's adventures- hey." he stopped and turned toward Peter. "Not to worry, Peter. We'll help her!" He grinned and bobbed out of the door.

Peter let out a slow sigh, dipping his head foreword to hand between his arms.

Yesterday, everything was perfectly fine. And now everything is falling apart.

How had this gone so wrong, so fast?

-

Caitlin had just heard the prophecy about her future as Killer Frost when a yell cut the silence.

"CAITLIN!"

_Peter._

Caitlin spun and headed for the door, glaring back one more time at the Alchemy acolyte. She ran outside and came to a stop in the dark road, raising her eyebrow at Spider-Man. "Really. You brought your toys?"

Peter was dressed in full Spider-Man gear, and had his feet planted.

"I'm hoping it won't come to that." Peter said seriously, staring at her.

Caitlin clenched her fists, preparing herself. "It won't."

"Look, I'm not leaving you out here," Peter continued. "I want to help you. You know that."

"There's only one person who can help me." Caitlin informs him.

"Really?" Peter shook his head. "You _really_ think seeking medical advice from someone named Dr. Alchemy is the way to go? I'd prefer to get some from dr. Doom."

If it had been any other time, that might have made Caitlin laugh. Now she just smirked and shrugged. "Why not? _My_ name is Killer Frost."

"_Your name.._" Peter cut her off. "Is Caitlin Snow." He corrects her.

The icy fury took hold again and Caitlin raised her frost-steaming hands. "Can Caitlin Snow do this?"

She sent five icicles toward Peter, one after the other, and he uses his reflexes to dodge every attack. Two of them hit the tree he dove behind, digging in deep into the wood.

"Caitlin, please!" Peter yelled, peeking a tiny bit around the tree. He was forced to duck back as a sixth icicle came shooting toward him, centimeters from his head.

When Peter pulled out next, he sent a web straight at her and Caitlin ducked. It just missed her.

A bolt of lightning zipped down the street and Caitlin gritted her teeth, sending a couple icicles at Barry. He flashed behind a car, then ran towards her, and Caitlin sent a stream of ice onto the road.

Barry slipped, landing on his back and sliding until he nearly hit her feet.

Caitlin stepped over to him, smirking. "How's the leg?"

Suddenly, Barry swept one arm across her ankles. Caitlin flipped foreword, the breath knocked out of her as she landed. She flopped back on her back, lying next to Barry and sending him a dirty look.

"I'm sorry, Caitlin." he breathed, glancing over at her.

"That was cold, Flash." Caitlin admitted. "But this is colder."

She swung herself over until she was laying on top of his chest and pressed her lips against his.

His face was slowly beginning to freeze, Caitlin sucking all of the heat out of his body and into her through their pressed lips.

Abruptly, Caitlin was slammed away from him by a vibe-blast. She flew off of his chest and slammed into the glass of a car, cracking it and then tumbling off the side.

Cisco appeared and ran over to where Barry was lying and crouched down by his blue-faced friend. "Start vibrating," he instructed. "It'll warm you up."

Soon, steam was rising off of Barry in plumes and he was groaning, rolling over. He was stiff all over, but the only thing he could think about was that this was it.

Peter runs over to Caitlin to make sure she's okay, but doesn't know what he's going to do now.

-

When Caitlin woke up, she was in a cell in the Pipeline. She blinked awake, staring out at numerous feet of Team Flash, and rolled to a sitting position.

"Oof!" Caitlin stood up, smiling charmingly out at her friends. "Guess I just needed a little sleep. Thanks guys. I'm feeling much better now."

Everyone stared stolidly back at her.

"It's okay," she said. "I promise I'm not gonna hurt anybody."

Silence.

"Hmm. Guess you're all smarter then I thought." Caitlin shrugged, walking closer to the glass. "Ya know, that was some blast there, vibe boy," she said to Cisco. "Kinda hurt."

Peter shook his head. "We didn't want to hurt you." He tells her.

She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "You're pathetic."

"Alchemy can't help you," Barry said. "But we can. I promise."

"Oh, like you promised Eddie?" Caitlin asked, shooting him a fake smile. She didn't miss the flicker fo pain that flitted across Barry's face. "And like _you_ promised Ronnie? You know, for a hero, Flash, you sure let a lot of people around you _die_."

Through all of that sweet, forgiving, caring, beautiful exterior, it seemed that Caitlin really _did_ blame them for all of the deaths that Team Flash had had to go through over the years.

"This isn't you talking." Barry muttered, almost more for himself then her. "It's the powers; they're messing with your mind. You're sick."

Caitlin shook her head. Her next words made him ache.

"I'm _broken_, Barry." Caitlin states to him and paused, smiling slightly. "But what do you care? 'Cause you've got Iris. You got your happy ending. Everyone else be damed. So I'll tell you what? Let me go, and I will leave you to your _sad_ and _miserable_ lives."

"No," Barry said firmly. "We're not abandoning you."

"You did this to me!" Caitlin yelled, lurching foreword toward the glass, eyes glowing white.

Barry shut the Pipeline door, leaving her in darkness.

-

Peter held himself together until he reached the speed lab. No one was around, and he let himself fall unto the treadmill and cry.

Too much had happened today. Too much had come to light, all at once. Savitar, Wally, Caitlin's true feelings. And he still was unable to get out of his mind that this was how she felt.

She had never truly felt like he was there for her. She had never really _believed _the words she had told him, about forgiveness and not taking the blame and how she would always love him no matter what.

He dropped his head into his hands, trying to stem the flow of tears before it all came rushing out in a torrent that he would never be able to stop.

The sound of footsteps made him look up. May came slowly down the stairs, smiling sadly when she saw him drop his head again and rub at his eyes.

"Hey," she said softly. "What're you doing down here?"

"Just...needed some time alone," Peter muttered into his hands. "To think for a bit."

"She doesn't mean what she said, you know that, right?" May said, sitting down beside him. "That isn't her down there in the pipeline."

"Yeah, that's what I keep trying to tell myself," Peter mumbled, rubbing his face. "Except that was her, May. Same face, same voice, same Caitlin. If she's._if she's feeling like that...how can I possibly call myself a good boyfriend if I'm not even there when she needs me?"

His voice broke and he buried his face in his arms, letting out a sob. May reached over and gently rubbed his back.

"I should have talked to her. I should have checked in on her. I should have noticed." Peter states, he's been by Caitlin's side ever since Ronnie's first death. How could he not have noticed something as big as this?

"You've gotta stop doing this to yourself." May pleaded, trying to get him to look at her. "You have to stop going through the what-ifs, Peter. We need you to be strong right now, just like I know you are. We need you. Caitlin needs you. And no matter how much you think you have, you have never let her down. Are you really going to start now, when she needs you the most?" She asks.

Peter nodded seeing what she means, and May pulled him in for a quick hug.

They were just getting to their feet when the lights flickered eerily.

"What fresh Hell is this?" They both think.

-

When they reached the Cortex, Barry barely had time to move everyone out of the way before Wally's cocoon exploded.

Joe had decided that he was going to take it upon himself to cut Wally out of his shell, no matter how many times Caitlin had said that it wasn't a good idea.

Now Barry rose up on his elbow and blinked spots out of his eyes, dreading what was about to happen.

Wally wasn't a pile of goo, but something definitely wasn't right. He was vibrating all over, like Barry did when he tried to phase, and he didn't seem to know quite where he was.

"Wally?" Joe whispered, pulling himself up from behind the table he had crashed behind.

Wally's head turned towards the noise. Iris stared at him, Cisco's hand resting on her arm as he made sure she was okay.

"Wally?" Barry echoed, moving foreword slightly.

Wally once again turned toward the noise, but in a second he had flashed out of the Cortex and was gone from view.

There was a long silence as everyone collected themselves. "Joe..." Peter trailed off, rubbing his hands over his neck and staring at the wreckage of Wally's cocoon.

"What did I do?" Joe muttered, staring at the floor in shock.

"Was this your idea?!" Barry cried, glaring at HR.

HR huffed. "No. Joe. I was helping Joe."

"No sign of Wally," Cisco reported, coming around the desk with his tablet. "I've got the satellite to scan the entire city for rapid movement."

"If he's a speedster he could be halfway across the country by now." Peter muttered, furious and stressed.

"How do we find him?" May asks.

Barry shook his head. "I'm more worried about what happens when we _do_ find him," he admitted. "He didn't seem like he was all there."

"I shouldn't have cut him out of that thing," Joe said, self-hate evident in his voice.

"Joe, I-" Barry was saying but stopped himself. "What we need right now is a biochemist."

Joe stared hard at Peter. "You've gotta go talk to her, Peter."

Peter stilled, let out a long breath, and nodded.

Then he turned and headed for the Pipeline.

-

Caitlin stood up when Peter opened up the Pipeline door.

"We need your help," Peter said softly, staring at her with a look so gentle it rather surprised her.

Caitlin would have thought he would have been angry at her, or hurt, but instead he just looked...Sad.

"Caitlin," Peter said, and she snapped back to attention. "Wally, they blew him from the cocoon, but his biochemistry is all out of wack. He went AWOL."

"So?" Caitlin asks, not caring.

"So when we find him, he's gonna need your help." Peter elaborated. "He's going to need your medical expertise; your experience with metahumans. What we need is Caitlin Snow, MD."

Caitlin grinned and leaned against the wall. She looked mildly impressed. "So you came to talk some sense into me."

This was where Peter's plan came into place.

It was risky, but he trusted Caitlin more then he had ever trusted anyone else in his life before, excluding May.

She had never once betrayed him, never once done anything for herself. It was time for him to give her the opportunity that she needed to get _herself_ back from this awful place.

"No," he said, walking over to the Pipeline controls. "I came to let you go."

The glass doors swung open and Caitlin walked cautiously out, tilting her head.

"For a smart guy...that was an awfully dumb move." Caitlin informs him.

Peter shook his head, staring down into her blue-tinted eyes.

"Like I said, you're free to go." Peter tells her

She squinted at him, not buying it.

"What's the catch?" Caitlin asks.

"You have to kill me." Peter informs her.

"You wanna fight, Spider-Man?" Caitlin asks while glaring at him.

This was exactly the reaction he had hope for. If Caitlin was truly gone, she wouldn't have even hesitated in slamming an icicle into his chest and stepping on his cold corpse on the way out the door.

"No." Peter said, keeping his face emotionless. "I'm not gonna fight you. But if you want to leave this room...you're going to have to kill me."

"Don't think I won't." Caitlin hissed at him

"Then do it." Peter said standing still.

Caitlin's eyes flashed white and she glanced down at her hand. A single, sharp icicle formed between her fingertips and she lifted it up, level to Peter's heart.

"What're you waiting for?" Peter challenged. He could see the struggle on her face, in the way she shifted her weight, in the tightening of her jaw. He was getting through to her.

"Come one, what's the big deal? Live up to your name, _Killer Frost_. I wanna see some killing. You want to be the villain? This is what they do, they kill their friends, because nothing matters to them anymore, right? Right?!"

He grabbed her wrist, pressing the point of the icicle against his own chest and making her jump. Caitlin's lips were pressed together, her face a mask of fury and something else... something a bit more human.

"Come on," Peter whispered, glaring at her. "_Kill me, Caitlin_."

Her lips started to wobble and he could see Caitlin returning.

Peter leaned a little closer. "You can't do it." He whispered. "You can't. Because underneath all that cold, you're still you. You're still the woman I love."

There was a long tense silence. Then Caitlin's lips parted and her eyes turned abruptly back to brown.

She gasped, icicle falling and shattering on the floor, and immediately burst into tears.

"Peter-"

Peter wrapped his arms around her, hugging her so tightly she thought she might feel a little bit of the warmth she thought she would never get back creeping back into her.

"It's okay." whispered into her hair, pressing his lips to her temple and rocking her back and forth. "I got you, Cait. It's okay." He assures her.

-

Peter and her walk back to the med labs where Caitlin does what she does best.

"I think extracting Wally early from that cocoon left him in a fugue state. His synapsis aren't used to functioning at super speed, so his mind and muscles are misfiring."

Her hair was back to being almost completely brown. She was currently in one of the medical rooms, explaining what had happened to Wally to the rest of the team.

"Will this stuff help?" Joe asked, gesturing at the small vial of serum Caitlin had just pulled from the machine.

"I've synthesized a neural compound that I think will get his mind and body running at the same speed."

"We just have to find him first." May said, glancing at them.

HR flipped his hat on to his head and spun to the detective. "Where to go, Joe? What's your gut tell you?"

Joe looked surprised to be asked his opinion. His brow furrowed for a moment, before he pointed at Barry. "The house that he grew up in. He used to go there when he missed his mother."

HR clapped triumphantly, and Barry sprung out of his chair to follow Joe. "Let's go."

He stopped at Caitlin and she handed him the vial. "Thank you." Barry tells her before leaving.

She nodded, and Joe and Barry flashed out to go neutralize Wally.

"It's good to see you're okay." May tells Caitlin.

"I'm happy to be back." Caitlin says.

When they got back, an unconscious Wally West in tow, Caitlin did a quick checkup on the new speedster before determining that he was go to go home.

-

That night, there was a sort of unspoken agreement between them as they reached Caitlin's apartment that Peter would be staying with her.

Caitlin trudged up the stairs ahead of Peter and unlocked her door, before taking off her coat and jewelry and wandering into her bedroom.

Peter followed her, hanging his coat on the hook and slipping off his shoes. He felt tense, and unsure of how the inevitable conversation between them of what had happened today was going to go.

He decided that he should speak first, and followed Caitlin into her bedroom before he said anything.

"I...I wanted to apologize." Peter started. He hated how stiff and fake his words sounded, but he wasn't quite sure what else to say without completely falling to pieces. "What happened today...you-you're right."

"_No_." Caitlin said angrily, turning around, eyes red-rimmed. "No, don't do that."

"What?" Peter questions, not understanding.

"Don't act like this was on you. What happened today...that was _me_. _I_ was the one who didn't tell you about my powers. _I_ was the one that hurt you. _I _am the one that you shouldn't even be wanting to look at, because I could have killed you today and you would still somehow love me!" Caitlin says as her voice breaks suddenly, and she gasped out a small sob before turning abruptly and ran into the bathroom, and Peter heard the door lock behind her.

Peter hurried after her, trying the handle even though he knew it wouldn't turn. He could hear the sound of her sobs through the door, the soft thump of her trembling back hitting the wall.

"Caitlin...let me in." Peter pleaded. "Please?"

"Go away," Caitlin sniffled. "I don't want to...I can't hurt you anymore."

"Caitlin, I swear, I will break the door." Peter threatened.

"I want to be alone." She tells him.

Peter sighed, and used his strength to break the door handle off (getting flashbacks for when he first got his powers) and then crouching beside her.

"No you don't." Peter said softly, placing his hand on her hair.

She was curled up on the tile floor, her face buried into her knees. He could see the glowing blue of her power-dampening cuffs through her shirt sleeves, and she shuddered slightly when he touched her.

"Come here." Peter whispered, tugged her into his arms and standing up, carrying her back to her bedroom.

He set her down on the mattress and crouched on the floor in front of her, forcing her to look at him. "If I say I forgive you, will you forgive me?"

"I don't deserve forgiveness." Caitlin mumbled to him.

"Cait, everyone makes mistakes," Peter said, taking her hands into his. "Everyone has rough days and rough times, and just because you are the most amazing, perfect woman I have ever met, it doesn't mean that that rule exceeds you, okay? Seeing you like this...see you go through this, as much as it kills me to see it also amazes me, because the fact that you could come back from all of this in time to help your team shows me how crazy strong you are. Stronger then I think any of us know. I've been where you are right now, and I'm gonna do whatever it takes to help you." He promises her as Caitlin blinked at him, teardrops balancing on her eyelashes.

"Even though you say it's not my fault, I should have been more noticed your needs and your struggles. I don't want this relationship just about making sure I'm okay. You've gone through just as much hardship as I have, and I never forget that. Everyone needs a break sometimes. But I promise you, Caitlin, you _can_ be fixed."

Caitlin bit her lip hard and nodded, sucking in a shaky breath. The two quickly changed and crawled into bed and Peter wrapped himself around her, sighing into her hair.

"I love you." Peter whispered, kissing her forehead. "And I know I don't say it nearly enough, or maybe even at all, but Caitlin Snow: you amaze me."

"How do you do it? Always see the light in people?" Caitlin asks him as her voice still cracks.

"Because no one is ever truly gone. There is always light in the darkness. You just need the right person to shine it." Peter tells her, always happy to help.

"You're gonna fix my door, right?" She asks referring to the bathroom door he broke.

"I can fix it." Peter promises her. "There is nothing broken that can't be fixed." He tells her as she drifts off to sleep.

-

During the night, while the real Spider-Man slept, the Ultimate Spider-Man was making his first appearance.


	50. Invasion

Earth-1

The Spider-Flash team are watching Wally running around the speed lab using his powers.

"Kid gets faster every time we test him." Peter comments on his speed.

"He's already reached Mach 2." Cisco replies to that.

"Impressive, considering he just got his powers." Peter says. "Cait, how are his vitals?" He asks his girlfriend.

"His running economy, lactate threshold are all above expected levels." Caitlin tells him.

"I think we might have a little prodigy on our hands." Cisco states. "Like a Wizard Of Whiz."

"Like a what of what?" Peter asks his friend when his phone goes off.

"What's that?" Caitlin asks him.

"Another sighting on this mysterious Spider-Man." Peter tells her. "Fox is having a hard time finding out who he is."

"Why are you looking into this guy?" Cisco asks.

"Because he's running around using _my_ name. And his suit is a hoodie, jeans and gloves, along with a ski mask. He's running into danger and he's likely to get himself hurt." Peter tells his friend.

"What do you plan on doing if you learn who he is?" Caitlin asks him.

"I don't know, I was thinking maybe give him a few pointers on Spider-Manning. Maybe get Fox to make him a better suit. I mean, he's actually getting hurt. I saw him get shot in one of his videos." Peter explains.

"Yeah, another Spider-Man on the team. Two heroes getting sidekicks." Cisco says kinda excited. "And wait, you're gonna have Fox make his suit?" He asks.

"How about I let you both design him a better suit?" Peter compromises for his friend.

"I can live with that." Cisco agrees when Wally comes to a stop.

"What? Was it not good?" Wally asks them.

"No, you were fine." Peter corrects Wally. "We were just..distracted." He explains .

"That was amazing. Dinners on me. Whatever you want." Joe tells Wally and they leave.

_"Testing. Calling all Star labs employees, your presence in the Cortex would be greatly appreciated._" The voice of HR comes through the speakers.

"That's tonight?" Cisco asks. "His presentation?"

"Well, I'm not a Star labs employee, and I'm going to go see if I can catch up with my copycat." Peter tells them and kisses Caitlin before leaving.

"Hey, when you meet him, don't go hard on him." Caitlin asks him.

"You know it." Peter replies and leaves to look for the new Spider-Man.

-

Miles Morales, the new Spider-Man in question, was swinging through the city for any more crimes when his Spider-Man senses went off and he turns to see his idol, Spider-Man.

"You know, copying doesn't help you get anywhere." Peter informs the new Spider-Man.

"You're...you're Spider-Man." Miles says, shocked that he's here.

"The costume kinda gives it away, doesn't it?" Peter jokes and leaps down to meet him face to face. "I thought I was the only one, but you're like me. How'd you get your powers?" He asks.

"Well, it just happened a while ago. I was having...dreams of being Spider-Man. I thought it was because I'm kinda...obsessed with Spider-Man. But then I started to hear a voice in my head. And a name, Alchemy. He said he could give back what was taken from me, and gave me these powers. I created the suit on my own and it seems in my dreams, I was only Spider-Man for about a month."

"Alchemy." Peter spits in anger as they see he got to another kid, but he seems to have good intentions unlike the others. "Yeah, I know Alchemy. Listen, I'm here to offer you my help." He explains to him.

"You...want...you wanna train me?" Miles asks, wanting it clarified.

"Yeah, train you in the Way of the Spider." Peter says in a joking voice.

"Yes!" Miles shouts a little too loud. "I mean, yeah I'd like that. A few pointers never hurt." He rephrases to be calm.

"Okay, how about..." Peter was about to explain to him when his senses go off and he looks to see a meteor is heading for the city. "Oh, god what is this?" He asks before looking at Miles.

"Look, meet me here maybe tomorrow, I might not be able to make it but just come here." Peter tells Miles seeing he needs to get to the meteor as Barry's probably on his way now. "Just stay safe, and don't do anything you're not ready for!" He shouts while he's off swinging.

"Got it!" Miles says, trying to stay cool and not explode with enthusiasm. "I just met Spider-Man. The _real_ Spider-Man." He tells himself before swinging home.

Barry just made to where the meteor landed when Peter comes swinging in. But they then look closer and see it's not a meteor.

"Tell me that's not what I think it is." Peter asks Barry.

"Good, that means you're seeing it, too." Barry says thinking he was seeing things.

What they see is a gigantic silver alien spaceship. The doors then open and send a blast out that send the two heroes back and monster like creatures all run out of the ship like a herd.

"Aliens!" Barry and Peter both shout in fear.

-

Lyla has came from Star City to investigate the spacecraft and has come to Star labs to explain what's happening.

"Aliens?" Cisco asks like a excited child. "Are they _Alien_ Aliens or little green men?"

"Both. It was like that hologram monster we fought a while back was turned into a human." Peter tries explaining to them.

Since we learned of them, we've been calling them the Dominators." Lyla explains to them and hands them photos.

"That is not the name of a species that comes in peace." Wally adds.

"No, no, it's very aggressive." HR agrees.

"How long have we known about these things?" May asks.

"Since the '50s." Lyla tells her.

"That was them. Redmond, Oregon. The government tried covering it up." Joe says and they all look surprised to how he knows that. "What? I watch Syfy channel."

"In 1951, they appeared under the same sort of circumstances." Lyla says and plays a video showing the army being attacked. "A ship crash-landed. Little to no communication. We learned they were abducting humans to gather intel about us. They attacked, and hundreds of soldiers lost their lives. Then for some inexplicable reason, they left."

"Great. All my nightmares have finally come to life." Peter states. He doesn't do aliens, ain't got time for no aliens, ain't got the bravery for them. But that hasn't stopped him from fighting before.

"All contact had been lost until three months ago when the DOD received this." Lyla continues and plays a voice recording.

_"We pose no threat, human inhabitants. Understanding is our purpose. Any action against us, as shown to us in the past, will prompt swift retaliation._" The Dominator says.

"So when we discovered four ships heading towards Earth, we were concerned that it was happening all over again. One of them, obviously, landed here." Lyla tells them.

"Right, 'cause we ain't got enough crazy going on here in Central City." Joe adds.

"Do you know what they want?" Caitlin asks.

"They've ignored all attempts to communicate, but we do know just like before, that the dropship contain reconnaissance teams sent here to gather more intel about us." Lyla says.

"Searching for our achilles heel." May guesses.

"We need to do something." Wally adds.

"We are." Lyla assures him. "Nearly every member state in the UN is in the talks of what to do. Action is being taken."

"These things look like _Alien_ and the LGM's from _Toy Story_ had a child. No bunker buster is gonna stop them." Peter informs her.

"Peter, neither can you. You and Barry aren't going to be able to stop them alone." Lyla informs them. "Let us handle it." She says before leaving.

"So the plan isn't to just stay still and do nothing, right?" Wally asks.

"God, no." Peter and Barry say at once.

"Peter, you heard her. You guys can't stop them alone." Caitlin tells him.

"We don't plan to." Barry says as they both have the same idea.

"I know someone who's seriously eager to prove himself, he could look over the city." Peter tells them.

-

Barry went to Star City to talk to Oliver about helping out and Peter swings to meet up with Miles.

"Oh, you're here." Miles says jittery.

"Look, we could use your help." Peter says and pulls off his mask revealing his face to Miles. "My team, we're dealing with something big. I can't get started on training you until I get these aliens are gone."

"Aliens?" Miles asks.

"Yeah. And I trust you enough to look over my city while I'm gone. I'm Peter Parker." Peter finally introduces himself and holds out his hand.

Miles knows he needs to trust Peter and pulls off his mask. "Miles Morales. Your biggest fan." He introduces himself.

"Just watch over my city, and don't do anything crazy." Peter begs the kid before leaving.

-

He meets up with everyone at an old hanger of Star labs.

"All right, so let me get this right." John asks them. "Our time-traveling buddies in a flying timeship are supposed to just pop up right here, right?"

"Yeah. This is the time and place I gave them, so if they got my message, they should be here." Felicity tells him when the TimeShip appears.

"You know I've never done drugs?" John asks Peter. "Because I was always afraid I'd see weird stuff."

"Yeah, me too." Peter admits. "Funny how our lives make us see crazy stuff, huh?"

"Okay, take everybody inside, all right?" Barry asks them. "And tell Oliver I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?" Thea asks him.

"Since were fighting aliens, I figured we should get some of our own, right?" Barry says and Cisco has his glasses ready.

"Tachyon device tracked you on Earth-38 when you met them, so you should find them there." Cisco tells him and opens a breach. "This might take a few tries." He warns Barry before stepping into the breach.

-

Earth-38, National City.

At Kara's place, the stabilized breach opens and Cisco and Barry step out.

"This better be the right place." Cisco tells his friend.

"It is." Barry tells him as they look around the place.

"'Cause if this isn't the right place, someone's about to be real confused." Cisco says when the door opens and they turn to see Kara.

"Barry?" Kara asks, surprised to see him again.

"Hey, Kara." Barry greets his friend.

"I knew it. I knew that was you." Kara says closing her door and hugging her friend. "I knew it was you in that weird space portal thing."

"Yeah. It took a couple of tries to get here." Barry tells her. "This is my friend, Cisco." He introduces her to him.

"Hi." Cisco greets shaking her hand. "I've got to say, this is a nice Universe you got here."

"Hey, do you remember last year, when I helped you and Peter out and you guys promised to do the same for me?" Barry asks her.

"What are we up against?" Kara asks her.

"You're gonna what to call Peter, that's for sure." Barry tells her.

-

Earth-1, hanger.

"Team Arrow is here." Felicity role calls. "Team Legends is here. Team Spider-Flash is here. Is that everyone?"

"I think so?" HR guesses.

"Nate and Amaya are back watching the Waverider." Sara tells them. "The newbies."

A breach opens up and Barry, Cisco, Kara, Peter and Gwen step through the breach.

"Oh, that is so much fun!" Gwen states to them when they look to see everyone is here.

"Guys. Thanks for coming." Barry tells them.

"Barry, I thought you were bringing aliens." Oliver reminds him.

"I did. Everyone, these are my friends, Kara Danvers, that's...Peter Parker, and his fiancée, Gwen Stacy. Or as they're known on their Earth, Supergirl and the Iron-Spider." Barry introduces them.

"What makes them so special?" Jax asks and Peter activates his iron suit and flies up along with Kara and they use their lasers to make their symbols.

"I'm convinced." John says.

"Best. Team up. Ever!" Felicity screeches.

Peter-38 just drops and removes his mask to face his doppelgänger who removes his mask as well.

"Hello, good looking." Peter greets his doppelgänger.

"Right back at you, handsome." Peter-38 replies.

"Dear god, they're multiplying." Diggle states seeing there are now two Peter Parker's. One was bad enough.

"I love your outfit. It's seriously cool." Peter says while feeling his doppelgängers Iron-suit.

"Yours does look more comfy." Peter-38 states feeling up the soft fabric suit. "It's so smooth."

"So safe." Peter replies.

"And seems easily breathable." Peter-38 states.

"Yo, Spider-Men." Cisco call's out to the two of them. "Stop feeling each other up and let's get focused."

"Okay. I think I have this." Kara says at the naming. "Oliver."

"Green Arrow." Oliver tells her.

"Dig."

"Spartan."

"Thea."

"Speedy."

"And Sara.

"White Canary."

Jax and Professor Stein."

"Firestorm." Jax and Stein say at once.

"Ray."

"Palmer. The Atom."

"And Mick."

"Hm? Oh. Heatwave."

"And of course, Peter Parker."

"Spider-Man."

"And Iris, Caitlin, and Felicity." Kara says and sees she got them all right. "And you have cold powers, but can't use them?" She asks Caitlin.

"You have powers?" Felicity asks Caitlin.

"It's a long story." Caitlin tells her.

"That's cool. Pun unintentional." Gwen tells Caitlin.

"Yeah, you're definitely Peter's fiancée." Felicity states.

"Okay, Cisco, we should probably get started." Oliver says interrupting them ad pull up the footage Lyla showed them earlier.

"Okay, these are the Dominators. We don't know much about them." Barry tells them.

"Except they're really strong." Kara interrupts.

"Where'd you hear about them?" Peter-38 asks.

"Oh, I heard a lot of stories about them when I was a kid. They came to Krypron before I was born. They did experiments on a lot of people." Kara explains to him.

"Great, we have them in our universe." Peter-38 mumbles. "Super strength Aliens. I hate my life sometimes."

"Well, they're not the only ones with superhuman strength I hear. Barry says the two of you are more powerful than a locomotive." Thea tells them.

"What am I, a train conductor?" Peter-38 asks.

"My quips are inner dimensional, confirmed." Peter tells Cisco.

"I don't know if you should be proud of that or not." Cisco tells his friend.

"We should use the two of them as stand-in for training." Oliver says.

"Since when is Robin Hood calling the shots?" Mick asks.

"What I think Mick is trying to say is it would be nice if we knew who was in charge around here." Jax rephrases Mick's wording.

"Maybe we should take a vote. Choose a leader. Someone we can all trust." Ray suggests.

"How about the one with the most experience working with all of us, and has been doing this the longest?" Oliver suggests and looks to Peter.

"Wait, what?" Peter asks.

"They've got a pretty good point, Peter. You've been doing this the longest." Barry agrees with him.

"Okay...well, I guess the first decision as team leader we should..." Peter says and is trying to figure out what to say.

"Do a test run." Peter-38 helps out his doppelgänger.

"Let's do a test run! Yeah." Peter says.

"Against the aliens." Peter-38 keeps helping himself.

"Against the aliens, Supergirl and my doppelgänger." Peter repeats to them.

"Are we supposed to pretend like we don't hear him?" Sara asks.

"Okay, let's suit up. Okay? I'm gonna shut my mouth." Peter says and walks off.

"Are we sure he's my doppelgänger?" Peter-38 asks Kara.

"Well, he's supposed to be different, I guess." Kara says when Barry calls her over.

"Old West Dwarf Star pulls replicator, equals new suit." Ray tells Gwen explaining how his Atom suit works.

"Sweet. I gave my fiancé an arc reactor that I designed myself that's powerful enough to power a city for a year, or a suit for a lifetime." Gwen tells him.

"After this is over, you mind showing me how to make one of those?" Ray asks her.

"Oh, I don't think your earth has the technology my Earth does." Gwen breaks to him. "But I'm gonna go and find Felicity and the Cisco guy. Talk later." She says before leaving and Barry approaches Ray.

"Hey, Where's Snart?" Barry asks Ray.

"Man, I'm sorry, Barry. I forgot that we never told you." Ray realizes. "He sacrificed himself. Saved us all. He died a hero."

"A legend." Barry corrects.

At the doorway, Wally showed up only to be stopped by Iris.

"Wally, what are you doing here?" She asks him. "You can't just show up and think you're gonna train with everyone else."

"I'm here because I was called." Wally tells her.

"Who would call you?" Iris asks since this morning she made everyone agree that Wally can't be doing this when Peter sees them.

"Yo, Wally!" Peter calls out and the two of them look at him. "Great, you're here. Cisco's waiting for you, your suits all ready for you." He tells them and Wally walks past Iris and goes looking for Cisco.

"What are you doing?" Iris asks Peter.

"Calling a friend in to help." Peter tells her.

"No, we agreed that it's best that he doesn't believe he's Barry." Iris reminds him.

"_You_ decided that. _I_ was chasing someone who was trying to be me at the time. And while I was at it, I did some thinking. He has powers and doesn't want to just keep them for himself. He wants to help people. Wally is the exact same way. This is why I never told anyone about who I was, because people like you who think that I wasn't good enough and could die. I don't know why you're so hellbent on making sure Wally doesn't become like Barry or me, but guess what, he is. Forget why he's here, why do you need to be here, Iris?" Peter finally asks her.

"I mean, Cisco and Felicity are here because they're the engineer and computer geniuses. Caitlin's a doctor. Gwen...is my doppelgängers engineer. You're a reporter. If anyone shouldn't be here, it's you." Peter finishes explaining and sees everyone has started to train with Supergirl and Iron-Spider flying in the air.

"She really is a badass." Thea comments on Supergirl.

"That spider suit is basically indestructible." Ray comments after Peter tossed him across the room.

"Let's go again." Oliver calls and everyone charges at the two of them and it isn't long before they have everyone down.

Peter then lands along with Kara when Wally comes out in his Kid Flash outfit.

"That looks a lot dumber than Red's." Peter-w8 tells Wally.

"I like your doppelgänger better." Sara tells him from the ground. "He's more polite and knows when to shut up."

"Are you sure you want us to keep going?" Kara asks Oliver.

"Yeah. Yes. Just give us five minutes, please." Oliver begs.

"Was I too late or too early?" Wally asks.

"You get a five minute break." Peter tells him as Barry and Cisco are talking about a message the Legends found on their ship.

"You still don't think you should tell them?" Cisco asks and is heard by from everyone.

"Tell us what?" Sara asks and they all look at him.

"Jax and Professor Stein found a message from me in the future saying that I can't be trusted." Barry explains and they're confused.

"Why would Future say that?" Sara asks.

"I think because I went back in time and changed the timeline, and now things are different than before I left, including some of your lives." Barry explains.

"Some of our lives? Like who?" Kara asks.

"Caitlin. Wally. Diggle." Barry lists those that he knows of.

"Me? Why what happened?" Diggle asks and Oliver decides to tell him.

"Apparently, you had a daughter." Oliver explains.

"I had a daughter, Barry?" Diggle asks.

"Baby John was baby Sara." Barry tells him and now Diggle doesn't know what to think.

"So, Wait, you..let me get this straight. You just-you just erased a daughter from my life?" Diggle asks him.

"Yeah." Barry says.

"You can't go back and just change things like that, Barry." Sara tells him. "You know how hard it is for me to not alter events? To bring my sister back? But I don't, because I know the implications."

"All those aberrations we spent the last eight months traveling through time fo correct, you just decided that it was okay for you to create your own?" Ray asks as well.

"Guys? It's someone named Lyla." Gwen tells them and Felicity looks at the message.

"The President was kidnapped by the Dominators! She needs us now." Felicity tells them.

"Okay, I'm gonna sit this one out. Obviously, you have Supergirl. She's just as fast as I am. Peter, get the President. We can talk about this later." Barry says and they're okay with that plan.

"Do you still trust me?" Barry asks Kara.

"I'll always trust you, but it might take more to convince them." Kara tells Barry.

"Guys, this is cr-Hey!" Oliver calls them out. "This is crazy! Everyone is going, including Barry. I..I'm not going without him." He tells them.

"Then you'll be here, Oliver." Diggle tells him.

"You know what? Oliver, it's okay." Kara tells them.

"I'll go and get the President. Oliver, you just stay here with Barry." Peter offers so that nobody fights.

-

The team makes it to the location, and it seems to be a warehouse in the middle nowhere.

"We sure this is the right place?" Ray asks as Peter-38 and Kara come flying in.

"Well, this is the last place the tracer gave a signal that Gwen was able to track." Peter-38 tells them.

Kara uses her x-Ray vision and finds someone is in fact inside.

Yep. He's in there." Kara confirms.

"How do you know that?" Mick asks her.

"I can see him." Kara states and realizes they don't know about her powers. "I have X-Ray vision." She explains.

"Oh. You can see everyone's bits with those peepers, huh?" Mick asks.

"No, I-"

Ignore him." Sara tells her.

"How'd you even get the name Heatwave?" Peter-38 wonders.

"I burned my family alive, and I like to light things on fire." Mick explains and shocks both of the other worlders.

"Well, that's a...colorful backstory." Kara says.

"Well, my shrink thinks so." Mick tells her.

"When'd you get a shrink?" Peter asks the man who once kidnapped his girlfriend.

"By the way, I'm not gonna call you Supergirl. It's stupid." Mick warns her.

"You can call me Kara." She suggests.

"That won't work either." Mick tells her.

"Well, What are you going to shout if you need my help?" Kara asks him.

"I call her Skirt if that helps." Peter-38 offers.

"That works." Mick tells her.

"Seriously?" Thea asks the two of them.

"You should meet her cousin." Peter-38 says.

"But I'm not gonna need your help." Mick tells her and walks off.

"I like him." Peter-38 says sarcastically as they enter the warehouse.

Inside the warehouse, they see it's mostly emptied out of anything anywhere.

"Gwen, you seeing this?" Peter-38 asks.

_"Yep. Spooky, scary warehouse. Seeing everything you see."_ Gwen confirms. "_But there's...something wrong. It's like someone else is there."_

"Look, it's the president." Diggle tells them.

"Get me out of here." The President begs of them.

"This doesn't feel right." Peter says as both of the Spider-Man's senses are going off for some reason.

They find out where is coming from and both raised their weapons above as a Dominator appears. Their weapons being Spider-Man's web shooters and Iron-Spider is raising a missile in its direction.

Everyone stars aiming at it as they see it as well.

"Release The President!" Kara demands.

_"We knew you would come."_ A voice in all of their heads say.

"You guys heard that, right?" Wally asks.

"I was kinda hoping it was just me." Peter admits. "I knew eventually I'd start hearing voices."

"I think we all heard it." Sara tells the two.

"Heard what?" Peter-38 asks.

"_Why can't you hear it?_" Gwen wonders since even she heard it.

"You don't have to harm him to get whatever it is you want from us." Kar tells him. "Release him and nothing will happen to you."

_"He is not who we want."_ The Dominator tells them and kills the President.

"It's a trap!" Peter yells as the Dominator activates a device and it starts messing with everyone's heads.

"Skirt, what's going on with you?" Peter-38 asks as he seems to be the only one unaffected.

-

Barry and Oliver were at Star labs talking about the article and that everything has changed about his future.

"_Guys, wherever you are right now, Peter needs your help!_" Gwen's voice fills the time vault and they turn on the security cameras to see Iron-Spider fighting off all of the heroes.

"Things just got so much worse." Barry says before speeding him and Oliver outside.

As soon as they got outside, Peter-38 was blasted by Firestorm's heat blast.

"Ow." Peter-38 moans.

"Peter, what's going on?" Barry asks him.

"Mind control." Peter explains as they all start attacking them again and Peter-38 uses his repulsers to drag himself on the ground to cover.

Barry and Oliver are close behind him as they hide behind the Star labs sign.

"Okay." Oliver says. "You really did it this time, Barry!" He tells Barry.

"Seriously?" Barry asks.

"Yeah, Seriously. You come to Star City, you ask for my help, then inevitability, immediately, we end up up the creek!" Oliver tells them.

"Okay, that's fair." Barry agrees.

"Guys! We need a plan." Peter-38 interrupts them.

"What's your plan?" Oliver asks.

"I know how we can stop them, but I need to get Supergirl to follow me." Peter-38 says. "Only problem is, my doppelgänger and that speedster in yellow."

"I'll take care of Wally." Barry promise.

"I'll keep Peter busy." Oliver says when they almost get hit by Kara's heat vision.

"What's that?" Oliver asks.

"Skirt's Heat Vision." Peter-38 tells him.

"Okay, let's do this." Oliver says and the three of them step out to be met with all of their friends.

Barry and Wally start racing against each other as Oliver fights off his team and the Legwnds when it finally came around to Spider-Man.

"This is gonna hurt you a lot more than me, Peter." Oliver says and shoots several arrows but Peter dodges all of them as he seems to know what type of arrow he's going to be using at every move.

Peter-38 comes flying in and blasts his doppelgänger into the wall.

Barry finally comes back after dealing with Wally.

"Okay, this hallway leads to a secret bunker. We have to get down there." Barry tells Oliver. "The rest is up to you, Peter." He tells the Iron-Spider.

"Hey, Supergirl!" Peter-38 call's out to her. "Let's finally settle once and for all who's the true Hero of Steel." Peter-38 says before taking off into the skies.

-

They fly through the streets and Peter-38 uses his holo-shield to avoid her blasts of heat vision.

"Gwen, I need you to alter my repulsers so that they have off the same level of power as Skirt's heat vision." Peter-38 tells his girlfriend.

"_Why would I make it specifically...oh no."_ Gwen stops mid sentence as she sees his plan.

"Yeah, I know. I'm an idiot." Peter-38 admits before she could say it.

Peter makes it to the warehouse and finds the device.

Kara comes flying in through the roof and starts getting ready to blast him.

"Gwen, hurry it up." Peter-38 warns.

"_Done!"_ Gwen tells him when Kara blasts at him and just in time for him to shoot and the two beams combined and start forming a mass energy bible forms in the middle of them where the machine is.

"This is gonna hurt." Peter-38 tells himself and closes his eyes to not see the massive explosion that they created and throws the two heroes back and most of the warehouse. Peter looks and sees the device is destroyed and Kara starts getting back to normal.

"Peter?" Kara asks. "What'd I do?" She asks afraid.

"Nothing that can't be fixed with some wiring tape." Peter-38 assures her. "Not the first time you tried to kill me."

-

The two of them meet back up with the others at Star labs.

"That was the weirdest feeling ever." Wally tells them.

"My head feels like I was hit by a train again." Peter tells his friends.

"You got hit by a train?" Peter-38 asks him.

"Several times. Stupid Mysterio and Octavius." Peter explains.

"So, what was it like being all Mind-controlled and stuff?" Gwen asks Mick.

"I didn't realize he had a mind to be controlled." Jax tells them.

"Barry, about before." Ray starts. "Message or no message, you're with us."

"Thank you." Barry says.

"Where's Supergirl?" Peter asks.

"Scanning the city to make sure there aren't any more of the orbs that whammied all of you. I'd help but my scanners are busted." Peter-38 says when said Kara returns.

"Nothing, I looked everywhere." Kara tells them.

"So now what?" Diggle asks.

"We call lyla. Tell her these Dominators aren't here peacefully." Oliver tells them.

"Right, because the name wasn't evidence enough." Peter-38 says. "I mean, they're called-" he gets interrupted when a beam projects around him and abducts him.

"Peter!" Gwen and Kara shout.

Another beam comes down and abducted Thea, Diggle and Sara.

"Everybody inside!" Peter yells and everyone runs in as Ray gets abducted leaving Oliver and Barry.

The beam starts consuming Oliver and Barry runs as fast as he can to save him only to be one second too late.

The Dominators now have their friends.


	51. Invasion ll

Peter of Earth-38 is perfectly fine, and was at his house getting ready to head to the DEO when a voice calls from the bathroom.

"How was your morning routine of training?" The voice of his fiancé leaves the shower.

"You know how good it was, I told you when I was in the shower." Peter reminds her as she chuckles.

"Anything at the DEO I should be concerned about before heading to work?" She asks him.

"Oh, there is a deadly human virus going around. Did I forget to mention that?" Peter mockingly tells her.

"Ha, ha." She laughs and leaves the bathroom in a towel to reveal Kara Danvers. "Just get going, I have to get to CatCo. Just hoping I could get something out of you for something to write." She admits.

"You know it takes more to break me than your adorable face." Peter reminds her as he wraps his arms around her neck.

Kara quickly kisses him and it started to heat up when Peter broke off.

"As much as I would love to stay in with you, I have to go. Need to arrange something for that Queen's engagement dinner." Peter tells her.

"And of course they can't get anything done without the Director of the DEO." Kara says as Peter is the one who runs the place.

"Yeah, and you know how Skirt gets after some time." Peter says as he places his Iron-Spider on ready to go.

"Gwen's going through a rough patch. I mean, her aunt died recently. She'll get back to normal after some time." Kara says talking about Supergirl, Gwen Stacy.

"Well, gotta fly." Peter tells his fiancée before jumping out the window and starts swinging to the DEO.

-

In reality, Peter-38, Oliver, Diggle, Ray, and Thea were placed in pods that placed them in a fake reality as the Dominators extract information from them.

-

On Earth, Cisco, Gwen and Felicity head to the Arrow cave where the rest of team Arrow; Rory, Curtis, and Rene are waiting for news.

"Guys, this is Cisco Ramon of Star labs, and Gwen Stacy of the DEO." Felicity introduces them to him and they introduce themselves.

"Okay, Curtis, you're tall. Rene and Rory." Cisco says. "That's two Rory's I know, and two Peter's. Technically, they're both the same guy just from two different worlds. Guys, we have to find Oliver and company. And I'm not talking about the cherished Disney animated film starring Billy Joel, Okay? I am talking, I got to vibe, all right?"

"I got one of Oliver's old bows around here somewhere." Felicity says and runs to find it.

"For those of us who don't know you as well-not me because I feel like we're best friends, we've known each other for a long time. What are you going to do exactly?" Curtis asks.

"I'm about to vibe. It's what I do when I touch something. I can not only see the past. I can see the future, but most importantly, I can see where people are." Cisco explains to them.

"I thought you opened portals to parallel universes." Gwen says.

"That comes with these powers, girl friend." Cisco tells her.

"So you're one of them...metahumans?" Rene asks.

"Yeah, don't sound too excited about it." Cisco says as Felicity hands him the old bow and he gets the vib and sees the alien spacecraft and the pods holding the team members.

"I saw them. They're in some kind of stasis, like a ship. A little _Alien_, a little _Star Trek_, J.J. Abrams style. And a whole lot of tech." Cisco tells them.

"You said tech!" Felicity says quickly.

"Yeah, I said tech. It's an alien spaceship, Felicity. These guys aren't amateurs." Cisco informs her.

"I think she means that if we get our hands on some of their tech, we might be able to locate them." Gwen says and Cisco pulls out a piece of the spacecraft that landed in Central City that he took.

"We're gonna hack alien tech." Curtis says. "This is seriously the best day of my entire life!"

-

Inside the pods;

National City, Peter-38 makes it to the DEO and lands as the doors open and he steps in.

"Director Parker." J'onn greets him as he enters.

"J'onn, I've told you. It's Peter." Peter-38 reminds him.

"Right, Peter. My bad." J'onn tells him as they get to the monitors.

"So, how is my beautiful globe?" Peter asks J'onn.

"She seems perfectly safe, after taking down Cadmus, there haven't been anything else on either side." J'onn tells him. "But the prisoners have been starting to get a little restless. Especially the Dominators. We're still looking for this Green Arrow vigilante..."

Peter was listening when suddenly his head started hurting as the word _Dominator_ started echoing throughout his head and visions start entering his mind.

A vision of himself flying and saving Kara from falling who is wearing the Supergirl outfit for some reason. Another of a robot version of Hank and himself fighting. One last vision of him and Gwen kissing and him asking her to marry him.

"Hey, you all right, Peter?" The voice of Supergirl snaps him out of it and he looks to see Gwen in her Supergirl outfit ready to roll.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Get the TASK force ready to move out in an hour for the Queen wedding." Peter tells them and walks off to wonder what the hell just happened to him.

-

In the Queen mansion, that was relocated to National City, Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance are getting married and has hired the DEO to make sure no aliens attacked the party that night.

"You didn't have to get me a gift, Speedy." Oliver tells his sister as he opens the gift.

"It's just a little prerehearsal dinner gesture." Thea tells him and Oliver opens it to find a arrowhead.

"Well, Little is right." Oliver says looking over it.

"It's called a hozen. It symbolizes reconnecting, like you did with Laurel." Thea tells him.

"Thea, it's a rock." Oliver breaks to her.

"It's a very thoughtful gesture from your amazingly loving sister." Thea tells him.

"Thank you." Oliver tells her

"Yeah, that's better." Thea replies when their parents enter the room.

"Well, what's going on here?" Moria asks.

"Thea gave me a rock." Oliver says and the two of them laugh.

"Let's go, champ. You got a six o'clock appointment at the tailors, got to fight traffic." Robert tells Oliver.

"Dad, you know I'm not much of a fighter." Oliver reminds his father.

"Tell that to the paparazzi you punched." Thea also reminds him.

"Ten years ago." Oliver states.

"And that is why I have asked for a security guard squad from the DEO. The director himself will be there." Moria tells them.

"Who's the Director?" Oliver asks.

"A Peter Parker. Don't think you have met." Moria tells him as flashes of Spider-Man enter Thea and Oliver's minds of him and the two fighting.

-

That night, Sara has come to the mansion for the wedding and her stay while Robert and Oliver are still out.

"Tux is a good look on you." Robert tells his son.

"Never really felt like my thing." Oliver tells him.

"Maybe you'd be more comfortable in a suit and tie."

"Dad, come on."

"I get sworn in as mayor in less that two months. I don't have time to find a replacement CEO for Queen Consolidated."

"What about Walter Steele?" Oliver asks.

"The board won't back him. Besides, QC is a family company. It should stay in the family."

"Dad, I want to-I want to make my one name. I don't just want to rely on yours."

"Oliver, if you don't do it, the board's gonna push to accept Ray Palmer's buyout offer.

"I.." Oliver was going to continue when he looks up and sees a building called Smoak Technologies and someone approaches them.

He then pulls out a gun on them both. "Watches, wallets, phones." The mugger tells them and they don't move. "What, are you depth? You wanna take a bullet?"

"Take it easy." Robert tells him.

"I'll shoot you right here." The mugger warns him when Oliver steps in front of him.

"Hey! Get away from him." Oliver tells him when an arrow comes flying in and hits the gun followed by the Green Arrow as he finishes off the mugger as the DEO approaches the area just missing him as Iron-Spider comes in.

"Were losing him. Skirt, chase him." Peter says as he looks to Oliver and more flashes come in.

They weren't as focused as the other ones but they were fast flashes of meeting Oliver Queen and he was wearing the Arrow's outfit.

'_What's wrong with me?_' Peter asks himself before taking to the skies to chase the Arrow.

-

Back in reality;

Curtis and Gwen are doing what they can to get into the alien technology.

"I'm so conflicted. On one hand, I get to hack actual extraterrestrial technology, but on the other hand, E.T.s are real, but unfortunately they're dickwads who are gonna kill us." Curtis tells Gwen.

"Really? This is every other day in my life." Gwen informs him. "Hunting aliens, doing the impossible in a short amount of time. It's just usually I don't have to save Peter, because usually it's him doing the saving." She admits.

"Don't worry. It's gonna work out." Rory tells them.

"You're not gonna tell me that god had a plan, are you?" Curtis asks Rory. "Look, I respect your religion and all. I just find it hard to believe that there's some divine plan to the universe which also includes space monsters." He says and Gwen finishes the job.

"Okay, this is what I call the Processor. It has been able to translate alien texts to what we can understand, built one similar to this for the DEO." Gwen says and hands it to Cisco.

"Let's see if it works." Cisco says and connects it to the piece of tech.

They watch as it comes to life and it's working.

"I feel like Elliot in _E.T._ _It's working. It's working_." Curtis says.

"Your tech guy quotes movies as well, huh?" Gwen asks them.

"Yeah." Felicity tells her.

"Real original." Cisco says as the device starts beeping too fast as the Processor isn't working fast enough and they duck as it explodes.

"What happened?" Rene asks.

"I made an idiot decision." Gwen realizes. "I plugged human tech into an alien power source. I forgot that the Processor on my earth is alien tech being connected to more alien tech."

"So we need a regulator. Something that can handle the Dominator juice." Felicity tells her seeing it shouldn't be that hard.

"Van Horn Industries was working in a prototype for NASA over a year ago. Maybe they perfected it by now." Curtis replies and Felicity does a search for it and learns it's been stolen.

Laura Washington, who has been stealing more than her fair share of advanced technology that gives her superhuman powers and electricity based powers.

"I'm calling in reinforcements." Felicity says and dials Peter's number.

-

Inside the pods;

At the Queen rehearsal dinner, Moria and Peter were talking about the arrangement for the DEO agent guards when they ran iron Ray Palmer.

"Director Parker." Ray greets Peter.

"Ray Palmer of Palmer Industries I presume." Peter says when suddenly the two of them start getting flashes of each other in reality.

"Yeah, that's me." Ray says getting the images out of his head.

-

As for Oliver, he found his own base and met John Diggle who is the Arrow and works with Felicity before getting more images of reality before John grows him out.

-

Back in reality;

What's left of the teams, being Peter, Rory, Curtis, Rene and Barry are at the warehouse where Laura Washington might strike.

Rene insisted on riding there on his motorcycle where they were waiting.

"You should have taken him up on his offer to carry you." Curtis tells him. "It was awesome."

"Nobody's carrying me anywhere. By running or by swinging." Rene replies.

"Hey, man. I drove. This baby can hit 88 in seconds." Peter says tapping his Spider-cycle.

"It's so cool Felicity reached out." Rory says. "It's awesome to meet the two of you."

"Just wait until you meet her." Barry says as Kara comes flying in on top of a container.

"Hey, everyone!" Kara greets them.

"Oh, I've had enough of this." Rene says as they enter the warehouse.

Peter goes in from the ceiling and scans the place for anything or anyone that isn't the team.

"Cait, anything coming up?" Peter asks into his com link.

"_I've got nothing on my end_." Caitlin says when a blast is heard through the warehouse.

"Okay, never mind." Peter says and crawls across the roof to reach the destruction.

-

Inside the pods;

Oliver and Diggle were starting to piece everything together when they were interrupted by Slade Wilson who was defeated by Sara.

The three of them enter the house to figure out what's happening.

"All right, this is hard to explain." Oliver tells Sara.

"Well, start trying." Sara says.

"We think we're in some sort of shared hallucination." Diggle explains.

"That's crazy. Not as crazy as me knowing Kung fu, but it's definitely up there."

"That wasn't Kung fu, that was jete kune do, And I think you learned it in a spot called Nanda Parbat." Oliver tells her.

"Nothing you're saying is making sense. None of this is making sense."

"Sara, what is the last thing you remember before coming here yesterday?" Oliver asks her.

Sara starts to think and then memories of the fight come flooding back in and about being abducted.

"There was a fight. It was the six of us, and then..and then we were taken." Sara tells them.

"Taken where?" Diggle asks.

"I don't know." Sara replies.

"Well, all right, there were six of us. Who are the other three?" Oliver asks.

"Ray Palmer...some other dimensional Peter Parker, and Thea." Sara tells them. "I mean, if this is some kind of dream or shared hallucination, how do we wake up?"

"By getting out of here." Diggle tells him. "Smoak Technologies. Maybe the reason why that place seems so strange is because that's the way we get out of here...wherever here is."

"Which means we need to get to the others." Oliver says.

"No need." Peter's voice fills the room and they look up at the railing to see him looking down on them. "I knew there was something wrong when I saw my fiancée last night...it didn't feel right." He explains. "That, and all of these visions were kinda hard to ignore."

-

Reality;

Rene and Laura Washington have found each other. She is almost completely half technical and half human.

"What do you want?" Laura asks him.

"You stole something from Van Horn Industries." Rene informs her.

"You mean this?" Laura asks and raises her wrist.

"Yeah. Hand it over." Rene tells her.

"Or what?" Laura asks.

Peter comes flying in and does a quick roundhouse kick that sends Laura flying across the room.

"Or that." Peter tells her before sending a taser web her way when Kara comes flying down with Barry speeding in.

Peter then comes up with an idea and moves out of the way and Barry speeds Laura across the warehouse as far as the webbing could take before letting her go. Laura goes flying as Peter let's go of the web and Kara punches her in the face, knocking her out.

"That was awesome!" Rory says as they all meet back up.

"There's the regulator." Curtis says seeing it. "She seems pretty attached to it." He tries joking.

"Maybe just remove it." Peter says, seeing that was a terrible pun, even for him.

-

They return to the Arrow cave where Gwen and Cisco are getting to work with locating them but they're coming up with gibberish.

"I mean, I know almost every alien language and this looks nothing like any of them." Gwen says.

"It's not alien, it's Gematria." Rory tells her as he looks at the information.

"It's what?" Cisco asks.

"Gematria is the numerology of the Torah." Rory explains.

"Oh, my god. How did I not see that?" Gwen asks and mentally smacks herself for not seeing it.

"For the people who had social lives in high school, what the hell are you talking about?" Rene asks them.

"In Hebrew, each letter possesses a numerical value. Gematria is the calculation of the numerical equivalents of letters, words, or phrases." Rory explains.

"You mean, the Dominators' language is based off the Old Testament?" Curtis asks.

"Or shares commonalities at least. You wanted proof of a divine plan to the universe, right?" Rory reminds him.

"Guys, we've got references of five Terran captives and one Kryptonian-hybrid." Felicity says as she translates the data.

"That's Peter. His mother came from earth, but his father was an alien king." Gwen explains.

"Okay, full story later." Felicity tells her as she gets a location. "Wait, that's impossible. -3.127 latitude, -23.7987 longitude."

"That doesn't make any sense." Cisco agrees with her. "Geographical coordination's don't have negative numbers."

"Actually, I read negative." Gwen tells them. "I know where they are." She promises.

-

In the pods;

Peter was walking through the Queen dinner when he runs into J'onn.

"Is everything okay?" J'onn asks him.

"Yeah...everything's fine." Peter tells him when he gets flashes of the first time he met the real Hank.

It was a dark night, Peter was bleeding out in an alley after getting a bullet wound to the hip.

He quickly snaps out of it and focuses on what he needs to do. Oliver and the others are getting everyone out, but Peter needs to leave this world safe. Real or not.

"Look, I was thinking of maybe...leaving the DEO. To focus on my family." Peter starts off, trying his best to lie.

"Are you sure? Who would you have replace you?" J'onn asks him.

"I was hoping maybe you." Peter says.

"Me?" J'onn asks.

"Effective immediately, you are the Director of the DEO, J'onn J'onzz." Peter says and meets up with everyone outside.

"Everything Good?" Oliver asks Peter who comes out in his Iron-Spider.

"I'm good. Look, we gotta move. Because if my past is any experience, now they might know that we know they will have something to make sure we can't..." Peter was saying when they look to see all of the team Arrow's past memories and even Astra.

"They're not real." Oliver reminds them.

"They look real, but let's not get into that." Thea says

"Let me try something." Peter says as he closes his mask and aims at all of them before firing everything his suit has to offer and it actually works to disintegrated them all. Leaving Astra.

"You guys better run, me and Skirt's aunt have some catching up to do." Peter tells them and they all run.

"Ho-Ren." Astra greets him.

"That's my name, don't say it out loud." Peter says, as the more it's said out loud, the weirder it sounds.

"Is this not the life you wanted?" Astra asks him. "A perfect world, no war, your family's alive. You have everything your heart could desire."

"What my heart desires is to be Spider-Man. In the real world. With the real love of my life, Gwen Stacy." Peter says when Super-Gwen comes flying in and sees her aunt.

"Astra?" Gwen asks and looks to Peter. "What's going on?"

"I'll explain later, fight her now." Peter asks his fake partner and they rush at each other and start fighting.

-

The team all make it to Smoak Technologies and find a giant portal in the middle of the room.

"Okay, that's either the way out or we got to click our heels together three times and say, _there's no place like home._" Ray says.

"And if that doesn't work?" Sara asks.

"It has to work." Oliver says and they all head to the portal.

-

In reality;

They all start waking up and see they're not wearing any of their outfits, all except Peter thanks to Gwen's security protocols for If he were captured it can't be removed, and they see they're in a strange environment.

"Where are we?" Oliver asks as Ray is looking out the window.

"Guys, there's something you really need to see." Ray tells them and they all move to the window.

They look out the window and see they're all in space.

"Well, my suit can save me, you all are gonna have a problem." Peter-38 tells the team and they need to find a spacecraft to get out of here.

-

They walk through the halls and stay hidden as the Dominators roam the halls.

"Klic-clac-to nick-lava shack-too. Nick-lava shoo-la." They hear one Dominator say too another as they pass.

"Okay. So how do we find our way out of an alien spacecraft?" Thea asks as they walk off.

"I've been on a dozen alien spaceships. In fact, I was sent to Earth in one." Peter-38 tells them. "Just stick with me, I can get us out safe...my bad." He says as they walk down a bad hallway and find dozens of Dominators in the room as they spot them.

Peter uses his repulsers and shoots them backwards. As they get back up, the team grabs some weapons off the walls for any future Dominators.

They start roaming the halls again and they find the escape pods.

"You think you can fly these things?" Oliver asks Peter.

"Well, I'm hoping between all of us someone can fly one." Peter-38 replies as they enter the pod and look around for what to do.

"Peter, you know how this works?" Diggle asks him.

"I'm not exactly familiar with Dominators technology." Peter-38 admits.

"Why couldn't we be trapped in space with the tech-spider?" Sara asks when Thea finds the power button and powers it up.

"And Mom said I wouldn't amount to anything if I didn't go to college." Thea says as the pod ejects into space.

As they escape, hundreds of Dominators ships chase after them.

"I hope that was the autopilot, because I don't see any controls on this thing." Ray says.

"We've got incoming." Peter-38 says as his senses go off and something hits the ship.

"Peter, any weapons on this thing?" Ray asks him.

"It's an escape pod, not a battleship." Peter says as they get hit off course.

"Somebody better find a way to steer this thing, or we're not gonna last very long!" Oliver warns them as they see the Waverider comes flying in and they get stuck in a tractor beam before blasting off.

-

"Oliver...nice clothes." Nate Haywood, Citizen Steel of the Legends greets them as they exit the pod onto the Waverider itself. "Shopping at Alien Gap?"

"Not funny." Oliver tells him.

"Well, lucky for you guys, the Waverider has a machine that replicates old clothes and weapons." Nate tells them and then looks back at everyone else . "Hi. I'm Nate Haywood."

"I'm Thea, and this is exactly twice as many spaceships as I ever thought I'd be on." Thea admits.

"Peter Parker, from Earth-38, apparently." Peter greets him.

"Yeah, I was informed of the inner dimensional Spider-Man. By the way, sweet suit. Is that nanotechnology?" Nate asks him.

"Complete nanotechnology." Peter confirms.

"Not to interrupt the geek squad, but how did you find us?" Oliver asks.

"I didn't. The actual geek squad on earth did." Nate explains as they enter the main room.

"Well, thanks for the save." Oliver tells Nate.

"Yeah, But we might have bigger problems." Peter-38 tells them. "While we were escaping, I had my suit scan the tech they were using to keep us under. It was some sorta neuromirohic interface. Similar to how I manipulate my mechanical arms."

"You have mechanical arms?" Ray asks as Peter quickly shows his four arms that come from the back of his suit and retracts them to get back to the point.

"Basically, I think the shared hallucination was to keep our minds occupied while the Dominators...they were probing our subconscious. Looked through our memories, gathering intel." Peter says.

"Wait, what if we weren't chosen at random?" Ray asks. "Maybe they knew we couldn't fight back but wanted to know why you couldn't be mind controlled and if anyone else could do the same." He tells Peter.

"Because none of you are metahumans." Nate says.

"Bigger question, what intel were they after?" Oliver asks.

"_Klic-clac-to nick-lava shack-too. Nick-lava shoo-la_." Peter-38 repeats what he heard them say.

"Gesuntite." Thea replies to that.

"It's something that I overheard one of the Dominators tell another, and my suit doesn't know how to translate it." Peter explains what it is.

"Sounds like the beginning of a not-so-funny joke. Gideon?" Ray asks their A.I.

"**Translating. The phrase loosely translates to; we are nearing completion of the weapon.**" Gideon tells them.

"What weapon?" Nate asks.

"**I'm afraid I have no idea, but I'm tracking the Dominator mothership you all escaped from, and it's appears to be on a direct course for earth.**" Gideon informs them and they need to hurry back.

This war isn't over yet, it's only just beginning.


	52. Invasion lll

The escapees make it to the hanger where everyone is waiting for them.

"I can't believe that you guys escaped an alien spaceship. Key words; alien spaceship. I have questions." Cisco tells the group.

"They can wait." Oliver tells him. "Thanks for helping get my sister home." He tells Nate.

"Yeah, man." Nate replies as they reach the rest of the group.

"What's our status?" Peter-38 asks them who just got a stern talking to from Gwen.

"Nothing, since the Dominators paid their visit to mess with our heads." Peter tells his doppelgänger.

"Why would they do that?" Nate asks.

"What if they were trying to pit us against each other, in order to gain intel about metahumans?" Ray asks.

"I wish they would just send us a IM with a questionnaire." Felicity says.

"Preach." Gwen adds, agreeing.

"Well, metas do pose the biggest threat against their plans, it makes sense they'd want to get to know their enemies." Kara says.

"By kidnapping people, and one of them." Stein adds. "Perhaps they were searching your minds for potential metahuman vulnerabilities."

"I think it's time we return the favor." Oliver says.

"What do you want to do? Kidnap one of them now?" Diggle asks.

"Ever since we fought off that one ship, they've kind of been in short supply." Barry tells them.

"Actually, I know where to find one." Nate says and approaches their computer system. "I've been reviewing old army footage of their first encounters with the Dominators, and I think I pegged the fight to Redmond, Oregon. 1951."

"You're suggesting we travel to 1951, abduct a Dominator, and interrogate it to determine their intentions?" Stein asks.

"I like the plan." Peter-38 states. "I'm itching to beat one of them after what I've been through." But in truth, he wants to get away from Kara and Gwen for a minute after everything the Dominators put him through.

"Time travel. I'm definitely in." Cisco says.

"Hold on, Professor Stein, Gwen and Caitlin have been talking about a way to take down the Dominators. They could maybe use your help." Barry tells him.

"Pass." Cisco tells him seriously wanting to travel through time.

"I mean, I'm with him, mostly 'cause I don't want to lose my geek cred, but time travel!" Felicity says while squealing.

"I could take Amaya and Mick." Nate says and they walk off.

"Oh, the new president called, which would be awesome if this was any other circumstance, but she wants to meet up with us." Peter tells them almost forgetting.

"Let's bring Ray and Sara as backup." Oliver suggests.

"What about us?" Wally asks referring to him and Kara.

"Why don't the two of you stay here, hold down the fort?" Peter asks them. "I asked May to get up here, I don't need her getting herself into any trouble." He explains.

"That's probably for the best. We don't know what the Dominators found in their memories." Barry replies, understanding.

On their way out, Peter-38 ran into said woman approaching.

"Hey, Peter." May greets him, thinking that it's her nephew.

"Aunt May?" Peter-38 asks, completely shocked to see she's still alive.

"Oh, May, this isn't Peter. This is Spider-Man...from Earth-38." Cisco explains to her.

"So a multiverse Spider-Man?" May asks him. "My bad, you look exactly like my nephew." She apologized to Peter.

Peter-38 just looks to her like he's seen a ghost. Because that's exactly what's happening to him.

"And...you look exactly like my aunt." Peter-38 finally said.

"May, hate to cut our chats short. But we gotta go _Back in Time_." Cisco says and pushes Peter along with them to the Waverider.

-

At Star labs, Peter and Caitlin have returned to try to give Stein a hand and they brought his daughter, Lily Stein along. Who they don't know only exists because of the Legends' time traveling.

Peter even attempted to get Fox to give them a hand, but he's preoccupied working on an outfit for the new Spider-Man, Miles.

"Professor?" Caitlin asks and they find him working in the cortex.

"It's highly unlikely we can fashion a weapon with sufficient force to overcome the Dominators." Stein tells them.

"We were thinking the same thing, that's why we called-" Peter was saying but Stein interrupts him.

"So what if, instead, we try to attack them with something infinitesimally small?" Stein asks. "I'm sure you're both familiar with the story of the loin with the thorn in his paw."

"You used to live telling me that story when I was a kid." Lily says and Stein now noticed she's here. "The lion with the thorn in his paw is a parable, a story about a big, ferocious creature that is reeled by something small. So what do you need help with?" She asks her father.

"I'm afraid it's classified." Stein says as he's still getting used to the idea of his daughter.

"Oh, juicy. Some sort of secret government space weapon, no doubt." Lily guesses.

"Something like that, only this sort of work is slightly out of my wheelhouse." Stein admits.

"Yeah, if only you knew someone with a PhD in nanotechnology." Lily responds.

"Yeah, unfortunately, Raymond's busy on other things, and ms. Stacy is at the fortress working on something else." Stein tells her.

"I was talking about me." Lily explains to him. "Did the six years I spent at MIT magically slip your mind?" She asks.

"Of course not." Stein says.

"Okay, let's get to work." Lily says and takes a marker and looks at what her father has done so far.

"For future references, _that's_ energetic." Peter tells Caitlin.

"Agreed." Caitlin replies.

-

1951 Redmond, Oregon;

The Waverider lands and then camouflages itself to blend in. Amaya, Nate, Mick, Peter-38, Cisco, and Felicity are on board and put it in park.

"We made it. This is the '50s. Sick." Cisco says as they all undo their seats and Felicity gets sick.

"Severe time jumps can cause nausea, temporary deafness..." Nate was explaining when Felicity starts speaking gibberish. "Linguistic disorientation."

Peter-38 was just about to stand before he drops to the floor.

"And that." Nate finishes as Peter uses his robotic legs to stand.

"You. Clean it up." Mick tells Cisco. "We're gonna kidnap an alien."

"Too late, I'm not kidnapped." Peter-38 says, even though he came willingly.

"Okay. I know I didn't just travel through time so we could stay on the ship." Cisco tells them.

"Ponytail, you're staying on the ship." Mick tells felicity. "We're taking the robot." He says referring to Peter.

"Not a robot. It's an iron suit." Peter replies to that.

"Dimo slay woan ros." Felicity says, still talking gibberish.

"I'll take that as, _have fun storming the castle_." Nate says as they all start leaving.

"Oh, for real?" Cisco asks. "You're gonna use _Princess Bride_ against me? Against me?!" He asks as Felicity is sick again. "Okay, I got you, girl."

-

They start walking to the battle as Nate is in his Citizen Steel outfit.

"Do all of this Earth's superheroes dress in ridiculous costumes?" Peter asks.

"Ray made it for me." Nate says.

"You look like a Star-spangled idiot." Mick tells him.

"We need to find the army." Amaya tells them when they hear explosions and they turn a corner and see the Dominator mothership and the army being slaughtered.

"I think we found them all." Peter-38 says as they watch the fight occurr.

"What are we waiting for? Let's grab an alien and get out." Nate tells them.

"Just waiting for one of the weaker ones in the herd." Mick tells him as they watch the army being slaughtered.

"I don't think there are any weak ones." Amaya breaks to him.

"No, but he does raise a valid point. Right now, they're prepared for a fight." Peter-38 tells them. "If we wait for them to stop fighting, they will separate and one of them is more than likely to break off from the rest." He explains as they wait and watch.

After the massacre, the Dominators start dragging the bodies of the soldiers and getting ready to leave.

"I don't get it. Why are the Dominators attacking us, then just leaving?" Nate asks.

"It's an RIF mission. Reconnaissance in Force." Amaya says.

"Meaning they're gathering information for a bigger attack later." Peter-38 says as his scanners are searching when one Dominator has separated itself from the pack. "We got one." He tells them and points to the loner.

"A straggler." Mick says, ready for action.

"We need him alive." Amaya tells them.

"I'm just gonna rough him up a little." Mick promises and heads towards the creature.

"I'll help." Peter-38 says and follows him.

They reach him and the two men use their fire power to hurt him.

"Squeal, you pig!" Mick tells him as Peter-38 comes up and punches him in the face, knocking the alien out cold.

"Yeah, that felt good." Peter-38 says while retracting his mask.

"Well done." Someone says and they turn to see the army has arrived and the man in charge, Agent Smith. "I see you've managed to catch us a specimen."

"I'm afraid we've claimed this one already." Peter-38 informs them.

"Who are you?" Amaya asks.

"Just a humble civil servant." Smith says and raises his badge.

"I don't like guys with badges." Mick says and Nate holds him back.

"We just want to ask a few questions." Smith explains.

"We'd love to answer them, but we gotta get going." Peter-38 says as they start shooting darts but Peter grabs his dart. "Did you think that'd work on me?" He asks while closing his mask when a blast of electricity hits him in the back and takes him down.

-

They later on wake up in a cell in a secret laboratory. And Peter's suit seems to be in complete reboot mode, which means he's basically walking around in a metal suit for no reason like an idiot. Not to mention that it's seriously hot.

"This is why I hate the government." Mick states. "Can't any of you use your powers and get us out of here?" He asks them.

"Whatever they tranqed us with is screwing with our powers." Nate tells him.

"Mine are returning, just slowly." Peter-38 says as he hangs from the ceiling. "Abducted twice in one day. Gwen's gonna kill me."

The Dominator starts waking up as well.

"Hey, he's still alive. But something tells me none of us are going to be for long." Amaya says.

"Wait, this is exactly what we wanted." Nate says.

"To get captured?" Mick asks when Peter drops onto the floor.

"No, to actually talk to one of these freaks and what they want." Peter-38 says.

"This is a first. Talking with an alien." Mick comments.

"You're talking to me." Peter-38 reminds him. "And I'm the prince of a dead planet."

"Wait, seriously?" Nate asks. "Man, you're Universe sounds awesome." He comments before approaching the alien.

"Hello there, E.T." Peter-38 greets the alien but just gets a screech.

-

2016, Central City;

The team are waiting for the President to arrive.

"So where's the President?" Sara asks.

"She's late." Oliver says.

"Well, you got to figure she's got a lot on her plate, what with the whole alien invasion thing." Ray says.

"And her predecessor getting killed." Peter adds who left Star labs to leave the rest of them to work.

They wait when several black cars approach them and surround them. Only it isn't the President, but an older version Agent Smith who is holding their friends prisoners in the '50s.

"I'm sorry. President couldn't make it." He apologizes.

"Who are you?" Barry asks.

"If I told you...I'd have to kill you." Smith says while his men raise their weapons.

"I have Admiral Ackbar's famous line going off in my head right now." Peter tells Barry, thinking of _Star Wars_. But when isn't he thinking of _Star Wars_?

"I think we have a misunderstanding. See, we're the good guys. The president invited us here." Ray says.

"Buddy, I don't think she did." Peter breaks to his friend when his scanners pick up a sniper in the distance and gets an idea.

"Barry, I think it's time you do something." Oliver tells him. "And fast." He adds.

Barry speeds off just in time for all of the men to shoot their weapons and Barry moves all of the bullets so that they will shoot themselves.

With the sniper, he was getting ready to fire when he gets attacked by a Whistling Bird from Drone-y who Peter released while nobody was looking.

The rest of the men were brought down easily with everyone working together.

Peter webs two guys and threw them at some other guys, taking them all out.

Oliver and Sara took down several with their staff and arrows when Barry comes speeding back.

"We're trying to help you. This is how you thank us?" Barry asks.

"You don't understand. The reason the Xenomorphs are here-" Smith was explaining when Sara interrupted him.

"Is because they have a beef with the metahumans." Sara interrupts him. "Tell us something we don't know."

"Like what exactly have we done to them?" Barry asks.

"Nothing. Yet. But they see individuals with powers such as yours as a future threat, and, frankly, so do I." Smith tells them.

"God, I hate the government." Peter states since it seems everyone in the government believes heroes are threats because they do what's right, just because it's the right thing.

"If you're such BFFs with the Dominators, then why not call them off?" Oliver and Sara asks him.

"We know you sent them packing back in 1951." Peter informs him as Drone-y returns and places himself back on Peter's chest.

"That was just a reconnaissance mission." Smith states.

"What brought them back?" Barry asks.

"You did, mr. Allen." Smith informs Barry and now they're shocked that he knows his name.

"He knows who you are." Ray says.

"You threatened the entire universe when you used your powers to upset the normal course of time." Smith explains to Barry.

"He's talking about Flashpoint." Peter pieces together.

"I made a mistake, Okay? I'm not gonna let it happen again." Barry informs him.

"For the past 60 years, we have enjoyed a truce with your so-called Dominators. You broke the truce." Smith informs him.

"What do they want?" Oliver asks.

"I've negotiated a deal with them. If mr. Allen surrenders himself, they will leave us in peace." Smith explains the negotiation to them.

"Yeah, I highly doubt that." Peter informs him. "Barry's their biggest threat, that why they want him out first. This isn't a negotiation, it's handing over an atom bomb and believing they won't strike with it."

-

Back in the '50s;

"Look, we just want to know why you attacked our planet." Nate tells the Dominator. "I mean, we're just down here minding our own business, then you guys just drop from the sky and attack us. Why?" He asks.

_"There has been a recent emergence of metahumans on your planet._" The Dominator tells them.

"Wait. He's talking about the JSA." Amaya says.

"_We are here to determine if your kind are a threat._" The Dominator explains when the door opens and they come back in with weapons.

"Let's start with him." Smith says pointing at the Dominator. "Rest of you will hate to wait your turn."

"I'm gonna punch your teeth out." Peter-38 promises as they wheel the Dominator away.

After some time, they start hearing him screeching in another room.

"What do you think they're doing to him?" Nate asks.

"If my experience is anything, making sure that they make him feel as much pain as humanly possible. And inhumanly possible." Peter tells him.

"And they're gonna do the same thing to us unless we get out of here." Amaya says as they hear gunshots outside and the doors open to reveal Felicity and Cisco.

"Y'all call for tech support?" Felicity asks them.

"Great. Saved by geeks." Mick complains as they leave the cell.

"The Waverider's ready to take us back to 2016." Cisco tells them.

"Wait, we can't leave him here for them to kill him." Nate says.

"So what?" Mick asks him. "He's an alien."

"I am offended by that statement." Peter-38 says to him.

"Just 'cause they're douches doesn't mean we have to be." Cisco tells him. "We got to send him home."

"Yeah, this is the best way to show them that not all humans are bad." Nate agrees.

"How do you plan on sending him back?" Amaya asks.

"Don't we have that pod we escaped on still on the Waverider?" Peter-38 asks her.

"Yeah, but it's damaged." Nate tells him.

"Felicity and I are gonna fix it." Cisco promises.

"I am? We are?" Felicity asks.

"Let's go save him." Peter-38 says as his suit starts warming back up and he closes his mask, ready to punch that guys teeth out.

"Fascinating. The creature's nervous sister is not unlike our own, which means it must be capable of experiencing pain." Smith says as the scientist injects something into him causing him to scream.

That's when the doors get blasted open and Peter pulls himself in on a web.

"That's probably why he's screaming." Peter-38 says before punching Smith in the face and Amaya takes care of the scientist. "Hope you have dental care on this Earth, and time." He tells te unconscious Smith while retracting his mask.

"Don't worry, we're gonna get you out of here." Amaya promises the Dominator.

-

Later, they watch him take off aboard his ship from inside the Waverider.

"Bye." Cisco waves as he takes off holding something in his hands. "He didn't even say thank you."

"What's that?" Felicity asks.

"I think it's a transponder." Cisco tells her.

"Where'd you get that?" She questions.

"I may or may not have stolen it off of his ship." Cisco explains.

"What does it do?"

"I think we can use it to communicate with him when we get back." Cisco says.

"Like an alien pen pal." Felicity says.

"You kids finished?" Mick asks as they watch their interaction and they jump. "Gideon, prepare for a..."

"Time jump." Nate says and they all take their seats.

"**Course plotted for Central ****City, 2016.**" Gideon says before they take off.

-

As soon as they land, the device Cisco stole started bleeping.

"What's that thing doing?" Peter-38 asks.

"I don't know. Either our food's ready or this guy's trying to call us." Cisco says and places the device down and it activates a hologram of the Dominator they saved. "It's him."

"He's even uglier than the last time we saw him." Mick says.

_"65 of your years ago, you saved me from capture._" The Dominator says.

"Listen, you don't need to thank us." Cisco says.

"Like hell he doesn't." Peter-38 replies to Cisco before walking up to the hologram,. "He can thank us by phoning for a ride home and leaving us alone." He states.

"_I will show you my gratitude by sparing your lives, but I cannot do the same for Barry Allen. If your friend does not turn himself in, we will have no choice but to deploy a weapon that will exterminate all metahumans._" Dominator tells them before shutting down.

"Yeah, it's a trap." Peter-38 states.

-

They all agree the same thing inside the hanger that it's a trap as well.

"If there that threatened by metahumans, there's no way they'll be satisfied if we hand over one." Peter explains to them. "The reason they want Barry is because he's their biggest threat to the invasion."

"Well, Oliver is trying to talk him out of it." Sara promises them.

"And if he does, what's the collateral damage of the meta bomb?" Nate asks.

"Somewhere around two million non-metahumans will be killed." Gwen says, doing a quick calculation.

"Look, what if we tried negotiating with them?" Wally asks.

"They've made up their mind, metahumans are bad and need to die. And here I thought I left Cadmus back on my Earth." Peter-38 says, agreeing with his doppelgänger.

"Whatever you're doing, make it fast." Diggle says as he approaches. "We've got incoming."

They look at the maps and see dozens of Dominator ships are coming in.

"But why aren't they moving, or attacking?" May asks.

"They're trying to leverage us into handing Barry over." Sara says. "Contact the Dominators." She tells the three men.

Cisco, Nate and Peter-38 start trying to contact him but he doesn't seem like he's going to answer.

"Can you try vibing us to talk to him?" Peter-38 asks Cisco.

"Why didn't I think of that?" Cisco asks himself before the three men grab onto the device and see they're now inside the ship.

They look and see their Dominator friend.

"_What an unusual gift. You appear to be a metahuman as well."_ He says.

"Yeah, well, I figured you'd cut us some slack, seeing how it was us that saved you back in 1951." Cisco states.

"_Much has changed on your planet in the last 60 years. The threat of your kind has become imminent."_

"Listen, E.T., were no threat." Peter-38 informs him. "People with powers are protecting Earth, _all_ Earths."

"And besides, the guy who tortured your ugly ass back in 1951 was human." Nate informs him.

"_But what happens when a man like him inhabits abilities like yours? We started believing it could ever since your friend, Spider-Man faced against a man you call Doctor Octopus. We have seen men like them on countless other worlds, which is why we must exterminate your kind before the scourge of your planet become the scourge of ours."_ He explains as they exit the breach and are back in the hanger.

"Like I said, they weren't changing their minds anytime soon." Peter-38 states.

-

The entire team has gathered together as Barry has decided to give himself up.

"This isn't up for debate." Barry tells them. "It's not even a close call. I mean...turn myself over to the Dominators, they leave the rest of the world alone."

"You know they won't hold their end of the bargain, Barry." Peter informs him.

"Barry. It doesn't matter what you've done. You can't do this." Diggle says.

"It's been an honor to know all of you, to fight alongside you. Now it's up to you to keep our home safe." Barry says and starts walking away.

"Barry! I'm not letting you leave." Oliver tells him from behind.

"No offense, Oliver, but you and what army?" Barry asks and sees the entire team agrees and are willing to stop him from doing this.

"This one, apparently." Gwen says as she also stands with them with Felicity and Caitlin.

"Look, Bolt, you made a mistake. Guess what? You're human. That's part of the job. We make mistakes, we trip, we drop. But the true sign of being a hero is if you choose to stay down or if you choose to rise back up even if there's no chance left. _Heroes are stronger when they stand together_." Peter-38 informs Barry. "My uncle used to say that to me all the time."

"Yeah, and with great power, comes great responsibility." Peter adds on. "And you're our friend, making you our responsibility."

Barry just chuckled at the two of the Peter's. "That was actually pretty inspirational. Seems to be a inner dimensional trait, Peter."

"Like he said. If we stand together, we can beat them." Oliver agrees with Peter when an alert goes off on the tablet.

"Guys, you know that ship in Central City? It just opened." Felicity warns them.

They all look to Peter as he's still team leader.

"All right, team. Let's stand together." Peter says and they all get ready.

"Something from the Dominators mothership just broke atmosphere, and not to get too technical, it's really, really big and falling to earth fast." Gwen warns them.

"The meta bomb." Peter-38 says.

"Why would they drop ships on us if they plan on just blowing us up?" May asks.

"The ships are a distraction to keep us from stopping the meta bomb." Peter tells her.

-

In the air, Cisco and Sara are in the Waverider heading to stop it.

"Too bad, 'cause were gonna stop it." Cisco says. "We're gonna stop it, right?" He asks Sara.

"Let's hope." Sara says.

-

"We have to keep the Dominators at bay." Oliver says as Stein makes it back.

"This might help. I've mass-produced a small device that, when placed on individual Dominators, will cause indescribable agony. Not the nicest invention, but this is war." Stein tells them as Barry looks it over. "The bad things is that if we activate the weapons before all the devices are placed on the Dominators, they'll know what we're up to."

"Which means we've gotta do it fast." Peter says and looks to his speedster friend.

-

The team all stand together on the roof of the first Dominator ship as the Iron-Spider, Supergirl and Firestorm comes flying in and they're all ready to go.

All the heroes stand together and then all charge at the Dominators, shooting lasers, bullets, webs, arrows.

As soon as they were close enough, Peter started using acrobatics to flip and dodge their blade fists as Iron-Spider flies above head and uses his lasers and webs to hold them back.

Oliver uses his fighting skills and his arrows as Barry and Wally run around and places the device on their necks.

"Fry, you freaks!" Mick shouts as he and Oliver shoot them while Atom and Supergirl shoot from abovehead.

Peter was fighting off too many as they start to hang up on him when Iron-Spider flies above him.

"Need a lift?" Peter-38 asks his doppelgänger as Peter webs his suit and he takes off into the air.

Amaya uses her amulet to summon animal powers and runs at the Dominators.

As Oliver gets surrounded, missiles start flying in and they look to see Iron-Spider shooting missiles out of his shoulders while Peter is holding onto a web and comes swinging in and kicks several Dominators from above.

"That's right! Spider-Men working together." Peter cheers from on the web as Peter-38 flies back around.

_"Peter, hate to interrupt your Spider-Manning, but we've still got dozens of Dominators all over the city._" Gwen informs him.

"Sorry, Spidey, this is where you get off." Peter-38 warns his doppelgänger before burning his web off and flying at max speed to the other Dominators where Supergirl meets up with him.

"Hey, Skirt. Miss me?" Peter asks her.

"Shut up and fly." Kara replies.

Barry and Wally are also running across the country as they're doing the same while Firestorm works on stopping the bomb.

-

"All right, all the devices are being planted." Gwen tells Felicity who's holding the detonator for the devices.

"Okay, just let me know when I can bring the pain, girlfriend." Felicity replies. "Now?"

"No." Gwen replies.

"How about now?" Felicity asks.

"_Do it!_" Oliver's voice screams.

"Okay, now." Gwen says and Felicity activates the weapons.

-

All around the world, all the Dominators screech out in pain as Firestorm uses all of his power in order to change the metahuman bomb into water where it now can't hurt anyone.

All of the Dominators run away for good now and the same happens everywhere as the mothership takes off.

"We did it." Peter says while crossing his arms.

"Together, we did it." Barry agrees as Firestorm, Supergirl, Wally and Iron-Spider join back up with them and they all pose in a group shot for some inexplicable reason.

-

Now they're back at the hanger and they're actually meeting up with the President after everything that's happened.

"Many responsibilities have fallen to me since the President's passing at the beginning of this crisis. Sobering, dad responsibilities. This is not one of them. Today, it is my distinct honor to bestow upon you a small acknowledgment of the great debt that the world owes to you all. Although your brave efforts must remain a secret. Know that, metahuman or not, masked or not, each and every one of you is a hero." The President says and all of the worlds leaders stand up and clap for them.

Later on, now they're all outside of costumes and are celebrating their victory.

"So, now you're a savior of the world for the second time." Caitlin tells Peter while holding a drink.

"Yeah, well, I didn't do it alone." Peter tells her.

"Yeah, well, they couldn't have chosen a better team leader." Caitlin tells him before kissing him.

"Parker, come on." Peter-38 calls for him. "We better hurry."

"What's he talking about?" Caitlin asks.

"I'm not always mature, as you know." Peter says and promises as he leaves.

After a while, Cisco gives Kara an extrapolator so she and her Peter can travel to their universe if they ever need to.

"That's pretty amazing. Hey, have you guys seen Peter?" Kara asks the team.

"No. Now that you mention it, I haven't even seen our Peter either." Barry says as he looks around.

"You don't think he and Peter...no." Kara says knowing her Peter is more mature than to do that.

-

Turns out, neither Peter is more mature than that as both Peter's are in an abandoned warehouse with columns around as they're ready to go at each other.

"You really sure you wanna do this?" Peter asks his doppelgänger holding his mask in his hands.

"Come on, are you telling me you're not the least bit curious from out of the two of us, who is the superior Spider-Man?" Peter-38 asks his doppelgänger.

"Okay, you might have a suit of iron, but I have weapons to stop tech." Peter warns him.

"Then you have nothing to fear, right?" Peter-38 asks him and walks across the room to his side and gets into his stance.

Peter does the same as it's his stance as well and they get ready.

"On the count of three?" Peter asks.

"1." Peter starts.

"2." Peter-38 continues.

"3." Both Peter say at once as they charge at each other and Peter-38 starts flying as Peter-1 swings off of the ceiling ready to kick him.

——————

**_Whoo! That was difficult._**

**_Bu_****_t I did it! Crossed over of two of my stories at once!_**


	53. Who is Savitar?

Christmas time in Central City, and this year Peter and Caitlin finally get to spend the holidays as a couple instead of doing their best to hide their feelings for each other.

As for Star labs, HR has decorated the entire place.

"Holy winter wonderland." Peter states as he and May walk in and sees it all as Caitlin just chuckled at her boyfriends response.

"Took the words right out of my mouth." Cisco informs him.

"I'm gonna make an assumption that Earth-19's Christmas is just like ours." May guesses.

"Some traditions are multi-versal, ms. P." HR tells her while drinking eggnog.

"So, any more information on Savitar?" Barry asks.

"Nope, all we know is that he's a speed god and you're the only one who can see him." Caitlin says.

"All right, well, Alchemy is Savitar's high priest and he gets his power from the stone that he uses to create metas, so I was thinking if we can find out what that thing is, maybe we can figure out how to stop him." Barry says.

"I want to see if I can dig something up." Cisco offers.

"I'd love to help, but I need to greet someone." Peter apologizes before walking.

"Who are you meeting?" Iris asks.

"My new protege." Peter answers while going to greet Miles.

"Hey, I got a dissertation here from Oxford University, about a myth of an ancient Hindu weapon called the Brahmastra." Cisco says as Peter walks off. "Legendary artifact with incredible powers, capable of-wait for it.."

"Creating metas." Barry guesses.

"Creating metahumans." Cisco confirms.

"Guys, that looks just like Alchemy's stone." Caitlin tells them.

"More importantly...look who wrote this paper." Cisco says while showing Julian Albert, the same Julian from work.

-

While Barry went to have a talk with Julian, Peter's been having a bit of difficulty training Miles. He knows how to _use_ his powers, but _controlling_ them is a different story.

Because as of this moment, Miles can't get off of the ceiling since his fingers are stuck.

"Okay, look, Miles, relax your fingers. Let go." Peter offers as advice. "What do you do to relax?" He asks.

"Relax..." Miles echoes and thinks before starting to hum a song he knows. As he sings, his fingers come unstuck and he falls onto the ground, sending some of Cisco's tools flying around the room.

"Oh, boy. I've got my work cut out for me." Peter says to himself while looking to where he is. "Hey, Miles. Where'd you go?" He asks seeing he's disappeared.

"I'm right here." Miles says and Peter can't see him anywhere. "I'm right in front of you." He states and Peter sees thin air.

"Can Spider-Man turn invisible?" Miles asks and Peter reaches his hand out to find him.

"Not from my experience." Peter says and pokes Miles.

"Hey, that's my face!" Miles informs him.

"This is incredible. It's like some sorta fight or flight thing." Peter says to Miles while feeling the thin air that is Miles.

"What's that?" Miles asks reappearing when a breach opens and he disappears as Barry and Jay Garret appear and he disappears again.

"So...Savitar." Jay says and Peter sees Barry went to get information.

"Miles, let's call it quits for today, shall we?" Peter asks and Miles becomes visable again to make his leave.

"Apparently, you've grown powerful enough to challenge him." Jay tells Barry.

"Who is he?" Barry asks him.

"Don't know, never seen him. You're the first speedster I know of who has. But every story I ever heard about Savitar is basically the same. Savitar was the first man ever granted speed. And over time, he became the god of motion, the fastest of us all. Before Savitar graces an Earth with his presence...he sends a predecessor to prepare for his arrival." Jay explains.

"Alchemy." Peter and Barry say at the same time.

"Dare I ask what he's preparing for?" Peter asks the old flash.

"A battle with you, Barry." Jay tells him. "You're threatening his power."

"How do you know all of this?" Barry wonders.

"Speedforce myths, Lee gods, rumors. If Savitar's come for you once, he'll be back." Jay warns them.

"Then I'll be ready." Barry replies.

"We'll be ready." Jay tells him.

-

The three of them return to the cortex where Barry decides to read up everything he can about Savitar using his speed reading.

"I've read every Hindu textbook there is on mythology and spirits and demigods and nothing. No mention about Savitar, not once." Barry tells them.

"In my experience, the answers usually tend to come in time." Jay tells him.

"Yeah, I can't just sit back and wait for Savitar or Alchemy to attack." Barry tells him.

"You can't worry about what may or may not lie ahead." Jay tells him. "Besides...it's Christmas. A time to be with the ones you care about." He reminds him.

"Yeah, speaking of which, I need to go check on Fox and my present to my protege." Peter tells them and excuses himself.

-

Peter left the two speedsters and meets up with Fox who has a suitcase sitting near the computer monitors.

"Is that what I hope it is?" Peter asks Fox.

"Of you mean, _is that the new design Spider-Man suit for the kid_? Than, yes." Fox assures him while he's working on some upgrades on Drone-y.

Peter opens the suitcase and the suit is on a small display case showing its functions and status.

The outfit is like Peter's, but completely backwards in design. Instead of red and black outlines, it's completely black with red outlines.

Peter chuckles while thinking of how Miles is gonna react to this when he looks up and suddenly sees his deceased uncle Ben.

He lets out a gasp before stepping back and pushes a table while shaking his head and sees he vanished.

"Something wrong?" Fox asks.

"No, everything's fine. The suit's great as always." Peter promises him and takes the suitcase to get it wrapped up for Miles. While also trying to figure out what the heck he just saw.

-

He makes it back to Star labs and places the suitcase down and turns around to once again see Ben standing there. But this time, Peter reacts and shoots a web at his uncle but it didn't even phase him.

"Are you okay, Peter?" Caitlin's voice calls and Peter turns to see her in the doorway.

Peter just looks to her and back to where his uncle was standing and sees he just webbed the computer.

"I...I thought I saw my uncle." Peter trying to explain to her.

"Your uncle Ben?" Caitlin asks, confused as she approaches him and puts a comforting arm on her boyfriend.

"I saw him at the Spider-Cave, now here. I don't know why." Peter tells her while rubbing his eyes in confusion and tiredness.

"Maybe you just miss him?" Caitlin suggests.

Peter chuckles as _missing him_ is an understatement to how he feels.

"You know, the first year I went to live with him after my parents died, I felt nothing. It was my first Christmas since their deaths and I felt empty without them. Ben saw that, so he took the entire day off of work. We walked around the city, played in the snow. It was just the two of us against the world. We laughed, we played and then we went to the nearest fast food restaurant and ate as much as we could. I didn't feel as empty or alone after that day." Peter says, sharing his best memory with his uncle to her.

"The last Christmas before my dad died, it snowed and snowed. He and I just sat inside, wahcting old movies while the whole world turned white. It was magical." Caitlin replies, sharing her best memory.

"God, tell me we aren't going to become the Grinch or Scrooge of Christmas." Peter begs and Caitlin ends up laughing at him before pecking his cheek.

Their moment gets interrupted by Barry who comes speeding in.

"Julian lied about the stone. I think he found it back on that archeological dig." Barry tells them.

"Think he might be working with Alchemy?" Cisco asks.

"He's not answering my calls." Joe says as HR and Wally return from training.

HR offfered to help Wally out with his training with everyone focusing on Savitar.

"I think Julian is connected to Alchemy." Barry says when Cisco's tracker for the stone goes off.

"We got a hit. There's energy coming from the top of the Schults building." Cisco says.

"We ready?" Barry asks his partners.

"I'm ready for payback for what that nut job did to me and Miles." Peter says referring to him getting thrown into the wall by Alchemy and turning Miles into a mutant.

"I'm coming, too." Wally says. "Come on, I'm ready." He says as Barry and Joe disagree with him.

"Wally, this is a live or die mission if Savitar shows up. You're good for a rookie, but not good enough for Savitar." Peter tells him. "Don't start fights you don't think you can win."

With that, Barry grabs Peter and they all speed off.

-

At the waterfront, Alchemy is using the stone on a building.

"With energy from this stone, and this building as a refractor, I shall restore the powers of all the metas from Flashpoint. They will become the servants of Savitar." Alchemy says when the three heroes turn up.

"It's over, Alchemy." Barry says and all of the followers run when Barry and Jay turn to see Savitar has appeared and Peter doesn't see anything.

"Please tell me you're seeing him." Barry asks Jay as Savitar growls like an animal.

"Oh, I see him." Jay promises.

"We have to take him together." Barry tells Jay.

"You two handle whatever you see, I'll get the stone." Peter tells them the plan and Peter watches as the two speedsters are grabbed and vanish.

Knowing he can't keep up or help them, he turns his attention to Alchemy.

Peter sees he's still focused on the building and the stone that this is gonna be seriously easy. He just activates his taser webs and shoots Alchemy in the back.

Alchemy screams out in the pain as he drops the stone and Peter webs it up completely and picks up the webbed stone.

Peter then takes off his mask to see the last person he ever expected.

Julian Albert is Alchemy.

-

Jay and Barry were getting thrown around the city by Savitar as the two of them were no match for the god.

"**This is not your fight, Garrick.**" Savitar says and is getting ready to end him.

Back at the waterfront, Peter places the webbed stone in the box and closes it up.

Back with the speedsters, as soon as Peter did that, Savitar vanished in front of them.

"Where'd he go?" Barry asks while looking around.

-

They brought the stone and Julian to the labs and Barry waits for him to wake up while Peter and Cisco are working on the stone.

"What do you think about what Julian was saying?" Barry asks them after his talk with Julian.

"I know that every bad guy we've ever had has pretended to be our friend, while really being an evil, murderous bastard." Caitlin reminds him.

"That seems to be a pattern with us." Peter realizes. "But whatever lie he's cooking, even my senses don't know what to think. It's like my sixth sense is...confused." He explains while trying to find out how that could be possible.

"Has that ever happened before?" Cisco asks.

"Only when Barry went back in time and my senses had to figure out why he was different." Peter says and wonders why they're acting up now.

"Well, what do we think about this box?" Barry asks looking to the box holding the stone.

"It's creepy." Cisco states. "Like _Indiana Jones _melt your face creepy."

"Have you guys figured out anything about it yet?" Barry asks.

"It's nothing." Fox says as he gets the results from their latest test from the stone. Peter called him in since he was alone at the cave all day. "I have ran tests on it that I could possibly imagine. MRI, x-ray, mass spectrometer, photon shifter. None of them are getting anything from the box. Like the box doesn't even exist."

"Let's see if I can run anything you haven't." Peter offers and takes the box away while Barry goes to talk to Julian again.

-

Peter goes to Cisco's lab and starts to see if his senses can get a reading on the stone, but even his senses don't know what the stone or box is.

"_You keep working that brain like this, I'll start smelling bacon._" The all too familiar voice of Peter's uncle calls and he quickly turns around to see nobody's there.

"You're loosing it, Peter." He informs himself while running a hand through his face. "You've gotta get more sleep. You've been wearing yourself thin recently." He states with all of the nights at Parker Industries, training Miles and finding the time to spend with Caitlin, while keeping an eye on Frankie through Jessica until he can find her a good home. Adding Spider-Man on top of all of that, sleep isn't exactly a familiar term with him.

He then turns back to the stone and sees Ben standing there and he jumps with a shriek exiting him.

"Will you stop that?!" Peter questions the Ben ghost, getting sick of this. "Whatever you are, this is not cool, okay?" He states. "Oh, wait, I know exactly what you are. You're...a side effect to my powers and Flashpoint, I'm seeing you from another reality."

"Not quite, kid." Ben tells him with a smile on his face.

"Okay, I'm definitely loosing it. Caitlin!" Peter calls for his girlfriend, knowing he needs her medical expertise for whatever this is.

"If you leave, I'm gonna have to disappear as well." Ben tells him.

"Good. That's exactly what I want!" Peter states as he turns back to his dead uncle. "I don't need you here, messing with my mind...my emotions."

"Kid, don't you see this is a second chance." Ben informs him while placing a hand on the box. "The stone. It's the key to everything. It can turn humans into powerful individuals. It can transform one thing to another, almost like metamorphosis. Same goes for spirits." He expains to Peter.

"No, no, no." Peter says while looking away and pulling on his own hair with both of his hands, starting to loose it and block him out,

"Peter, we can be a family again. Me, you, and May. How is she anyway?" Ben asks him.

Peter looks to his uncle with tears forming as he doesn't know what to do.

Can it be possible?

Can he finally make up for his biggest mistake?

Peter doesn't even know what to think as he looks to his uncle.

"Just open the box. And remember, Peter...with great power, comes great responsibility." Ben says and pushes the box towards Peter.

Peter just wants to make him disappear, meaning if he can bring him back, he will.

He opens the box and his senses finally start kicking in as they process the stone and start alerting Peter something else is in the room.

Unknowingly, when Peter opened that box, he released Savitar.

-

Barry gets an alert while talking to Julian and answers it.

"_It's Cisco's workshop. Barry, Peter opened the box._" Caitlin tells him.

Barry speeds off and finds Peter in the workshop with the stone and Savitar in the room.

"Peter?" Barry asks.

"**_Bow to your god_.**" Savitar tells Barry as Peter is trying to find Savitar.

Savitar speeds Barry to the speed labs and starts beating him up.

Wally sees that Spider-Man is out of commission for now and speeds off to help Barry.

Caitlin goes off to try to get Peter out of his gaze.

"Peter? Peter, you have to close the box!" Caitlin tells him.

Peter, on the other hand, looks and sees it's working and is bringing Ben back. At least to his mind.

"It's Ben...I can save him." Peter tells her as he's getting controlled by the stone.

"Peter, that's not Ben, it's Savitar. Please, he's using your biggest regret against you!" Caitlin explains to him.

"You'v become a great man, Peter." Ben whispers to Peter.

"Peter, we're running out of time. Please, just hand me the box." Caitlin asks of him.

"I can't loose him again." Peter tells her while protecting the box.

"Peter, your uncle is gone. I'm sorry, but there wasn't anything you could do then, and there's nothing you can do now. But Barry and Wally need you right now, they need you to close that box." Caitlin says to him.

"If you do it, we can't be together again." Ben tells Peter.

"Peter, listen to me!" Caitlin begs of him.

Peter looks between the two of them and knows what to do, but it's like his mind doesn't want to do what's right.

"Don't do it." Ben begs of Peter.

"It's like you said. Great power...great responsibility." Peter tells Ben before closing the box and places it down as Ben vanishes.

Caitlin then takes Peter's hand and pulls him into a hug knowing he's hurt.

-

Later, they bring Barry and Wally up after the beating Savitar gave them.

"Are you sure you're okay, man?" Barry asks Peter.

"Yeah, it's just...I feel like my mind was used against me. Which it actually was." Peter replies to him while rubbing his head. "I don't exactly know what happened to me."

"So now that the box is closed, Savitar's gone for good?" Joe asks.

"I don't know, but we need to find out." Barry tells him. "Cisco, if we can't use this box, Julian, he may be our only link to Savitar now, right?" He asks.

"I think we can use both of them." Cisco tells him. "If Caitlin's right and this thing messes with brainwaves, then I have a plan." He says and they all leave to see what his plan is.

-

They make it to the speed lab and bring Julian with them and place him in a device Cisco put together.

"So is someone gonna tell me what I'm doing here?" Julian asks.

"Julian, today when I was fighting Savitar, he and Alchemy, they had the same voice." Barry explains to him. "We don't think there is an Alchemy. We believe it's just Savitar speaking through you."

"Savitar clearly possesses someone who rallies worshippers." Caitlin says.

"But he's like a poltergeist, he needs a medium to manifest himself." Cisco adds.

"Right, what does that mean?" Julian keeps asking.

"We think we figured out a way to sync your brain to the stone. And it'll allow us to speak to Savitar." Peter explains.

"If you want to try and be free of this, you need to trust us." Barry says to Julian.

"I've never liked you, Allen. Having a little séance with your friends now is not gonna help change that fact. You do know that. I'll try it." Julian says and Cisco starts activating the device and Julian goes unconscious in seconds.

"How long will this take to know if it works?" May asks

"Not really sure, it may take a minute for his brain-" Caitlin was saying when Julian cries out and looks at them all.

"**_Hello, Barry_.**" The voice of Savitar says through Julian. "**_It's been a while_**."

"Savitar?" Barry asks.

"**_None of you are on your knees. It's a smart move to bow before a deity_.**" Savitar tells them

"You're no god." Barry informs him.

"**_To be a god, you just has to make people believe you are_.**" Savitar replies.

"None of us believe in you, psycho." Peter informs the god.

"**_You should, Peter. I hold the power of life and death over all of you_.**" Savitar says and Peter is shocked he knows his identity.

"How do you know so much about us?" Caitlin asks.

"**_I know you, Caitlin. Cisco, Joe, Wally, Miles Morales. The fake Wells. I know your fears and I know your weaknesses. I know you better than you know yourselves. I know your destinies. One shall betray you. One shall abandon the rest. One shall fall. One will suffer a fate far worse than death. This is the knowledge I have for you. About your everlasting damnation._**" Savitar tells them all.

"Who are you?" Barry asks him.

"**_I am the future, Flash_.**" Savitar tells him.

"What do you want with us?" Peter asks him.

"**_Everything! Everything the Flash took from me, I want it back. And I'm gonna take it back. Then, I will destroy you._**" Savitar promises.

"Then why haven't you already?" Barry asks him. "If you're all powerful, why don't you just go ahead and kill us now, be done with it? Because you can't."

"**_You did this to me_**." Savitar informs him. "_**You trapped me in eternity.** _**_Your future self-you did this to me, Barry. And now the age of my revenge rises. My freedom is at hand. You will feel my wrath. The wrath of Savitar_!**" He promises and Peter shuts down the machine.

"Did it work?" Julian asks them.

-

The team later returns to the cortex and they're all shaken by what they just heard.

"That was so scary." HR tells them. "I mean, that was-was it not truly frightening, with the voice agh the prophesies and everything? That was a scare-a-thon, wasn't it?"

"Do you think the thing that he said about one of us betraying everyone and one of us dying could really be true?" Caitlin asks Peter.

"Well, If it was Future Barry that locked him up in eternity, then he must know what's going to happen to us." Peter guesses.

"He doesn't. He's never getting out from wherever he's trapped." Barry promises.

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Joe asks.

"The stone." Jay says as he gets back on his feet and joins them. "The stone has been the key to everything. If we get rid of the stone, Savitar will be gone for good."

"It's impossible to destroy." Julian warns them. "It's been around forever, there's a reason for that."

"Why don't we bury it again, put it back in the ground where you found it?" Wally wonders.

"_Jumanji_." Cisco states.

"_Stargate_." Peter adds.

"_The Mummy_." May says, seeing their pattern.

"Someone would just find it and we'd be right back to where we started." Joe says, seeing what they're saying.

"We need to make that box disappear forever. And there's only one thing we can do with it. Throw it into the Speedforce." Jay tells them. "The Speedforce is eternity itself, an endless void of time and energy."

"It'd be like trying to find it after throwing it into space." Barry states.

"Except that Stone is loaded with gravimetric force." Fox warns him. "I don't think you would be able to run fast enough to get a portal to the Speedforce and carry the stone at the same time."

"He can with my help." Jay tells him. "Run as fast as we can. You trail behind me, siphon off some of my speed, combine it with your own, and when you have enough, throw that thing deep into the Speedforce."

"And that will work?" Peter asks feeling something is wrong with this plan.

"We need to find out." Barry says.

-

The two Flash's go into the pipeline and the two speedsters open a portal and Barry throws the stone inside.

The portal closes and shoots a beam at Barry and he finds himself in the streets of Central City, Inferno.

"_In other legal news, the highly publicized trial of Jared Morillo, AKA, Plunder, comes to a close. Morillo was found guilty of grand theft and aggravated assault after he was caught by the Flash and Spider-Man ribbing the Central City museum earlier this year._" Barry sees a news post on the bus stop say which confuses him.

"Don't!" Barry heard himself say and turns to see himself, Iris and Savitar.

"**_Now, finally, I am free of you_.**" Savitar says.

"Barry, I love you." Iris tells him.

"No, don't say that, all right? I'm begging you." Barry tells Savitar.

"**_You loose, Barry_.**" Savitar says and pulls out a sphere and Barry goes running but misses as Savitar kills her and vanishes.

Barry watches in shock when a portal opens and Jay pulls him back into the past.

-

Barry looks and sees he's back in Star labs.

"Jay, what was that? Where the hell was I?" Barry asks.

"The Future." Jay tells him.

"I've never been to the future. I've traveled to the past, but I always came to the present. I saw myself. And Iris...and Savitar, he killed her. That's five months from now." Barry replies. "Is that going to happen?"

"You shouldn't have seen that. What you saw was a possible possibility of the future. What may be, or may not." Jay explains.

"Then I can go back, see how it happened." Barry states.

"You can't go back there. Not a giant, not ever." Jay tells him.

"Then I'll figure out how it happened, how it became like that."

"Barry! This is why speedsters don't travel to the future. Nobody should know this much about their own future. Just as their are infinite Earths in the multiverse, there are infinite possibilities to the future. It's always bending, always changing. Every decision you make creates another alternative. The future isn't written yet, and it might not even turn out to be what you saw. You need to focus on the here and now. You have to live your life." Jay says and needs to return to his own world now.

-

Now with that threat over, the team has gone to Joe's house to celebrate Christmas together. And this time, Caitlin began playing the Spider-Man Christmas album that she bought last year.

"You love to hate me, you know that?" Peter asks his girlfriend listening to _Spidey Bells_.

"You're the one who sold them." Caitlin reminds him while sitting on his lap.

"Listen, what happened back in the labs, thanks." Peter says, regarding the whole Ben thing.

"You would have done the same for me. In fact, you have." Caitlin says.

Outside, Cisco notices it's raining. "Rain on Christmas. That's neither holly nor jolly." He states.

With Joe and Cecile, they seemed to have gotten together.

Meanwhile, HR is walking around kinda drunk out of his mind.

That's when a knock comes from the door and they look to see Carolers.

Caitlin looks to the window and gets an idea and moves to the window while removing the power dampening cuffs.

"Hey. What you thinking?" Peter asks curiously.

"We may not be able to have a perfect Christmas, but we can have a white one." Caitlin says and starts freezing the rain enough to make it start snowing.

Peter just smiles at her as Caitlin places her head on his shoulders as this is their first Christmas as boyfriend and girlfriend.

And they're going to relish it as much as they can.

"You gave Miles his present, right?" Caitlin interrupts their peaceful moment.

"Don't worry, he's in for a surprise." Peter assures her.

"How's Frankie doing with your friend?" She wonders.

"Jessica says she's doing well. She's getting a hang on her powers fast." Peter answers.

But there's also one thought that came through Peter's mind regarding Frankie.

After everything is cooled down, he wants to adopt Frankie.

-

At the morales household, Miles was just getting ready for bed when he looks and sees a package-present waiting for him on his bed.

This is for you, Ultimate Spider-Man 

Welcome to the team  


-Merry Christmas, S-M

The note says and Miles takes the top off and looks inside to see its a brand new, fully equipped, Ultimate Spider-Man suit just for him.

"Oh, yeah." Miles comments looking over the suit and design while loving it.


	54. Future problems

Peter was swinging through the city chasing after a armored truck robbery and Miles is wearing his new suit for the first time in public.

The goons try shooting the heroes and they land on a roof and watch as the cops are chasing them.

"Okay, what's the game plan?" Miles asks Peter.

"Okay, you notice their pattern? They like to serpentine the streets. First left, then two streets later they go right. So if we can predict where they are, we can lead them into a trap." Peter says and quickly runs the variables in his head. "Head to second and maple street. I'll draw their attention." He says and Miles goes off to do his part.

Peter goes flying in and lands on their roof. "Hey, guys." He greets them and thy all start trying to shoot him down.

Peter just dodges the bullets as they shoot their windshield, he webs their guns out of their hands.

"You know, it's sad that you thought that would work." Peter states before leaping off the car and they run into a gigantic web that Miles placed to trap them.

"Hey, according to nature, doesn't this mean we have to eat them now?" Miles asks while hanging upside down on a web and Peter waits for the police's arrival.

"Nice quip." Peter says and gives Miles a fist bump.

"Thanks for the help, Spider-Man." One of the officers say and the two of them swing off.

"There's two of them now?" Another Officer asks, completely confused.

"Hey, as long as they're on our side." Another states, not caring how many their are.

-

Peter comes back to Star labs with Miles to elaborate on his work, but right now Miles is freaking out about how awesome it was.

"That was amazing. You were dodging bullets, taking names and I was all thwip, thwip and trapped them!" Miles cheers in his first successful fight ever since he got his powers.

"You're learning faster than I anticipated. Just keep doing what you're doing, you're an amazing Spider-Man." Peter assures him.

"Hey, I'm the Ultimate Spider-Man, you're the Amazing Spider-Man." Miles corrects him and looks at the time. "Oh, I've gotta get going. I'll catch up later." He says and leaves.

Cisco is just slurping his coffee watching their interaction.

"I guess someone is loving having a protege around." Cisco notices.

"Miles is a great kid, just needs to learn to be patient." Peter assures Cisco.

"Kid and patience. Not two words that like to work together." Barry says when they hear something beeping and look to Caitlin.

"You doing okay, Cait?" Peter asks her.

"Yeah, it's just these things have just been on the fritz lately." Caitlin explains. "It makes me feel like a criminal."

"It hasn't been on the fritz, Okay? Maybe if you charged the battery, like I told you to." Cisco tells her.

"Oh, I'm just supposed to hook myself to an outlet like I'm some sort of human tablet?" Caitlin asks him.

"Cait, if you don't charge them, you're gonna turn into another Frozone." Peter states agreeing with Cisco when Caitlin walks up to him.

"Or...you could fix them for me?" Caitlin asks puffing out her eyes and lips and Peter just can't say no to that face.

"Or...I could...fix them." Peter says slowly as ideas come into his mind. "You know, maybe instead of that, we could make like a secondary power source." He starts thinking and Cisco walks up to Barry.

"Did she just Jedi mind trick him?" Cisco asks Barry.

"Yeah, she totally just Jedi mind tricked him." Barry informs him laughing at how Peter, the man who has defeated the six major enemies alone, can't say no to his girlfriend.

-

Later, they get an alert of a robbery at the Diamond exchange and the heroes go in to stop him.

"Listen buddy, I'm training someone now. So I can't constantly stop the training to keep fighting thugs like you." Peter says when Barry shows up and faces the man and he looks exactly like the guy from the future newsreel article.

Barry freezes seeing him and Peter notices that when the guy pulls out a sonic blasts gun and shoots the heroes and Peter shields Barry when they get blasted.

-

They return to Star labs so see what they know about this new guy.

"That gun, I've never seen anything like that in my life. I want a gun like that." Cisco states.

"Hey, what happened out there?" Peter asks Barry.

"Your telemetry readings dropped precipitously." Caitlin tells him.

"It caught me off guard." Barry explains to his friend.

"Okay, so we're going up against a guy with a futuristic rifle that's stealing jewelry and looks like a pirate." May recaps.

"A pirate you say? Well then, we shall call this scurvy lad boy the name of Plunder. Plunder, agreed?" HR asks sounding like a pirate.

"Shouldn't you be focusing on your museum, or something?" Cisco asks.

"Aren't you suppose to be helping me, Francisco, with me hologram?" HR asks, still talking like a pirate.

"That's not my problem." Cisco states.

"Anyway, I'm gonna get CCPD on the monitor all the jewelry stores in the city." Joe tells them. "This guy must be pretty full of himself, so knowing he escaped Flash and Spider-Man, he's most likely to be back."

"And when he is, we'll be ready for him, right guys?" Wally asks them.

"Yeah, man." Peter says, agreeing.

"No, not we." Barry tells them. "Peter, you should focus on Miles more in case anything worse happens. Wally, just trust me, Okay?"

Peter and Wally are completely confused about why he's pushing them both away and both decide to agree, but they're gonna keep an eye on him.

-

Caitlin has gone to Lucius to see what he has learned about her blood work.

"This small fraction in your blood is an entirely different anomaly than any meta human bloodstream." Fox tells her what her found. "In reality, Killer Frost isn't from the dark matter. It's actually a closer parallel to Peter's radioactive spider bite." He explains to her.

"Then where did she come from?" Caitlin wonders.

"I was hoping you could tell me." Fox admits and sits down next to her. "There anything strange about your family, suddenly disappearing, vanishing, things like that?"

"My dad, he got sick and died when I was young. But other than that, nothing." Caitlin says.

"Well, I'll keep looking into this, and that power source you asked for." Fox promises and Caitlin leaves.

-

Meanwhile, Plunder was robbing the hotel and Barry finds him on the roof.

"You just couldn't resist another heist, huh?" Barry asks him.

"What's the fun in one and done?" Plunder asks him.

"Avoiding a fifteen year jail sentence in Iron Heights would've been nice, but you're forcing my hand. I guess it's a little late for that now." Barry tells him.

"Guess again." Plunder says and starts shooting him.

Barry avoids the hits and punches Plunder in the face.

But the bullets that he was shooting were advanced speed seeking ones so it took an extra minute to dodge them.

Barry looks and sees he's still unconscious and wonders if he should catch him, maybe letting him go will save iris' life.

But that agreement becomes obsolete as Peter and Wally speed in and web Plunder and Wally grabs the gun before it could shoot Barry again.

"I caught that whole thing, man." The worker says holding his camera up. "Anything you wanna say to the camera?" He asks Wally.

"For real? Okay, what's up, Central City? Names Kid Flash." Wally says while chuckling and Peter picks up Plunder and lets the Flash kid have his moment.

-

The three return to Star labs and they're all congratulating Wally on his first bad guy while Barry is angry that he was caught.

"Wally, congratulations, my man." Peter tells him as they enter the cortex.

"Great job, Wally." Caitlin says.

"Kid Flash! Let 'em know!" Cisco cheers.

"Well, I just exchanged Plunder for one empty Iron Heights cell." Peter tells them.

"His real name is Jared Morillo. Turns out he's wanted for a string of robberies from here to Star City." Joe informs them.

"What was that?" Barry asks the two of them. "I told you two I'd handle it."

"You're mad for your partner watching your back, like a good partner?" Peter asks him.

"You were supposed to be helping Miles out, weren't you?" Barry questions him.

"Dude, he does have school nights." Peter tells him. "What aren't you telling us?" He questions.

Barry looks at the group and knows that he needs to tell them.

"When I threw the stone into the Speedforce, I was thrown into the future. I saw Savitar...and I wasn't fast enough to save Iris from him." Barry admits to them.

"How can that be? We got rid of the stone." Wally states.

"I don't know." Barry tells them.

"What does this have to do with Robocop?" Peter asks.

"He was already in jail in the future. So I thought if we didn't catch him, that I could stop the timeline from happening. Prevent her death." Barry admits.

"So you're willing to put dozens of people in danger, let criminals go free if it means you get to save one life?" Peter asks him, never thinking that he would do something like that.

"Jay said that her death was one of infinite possible futures. But it's supposed to happen in four months." Barry tells them. "So that gives us plenty of time to stop it."

"Barry, changing the future is harder to do than you think." Peter informs him. "It's not like _Back to the Future_ where some small change has major consequences like traveling to the past. Think of a row of domino's." He was saying when Cisco hands him some dominos.

"You just happened to have those on you?" Peter asks.

"Just continue." Cisco says and Barry quickly sets the dominos up so he can continue.

"Imagine that these dominos each resemble a moment in time. One moment leads to the next, then so on and so on. Leading to the conclusion." Peter explains and hits the dominos and they all fall.

"And what if we tried changing the event?" Barry asks.

"There are two possible outcomes, ironically. One is that you change everything, no questions asked. Like in _Back to the Future._ The second is if you are gonna cause that event to happen."

"Like how Anakin saw Padme dying and tried to save her, but ended up being the one to cause it in _Revenge of the Sith_." May states.

"Exactly." Peter says pointing to his aunt who gets it.

"We need to figure out everything that happens leading up to Iris' death." Barry tells them. "When I saw the future, there was a news scroll on TV. That might be able to offer some clues."

"I think I can help with that." Cisco says.

-

The team sets up the device which was recycled from the device they used on Julian.

"Just sit back and try to relax. Concentrate on the exact date to the future guy traveled to." Cisco tells Barry.

The two then enter the vibe and are on the street where Barry came from as he just arrived.

They walk and see the news report and the headlines.

"Call the headlines, I'll write them down." HR tells them.

"Music Meister gets six figure book deal." Barry calls out.

"Luigi's opens after murder." Cisco sees.

"Joe West honored at City Hall." Barry calls out.

"Killer..." Cisco was saying and that gets Peter and Caitlin's attention.

"What does it say?" Caitlin asks him.

"Killer Frost still at large." Cisco says and Peter places a comforting hand on hers.

"Star labs museum closes." Barry sees.

"City still recovering following gorilla attack." Cisco says when they hear Future Barry call out and then they turn and see Savitar and Iris.

But they now look near Barry and see Peter is on the ground bleeding.

"Peter's here and he doesn't look so good." Barry says and runs over to his friend and doesn't know what to do. His mask is torn, one of his eye sockets are missing, and his mouth is visible and his right arm looks like it was slashed straight down the middle. "He wasn't here before, this doesn't make any sense."

"Look, up on the roof." Cisco says and Barry looks and they see HR with Harry's speedster weapon.

"HR wasn't here either." Barry says.

"The future has changed since you showed up." Cisco says and they see Savitar kill Iris before leaving.

"You had a rifle pointed at Savitar. Somehow telling you all about iris' death, it changed the future." Barry tells them.

"Then it looks like the future can be changed." HR says.

"And Iris' isn't the only one that needs to be changed." Peter says looking to Caitlin.

"These headlines, they tell us what happens in the future where Caitlin becomes Killer Frost and Iris dies." Barry says seeing what HR wrote.

"If we change the headlines, we change the future." Caitlin adds.

"I'm on board." Peter states, wanting to keep Caitlin safe.

But will in the event of trying to stop this future, will they cause it to happen?

-

Later, Caitlin returns home and Peter was there talking to Fox whole holding a package.

"What are you boys doing here?" Caitlin asks the men.

"We have been working on your battery problem with the cuffs. And we have invested in this alternate accessory." Peter says and Fox opens the box and shows a necklace in the shape of a snowflake.

"Powered by solar energy and it'll charge the cuffs wirelessly." Fox tells her. "The snowflake and necklace was all his idea." He admit looking to Peter.

"May I?" Peter asks and taking out the necklace and Caitlin moves her hair so that Peter can put it on her.

"Thank you, guys." Caitlin says and hugs Fox before kissing Peter.

"I'd move the sun and the stars for you, Caitlin." Peter says and Fox leaves the two of them alone, not wanting to be the third wheel to that.


	55. Sidekicks

Peter and Miles were on their way to the Keystone bridge where there's criminals trying to escape.

Peter landed on the front of the car and punches through the windshield and grabs the wheel before ripping it off.

They start to drive the car faster to the bridge and they're about to hit a school bus as Miles quickly uses his web shooters and strength to keep the from hitting them and going off the edge as the webs snap and the car tumbles into a ditch near the ledge.

"Spidey?!" Miles call's out, not seeing Peter and rushes towards the wreckage when he hears Peter laughing while coughing.

"I'm good. They're not going anytime soon. Great work." Peter says and gets out of the wreckage while dragging the unconscious criminals with them as the police arrive.

"They saved us!" They hear someone say and look to see the school bus was all cheerleaders.

"Who are you?" Another cheerleader asks Miles.

"Uh..." Miles doesn't know what to say and looks to Peter and he nods his head towards them saying it's okay. "I'm the Ultimate Spider-Man."

"Oh, my gosh, can we get your picture?" Another cheerleader asks.

"Sure." Miles says and Peter chuckled and watches as they do a group photo before he goes swing off.

"See ya, officers." Peter tells them and follows Miles back into the city.

-

The two spiders return to Star labs where Miles finally meets the rest of the team.

They all introduce themselves and congrats them for stopping the criminals.

"I'm just saying, the speedsters could've done it better." Wally admits.

"Come on, Wally. There's enough criminals for the four of us." Barry tells him.

"Hey, the bus full of good looking cheerleaders seemed to like the way we did things." Miles says before getting a text from his dad and he needs to run off. "I gotta go, catch y'all later!"

While he did that, Cisco brought Julian in to help with the whole timeline speed distance and they leave to figure it out.

"So how good looking were these cheerleaders?" Caitlin asks Peter as she walks up and wraps her arms around him.

"Hey, I'm not into cheerleaders. I'm into the bookworms, as evidenced by my amazing girlfriend." Peter informs her and wraps his arms around her neck. "Miles is just a kid, and enjoying the feeling of all the first. I remember all my first. First bad guy, first quip, etcetera."

"He's lucky to have you watching over him." Caitlin says pecking his lips.

"He's got me while I've got him. I probably would've been crushed if it weren't for his quick thinking. It's actually pretty fun having someone like me out there." Peter says.

-

Barry was called into Jitters and sees that someone broke in but stole nothing.

"So this is the footage from Jitters that should help us ID our new meta." Cisco says as they get a bit of footage showing her face.

"Brunette? That really narrows it down." Caitlin states seeing the footage is mostly glitchy.

"I'll get it cleared up." Cisco promises when Peter's senses alert him and he looks to the security cameras.

"Who's that?" Peter asks and they all look to the cameras.

"_HR Wells, I know you're in there._" The woman tells him. "_Come quietly if you don't want trouble._"

"HR, how does she know you?" Caitlin asks.

"Talk. Who is this...gorgeous intruder?" Cisco asks and gets looks from Peter and Caitlin.

"Her name is Gypsy. And she's what's known on my earth as a collector." HR explains to them.

"What is she collecting?" Caitlin questions

"She's come to collect me." HR states and they see Gypsy open a breach like Cisco.

Luckily, Peter's senses were able to predict where she was coming and shoots a web and handcuffs her.

"Ha!" Peter states, that being a new record for stopping an intruder.

Gypsy just vibes the webbing off and quickly shoots a vibe blast at Peter but he quickly dodges it, giving Gypsy enough time to shoot HR.

Cisco vibes Gypsy to help Peter while Caitlin goes to HR.

"You can vibe?" Gypsy asks Cisco. "Oh, I like it."

"Slow down there. Let's just talk about this like two adults." Cisco replies to that. "Over coffee, or maybe dinner, if you prefer that. There's a great Thai place up the road, if you like Thai. I'm Cisco, you must be Gypsy."

"What's happening?" Peter asks.

"Are you asking her on a date?" Caitlin asks.

"Are you kidding me?" HR asks him.

"I am negotiating." Cisco tells them.

"Well, you showed me yours. Only fair I show you mine." Gypsy says and she opens a breach and goes behind Cisco to blast him across the speed lab.

Peter gets a web grenade ready and throws it only for her to send it back at him, and once it exploded it got Peter stuck to the wall.

"Well, this is embarrassing." Peter states.

Luckily, that's when Wally comes speeding in but Gypsy was able to freeze him and make him drop.

"Cait, I'm gonna need my web dissolver." Peter tells her and tries using his super strength to break free.

"You're harboring a fugitive from justice." Gypsy tells them. "Our world has a strict ban on inter-dimensional travel. He knew that when he came here." She says looking to HR.

"So you tracked him here?" Cisco asks as he stands back up.

"Honestly, it wasn't that hard. Not when he beams _HR Wells' Adventures in the Multiverse _back chapter by chapter." Gypsy says.

"You know what, whatever HR did, you can't just show up and take him." Peter states as Caitlin is using the dissolver on his hand to get him free completely. "Not without going through all of us."

"If I really wanted to go through you, you would all be dead." Gypsy states. "There is no getting away. You've got an hour to get our affairs in order, and then you're coming back with me." She promises and opens a breach and vanishes.

"Cisco, I hate your powers." Peter tells him as Caitlin gets him free.

-

They then get Barry and Joe in and fill them in on what's happening and at the book he was sending.

"_As Francisco threw back his lustrous locks and laughed, I outlined my plan for neutralizing the rampaging creature_. It goes on like this for pages." Cisco reads from HR's stuff. "He's been broadcasting this without our knowledge or permission, while making himself the hero."

"Yeah, every book needs a central protagonist that the audience can invest in." HR explains.

"I would've chosen Peter or even Barry." Caitlin states and then looks to Cisco. "What was going on with you back there?"

"Yeah, what was with the flirting?" Peter asks.

"I can't help who I'm attracted to, even if it is the...sexy, intense, deadly ones." Cisco tells them and they both raise a brow to him. "So she takes you to your Earth, and you pay a fine or something?" He asks HR.

"The punishment for an unauthorized breach travel on my Earth...is death." HR explains to them and they're confused to why. "About 18-25 years ago, there was a war. With the entire multiverse at stake, the heroes of my world, the Avengers, they fought to stop the end of all reality and won at some costs. So to prevent it from happening again, the government banned all inter-dimensional travel from anyone but the heroes of earth. Then they put the Collectors in place to punish those who violate the ban. I just didn't think she'd track me here."

"So why would you risk your life coming here?" Peter wonders, even he doesn't see his world anywhere close to worth dying for a quick visit.

"I'm gonna get packing. It's time for HR to face the music." HR says and leaves.

"Guys, I know HR can be annoying, but he doesn't deserve to die." Caitlin says.

"Different earth, different morality." Julian defends.

"Why are you hanging around here?" Peter questions, not seeing what he's here for.

"But he doesn't go back. I saw him." Barry tells them. "In the future, with me and Peter against Savitar, he was there. That must mean we don't let her take him back."

"Yeah, I don't wanna picture me dying again." Peter states trying to erase that thought.

"Maybe we should let her take him." Julian states. "Maybe by letting him go back, it changes the future and prevents Iris' death."

"So we gotta choose from either HR goes and dies and hope that it changes things, and if it doesn't we just let him die for nothing." Peter recaps what Julian is suggesting they do.

"I gotta go see her." Barry says and leaves to talk to Iris.

While he did that, Peter goes to see HR.

"You never answered my question. Why would you risk your life coming here?" Peter asks him.

"I looked in a mirror. On my Earth, I had fame and power. I had respect. I was HR Wells. But when I looked in the mirror, I knew the truth. And the truth was...I didn't matter. I was a fraud. That's why I came to this Earth, so I could rewrite my story, both literally and figuratively." HR explains to him as Barry and Cisco enter the room.

"There's gotta be something you can do, HR." Barry says.

"There's not. There's nothing I can do B.A. I don't have any options unless I appeal for the trial by combat." HR says and that gives the three of them an idea when Caitlin warns them Gypsy is back.

-

The four all go outside where Gypsy is waiting.

"I'm impressed. Thought you'd try and flee again." Gypsy admits. "Time to go."

"Wait." Barry calls out. "You're not talking him anywhere."

"Why not?" Gypsy asks.

"Because I challenge you to trial by combat." Cisco says before Peter and Barry could.

"What are you doing?" They both ask Cisco.

"I'm challenging her to trial by combat." Cisco says.

"No, no he isn't. I'm gonna fight you." Barry says.

"Well...That one spoke first." Gypsy says.

"What, that's a rule?" Peter asks.

"By the laws of Earth-19, I hereby challenge you for possession of HR Wells." Cisco says to Gypsy. "If you want, we can solve this another way. There's a great spot for drinks."

"You realize trial by combat is to the death?" Gypsy asks him.

"Yeah. For the loser." Cisco states. "Listen, you want him? You're gonna have to come and claim him. That's Arwen...Arwen."

"I take it you also want the customary 24 hours to prepare?" Gypsy asks.

"Do I want the..?" Cisco asks looking to his friends who all nod yes. "I would love to take advantage of it, if you don't mind."

"Very well. One day it is." Gypsy says and leaves.

"She's gonna kill me, isn't she?" Cisco asks his friends.

-

Peter has offered to help train Cisco by using himself as a target for him to hit and they practiced until the last minute.

They couldn't interfere with the fight otherwise they forfeit and HR dies.

During the fight, they traveled through the multiverse and wounded up on multiple worlds, Some they knew. Some they knew people from.

But Cisco was able to get a upper hand by the end and spared her life, saving HR's life.


	56. Can't touch this

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Central City Speedster 500 is about to begin." Cisco tells them as Wally and Barry are going to race throughout the city. "But first, I've got five-to-one offs Barry takes down Wally."

"Game of speculation? Are we-were betting? Yeah, I'm in." HR states. "On my Earth, financial wagering was banned after an unfortunate incident with Vice President Al Capone."

"Twenty for Barry." Iris says.

"Experience beats speed. Ninety on Barry." Peter says, wanting to get in.

"Eighty for Barry. Mama needs a new confocal microscope." Caitlin says and Peter makes a quick mental note on that.

"All right, HR, you put your life in my hands, so I know you like high stakes. How much you in for?" Cisco asks him.

"Wallace's recent speed tests ensure that he is a lock. Put me done for an Abe Lincoln. A hundred. Whatever a hundred is on this earth." HR tells him.

"All right all bets are in, and may the odds be ever in your favor." Cisco says and then starts the race.

Barry and Wally run through the city at top speed and shows that they're neck and next.

But at the next building, Barry used his phasing ability while Wally had to run around the building and placing Barry in the lead.

"Pay up." Iris says since they've lost.

"Never choose strength over experience." Peter advises them.

"Do you guys take IOUs?" HR asks them.

-

Later Barry goes to Luigi's and finds a Stewart Holtzman and he was a complete corpse even when he died eight hours ago.

Which they remember that Luigi's was one of the headlines from the future that they apparently couldn't change.

Barry offers to Julian that he can do an autopsy at Star labs to help identify what happened to him, but Peter isn't exactly growing on Julian. It's not just because of the whole Alchemy thing and he tried to kill him.

Okay, that's a little bit of the reason why.

But it's also about how he is around Caitlin, like he's trying to steal her from him. He might come off overprotective, or might controlling to others, but this is the guy who tried killing them and turning Caitlin into Killer Frost. He's keeping an eye on Julian. Also, he's got nothing better to do.

"You think this is what it's like to be a character on _CSI_?" Cisco asks.

"What do they hope to gain from that examination?" HR asks.

"They're trying to find the exact cause of death. Once we know that, we'll have a better idea of what we're dealing with." Peter explains to him.

"But until then, we need to train." Barry tells Wally. "I'm gonna teach you everything I know, starting with phasing."

"Yes! Finally." Wally says, as he's been waiting to learn how.

"You know what we should do? We should concoct some simulations to help Wallace learn this new skill." HR says.

"Let's go." Cisco says as they all leave and Peter just stays since he has no reason to go anywhere else with Miles at school.

"What's his name?" Caitlin asks Julian referring to the corpse.

"Doesn't really matter much now, does it?" Julian tells her.

"Of course, we should call him by his name. After everything he's been through, he deserves that much respect." Caitlin tells him.

"He is a corpse, thus impervious to such bedside manners."

"Well, thank goodness, 'cause I'd hate to subject him to yours."

"Victim is male, between 30 and 40, with a highly necrotizing epidermis." Julian notes as Caitlin unzips the bag to find nothing inside except for ashes. "The decay continues even after the tissue's dead. This is not a bacteria." He take note of.

"Or any other disease known to medical science." Caitlin states and that settles that this must be a metahuman.

-

The next day a new body turns up and is the exact same as their previous one, Julio Mendez.

Barry even remembers the victims name from his time in Flashpoint and realizes that the victims are all connected.

But watching Wally run into a wall while trying to learn how to phase was hilarious.

"Aside from this body disintegrating before our eyes, I'm not getting anything unusual." Caitlin says.

"There must be a heightened point of necrosis somewhere." Julian tells her.

"Well, what if you were to look somewhere where it could've started?" Peter offers and Caitlin looks and sees he's right.

"The palm of his hand is darker than the rest of his body." Caitlin sees and Julian basically pushes her aside to collect it himself. "You know I thought Barry was overreacting when he complained about sharing a lab with you. But now I understand his frustration."

"Believe me, no one is more frustrated than I." Julian says as he rushes to the computers.

"You do realize that it's possible not to be a jerk all the time, right?" Caitlin says when they start getting a match and sees a element inside the DNA.

"What's that strange strain of DNA?" Caitlin asks

"It's the same one as in all the meta husks created by Alchemy." Julian says, which means that he was the one to create their killer.

-

Later on, Peter met up with Miles at Jitters to talk about what he needs to work on and how his powers are working.

"I mean, I'm able to actually turn invisible so much easier now. And it's wicked awesome. And it makes getting away from my parents and school easier to get out and fight crime." Miles tells him.

"Well, it seems like you've got that covered. Maybe we should see if you have anything else. Like, you already have camouflage, who knows what else you can do." Peter theorized since Miles is more powerful just from one power. What if he has more powers?

Except while they were talking, their senses go off and they look at the door.

"Punisher!" The man yells and looks directly at Peter.

Peter is confused when he gets a text and looks and sees it's form Barry who's above on the balcony.

**That's our meta. Clive Yorkin**.-BA.

"Long time, no see." Clive tells Peter.

"Am I suppose to know you?" Peter asks.

"You don't remember me? You and your riffle had a fun time ruining my life. I'm not gonna let you do that this time." Clive informs him and now Peter is seriously confused.

"I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong guy. I don't own a gun." Peter says when he looks and sees Miles has disappeared, literally.

"No, no. You're the Punisher I remember. Look a lot more hopeful and happy, though. But I can change that." Clive promises and touches a table, causing it to rot and turn to ash.

Joe pulls out his gun. "Everyone out!" He tells everyone and they all run out the back way.

"Yes, everyone run. I only want him." Clive says as Peter isn't running. "You can't stand there forever."

"One more step, I'll shoot." Joe warns him and Clive doesn't listen.

Joe starts shooting him and all the bullets turn to ash before they could touch him.

Suddenly, Miles comes in and he's wearing his suit.

"Yo, you know these places have more expensive furniture than it's worth, right?" Miles asks before sending a web right at Clive and it actually attaches to him.

"What?" Clive asks, never having a substance that could actually stop him.

Miles then uses the opportunity to spin him away from Peter and through the doors.

Barry and the others run down to catch him only to see he's escaped.

-

"This guys got the touch of death." Cisco says looking at the photo of Clive back at the labs.

"It's not just people, it's anything that he touches it'll turn to ash." Barry says.

"But what about Spider-Man's webbing? That was able to stop him." Wally says and they turn to Peter for answers.

"Miles is using my webbing formula so there must be something inside of it that actually stops it from deteriorating. I designed it to not deteriorate, but over time it does. Like an actual spider web. Maybe I made it better than I could've imagined." Peter explains to them since even he doesn't know how that works. "But that guy called me Punisher. Who is this guy?" He asks Barry.

"He...was who you were in Flashpoint. A mercenary who killed to keep the people safe." Barry tells him. "He lost everything that he was willing to do anything in order to stop that from happening again."

"Great. So someone who I am not is coming back to haunt me. Wonder what he did." Peter says, but a name like Punisher should really give that away.

"Peter, I think until we can stop him, you should stay here." Barry states to Peter.

"Spider-Man doesn't hide. Look, we see that my webbing can keep him back and I am never without my web shooters, I have them disguised as watches, bracelets, anything. I'll handle myself." Peter promises before leaving to train with Miles.

-

Peter was later at home after a long day of training and Jessica called to let him know eveyething was fine with Frankie. He even spent some time to look over the adoptive agencies to have it so Frankie can stay with him.

He started getting dinner ready for Caitlin, when his senses go off and his door disintegrated.

"We finally meet face to face, Peter Parker." Clive says as Peter was able to reach his phone and send out an alert.

Peter then gets his web shooters out, ready to hold this guy back, even if it reveals who he is.

"Listen, I don't know what I did to you in a previous life, but you don't have to do this." Peter tells him.

"Sorry, but there's nothing you can do to make up for what you did." Clive says and was about to keep walking when Peter webs his hand to the table.

"Can't go through webbing." Peter tells him.

"Webbing? No. A table? Yes." Clive says and disintegrated his table he was webbed to and keeps approaching Peter.

That's when Wally comes in and sees them.

"Too late, Kid Flash." Clive says as he goes to touch Peter and he quickly dodges the touch and punches him, but upon impact, his hand starts deteriorating.

"Me or him." Clive says and leaves and Wally rushes to Peter,

-

Wally then rushes Peter to Star labs to see what they can do to save him.

"His powers are healing the deterioration, slowing it down, but they're not going to be able to stop it all together." Julian tells them.

"There has to be something we can do." Barry says as he's pacing to how he wasn't able to help his friend.

"It's not a bacterial, even if it was, Peter's body burns through antibiotics too fast." Caitlin explains and doesn't know what it's gonna take in order to save him, but is willing to do anything.

"Okay, what do you do when a banana ripens too quickly? Put it in the freezer." Cisco tells them and look to Caitlin.

Literally, she's willing to do anything else.

"That's brilliant. Caitlin, you can freeze his arm. It'll stop the decay and help us find a cure, or his powers work their magic." Julian says.

"No, I can't even if I wanted to. We're not talking about a cold blast. This is a specific and continuous cold stream." Caitlin tells them.

"Too high a temperature and the decay spreads, too low and frostbite will destroy his nerve endings." May explains to them.

"And that long using my powers, I could loose control." Caitlin tells Peter.

"Cait...this is your choice. But I know how strong you are...you're one of the strongest people I know. You had almost no...control and-couldn't kill me before, remember? And I'll be here for you." Peter promises while taking her hand with his good hand.

Caitlin watches and sees his body is fighting the infection, but not for long. She quickly removes the necklace and starts using her powers and it seems to have worked as the deterioration is stopping.

"You...Okay?" Peter asks Caitlin, fighting through the pain of the cold.

"So far, so good." Caitlin says and is trying to stay strong for him.

-

The team have worked on a way to find out who Clive is after by using Cisco to vibe Flashpoint to find out who he's going after.

What they do vibe, first they see the victims Clive has already killed and one more person, a officer Stone.

The next thing that happens is the vibe changes to where it seems Clive has escaped from police custody and is in the middle of a fight with Punisher.

"Oh, Peter's rockin' the dark look." Cisco comments on Peter's suit design in this reality as he seems to be able to hold his own against Clive as his suit is covering his entire body, all except his face.

The fight goes on for some time when Peter pulls out a ice pick and stabs Clive in the side.

"Please, don't do this. I surrender." Clive begs to Punisher.

"Sorry...but you had your chance." Punisher says before shooting Clive and Cisco exits the vibe.

"So that's why he wanted Peter dead." Cisco realizes. "Stone, that's the other cop that arrested Clive before Punisher killed him." He tells them.

"Laura Stone. She's a PI." Joe tells them.

"And that means she's the only one that Clive hasn't gone after yet." HR sees.

"I'm on it. You guys stay here and try to find out how to catch someone we can't touch." Joe tells them.

-

The team goes to the cortex to see what they can do and Julian is doing what he can to save Peter.

Barry was able to see that his blood is able to be used to stop Clive since his powers work like how Barry's powers heal and they could use that to stop him.

But they start hearing the monitors are going off and Cisco and Barry look to see the decay is spreading.

"What's going on?" Barry asks and he looks to Caitlin who's eyes go as white as ice.

"I'm loosing control." Caitlin tells him.

"Caitlin, it's spreading. We need you, Peter needs your help." Barry tells her.

"Just a little bit longer, and he dies. How's that for changing the future?" Caitlin asks in Frost's voice.

"Caitlin...look at me." Peter asks and Caitlin looks down to him. "You're not loosing control...You're afraid of _losing_ control, which is causing you to lose _control_."

"And what makes you think I won't leave you here to die?" Frost asks Peter.

"Because you wouldn't let me die when _you_ had the chance before. I know you're..._scared_ of loosing this fight inside of you, Caitlin, but...you're strong. You are _going_ to do what's right because that's...that's who you are. You are the woman I know who can fight and keep going. I know...I can always rely on you." Peter says as he fights through the pain to tell her.

Caitlin starts to regain control as Peter's right, after everything she's been through she hasn't broken yet because she had Peter. She's stronger than Killer Frost.

She starts using her powers again to keep Peter alive when Joe's alert goes off.

-

They speed to the train and see the bridge is destroyed and is covering the tracks.

Barry gets Ann idea of phasing the train through the rubble and hopes that it works.

He speeds into the train and starts phasing as fast as he can and starts phasing everyone on board and passes through the rubble easily as the train brakes.

Wally looks and sees Clive is here.

"You know what they say, Kid Flash. The first you don't succeed, try, try again." Clive says.

"_You have to stop him. I don't have it in me right now. I need you to get your blood into him. It'll counteract his cells and negate his powers._" Barry tells Wally from the train.

"How am I supposed to do that when I can't even touch him?" Wally asks.

"_Phase into him._" Barry says and Wally cuts his hand and hopes this works. "_I believe in you, but he you need to believe in yourself._"

Wally runs and was able to finally phase into him and left his blood inside of him.

Clive tries using his powers and they're not working.

"What did you do?" Clive asks.

"I won." Wally breaks to him.

-

Peter starts waking up and hears the heart rate monitor and turns to see Caitlin.

"Hey, beautiful." Peter greets her and leans close to her.

"Hey, handsome." Caitlin says and goes in and pecks his lips.

"Did we stop him?" Peter asks.

"Wally was able to phase his blood into Clive and neutralized his powers, so he won't be harming anyone again." Caitlin promises.

"And...my arm?" Peter asks as he looks and sees his arm is still there and it's perfectly normal.

"Once his blood was stabilized, we made an antidote that allowed us to cure it and your powers made it like it never happened." Caitlin tells him.

"You continue to amaze me, dr. Snow." Peter states.

"Well, I have someone who is able to help keep me strong." Caitlin replies to him.

"No. I only told you what you should already know. It was a big risk using your powers, but I knew you would never hurt me." Peter corrects her.

"You're always able to bring the best out of me, Peter." Caitlin says and leans in to kiss him again.

"You do the exact same for me, Cait." Peter says before he kisses her. "And I promise you, I will do whatever it's going to take in order to save you from becoming Killer Frost."

-

Wally was in the basement practicing phasing when a breach opens.

Jesse comes in carrying Frost who's in Jesse's hands and her head looks like it's bleeding.

"Jesse? Frost? What are you two doing here? What happened to her?" Wally asks, confused why they're here and Frost's bruised head.

"Grodd. He's got my dad. And he has him in Gorilla City." Jesse tells him.


	57. City of the apes

Caitlin checked on Frost and it seems she's suffered from head trauma and sees she's in a small coma while Jesse explains what happened.

"It's been two weeks since he disappeared. I mean, no ones seen or heard from him since." Jesse tells them.

"Okay, why did your dad go to Gorilla City?" Peter asks, completely confused to why Harry would do that. Why _anybody_ would do that.

"We received a mathematical cryptogram at our Star labs. It was highly complex. Took a week to decode it, but my dad and I did. It was an invitation from the gorillas to my dad." Jesse explains to them.

"Why Harry?" Barry asks.

"They wanted to meet him. So he mounted an expedition with ten other people, including Frost, and they went into the jungle. But they failed multiple check-ins, and a search party went in after them. But all they found were the bodies and the unconscious Frost...they were all beaten to death." Jesse explains and now they're worried about Harry.

"Oh! There you guys are." HR says as he exits the med lab. "Did anyone else see...Killer Frost in the med lab?" He asks when Jesse almost thought that he was Harry.

"So what are we gonna do?" Peter asks as they all remember the headline of the city and the gorilla attack.

"This can't be a coincidence, right? Harry lured into Gorilla City means Grodd must be planning something." Barry says.

"Seems like he's planning to come back to this earth." Caitlin agrees.

"And not alone by the sound of it." Cisco adds.

"Ha! If Grodd is coming to this earth with a monkey army, Peter Parker is not on this earth." Peter warns them, sick of the telepathic ape. Forgot an army of them.

"If we rescue Harry, maybe that stops whatever Grodd has planned, and maybe changes the future?" May guesses.

"Or maybe going there is what causes this." Peter says...but he isn't going to leave anyone behind. Harry's a friend. Yet again, he's in a city of his most feared animal.

"Harry's our friend, I'm not abandoning him. I'm going back to Earth-2." Barry tells them.

"And I suppose you'll want somebody to come with you who's gonna open those breaches for you?" Cisco guesses. "I'm in."

"Sorry, no thanks. My mind can't stand one overgrown monkey, let alone a city of them." Peter states to them.

"I'm gonna come too. I have a connection with Grodd. Maybe we can use that to get through to him." Caitlin tells the team.

Peter freezes for a second and now is completely on board with going. He wants to keep Caitlin safe, and he wants to save Harry. "Fine, I'm going. But if I don't get use the _stinkin' paws_ line at least once, this whole trip is ruined." He warns them and Caitlin laughs at that pun. "I'll tell Miles I'm going out of town and ask him not to blow up the city while I'm gone.

-

Peter explained to Miles that he was going to a secret city of gorillas and he asked Miles to keep the city safe while he was gone.

"Okay, and make sure Wally doesn't-" Barry was telling Iris.

"I will." Iris promises.

"Because you know, sometimes he can be a little-" Barry was saying.

"Barry," Iris said firmly, rolling her eyes up at him. "I am _very good_ at bossing my little brother around. Okay? Don't worry. Just don't do anything stupid."

"Okay," Barry sighed, giving her a hug.

"This is the dumbest thing we've done, and that's saying a lot." Peter tells May.

"Well, you've seen all of the _Planet of the Apes_ movies, so you know what to look out for." May assures him.

"Yeah, and they say watching television doesn't save lives." Peter jokes when they turn and see Julian in some _Indiana Jones_ style outfit.

"Oh boy." May says seeing this isn't gonna go well.

"_Indiana Jones_ much?" Cisco asks.

"Cisco, my friend, this is not my first expedition, and believe me, this is the perfect attire." Julian tells him.

"Wait, Julian, what's going on? I thought you were covering for me?" Barry asks him.

"I spoke to Captain Singh. He thinks we're at a morphology conference up in Bludhaven." Julian tells Barry. "So if it's all the same to you..."

"All right." Barry agrees to let him come.

"You don't need to come, Julian. You don't even know Harry." Caitlin says as she knows how he's been making Peter feel. Let alone she's been feeling the same way with how he acts around her.

"A chance to travel to another dimension. I mean, I wasn't gonna miss that." Julian tells her.

"We're not going sightseeing." Peter informs him when Julian pulls out a gun.

"Neither am I." Julian states.

"Yeah, that not gonna help you. Not against gorillas that can control your mind." Peter warns him.

"Wally, Jesse, Miles, you make sure this city's safe while were gone, all right?" Barry asks the teen heroes.

"We will." Wally promises.

"Try not to kill Julian." May asks Peter while kissing his cheek. "And keep Caitlin and yourself safe, I'll make sure Frost stays alive."

"Thanks." Peter says and walks up to them.

The team gets ready and Cisco opens a breach and they all go through it.

-

They exit the breach in the damp environment of Earth-2 Africa.

"Welcome to the jungle, baby." Cisco says as they look and see a temple with a gorilla face on it.

"I immediately regret my decision." Peter states as they start walking through the jungle.

"Earth-2 Africa. Not hot. Guess global warming's not really a thing here. But bugs are." Cisco says as he gets bit.

"Someone please help me out. How exactly does saving someone on this Earth prevent an attack on ours?" Julian asks them.

"Well, if Grodd is planning to attack Central City, he's gonna need a way of traveling the multiverse via breach." Peter explains to him. "And the only one capable of doing that is..."

"Harrison Wells." Caitlin finishes his sentence. "So if we save him from Grodd, he can't get to our earth."

"The attack never happens." Peter adds.

"And we change the future." Caitlin finishes cheerfully.

"They've officially reaches the finishing-each-other's-sentences portion of their relationship." Cisco tells Barry who also sees that, and it's creepy.

They keep walking as Cisco is tracking where the gorillas are or at least where Harry's watch is.

"Hey, what are you thinking about?" Caitlin asks as she sees Peter's thinking of something.

"Just remembering the last time we were here. When I met your doppelgänger and first met Killer Frost, now just Frost I guess. Then meeting my doppelgänger who was douche." Peter tells her. "And when I made a promise to you that you would never become her. At least the evil part."

"I remember it as when I finally came to grips to how I felt about you. If I was never taken, I might've never told you how I felt." Caitlin tells him.

"Well, good things always come out of bad sometimes." Peter says before kissing her cheek and they catch up with the others.

"We're getting close, guys." Cisco says.

They keep walking and come into a clearing when they hear something bleeping.

They look and Peter picks up Harry's metahuman watch.

"It's a trap." Barry realizes when suddenly darts come flying in and hits them but Peter catches his.

"A dart?" Peter asks looking at it and down to Barry. "The _fastest man alive _was taken down...by a dart?" He questions when suddenly he gets hit in the head as Grodd sunk up on him and knocks him unconscious.

"_Welcome, Caitlin. Knew you two would come...Flash...Spider-Man._" Grodd says as he's got what he wanted.

-

Later, the team starts waking up and sees they're in a gorilla prison.

"I should've stayed home." Peter states.

"We all okay?" Barry asks.

"I'm good." Caitlin assures.

"Yeah, me too." Cisco says.

"I've lost my gun, but I'm all right." Julian says.

Peter looks and sees that his web canisters are missing from his suit and his web shooters have been crushed.

"I've got no webs, but should be fine." Peter assures him.

"Well, looks like you're gonna need to phase or super punch us out." Cisco tells the heroes.

Barry starts trying to use his powers to phase and Peter tries to use his super strength but their powers are not working.

"Somethings wrong." Peter states as they're both powerless.

"Cisco, can you open a breach?" Barry asks him.

Cisco tries but it seems whatever they were hit with dampens their powers.

"We are official prisoners of the apes. I hate that I'm able to say that sentence and not sound crazy." Peter admits.

"Well, your quips are still working." Caitlin jokes causing Peter to laugh.

"It takes a lot more than being prisoner dampen my sense of humor." Peter says when they hear footsteps coming in and see Harry.

"Hello, Flash." Harry says and they know it's Grodd.

"Grodd." Barry states.

"What? That's Grodd the gorilla? He's talking through Wells?" Julian asks.

"What part of city filled with telepathic gorillas didn't you get?" Peter asks the man.

"Grodd, let him go. This is between you and me." Barry tells him.

"Not yet. I need him." Grodd tells them.

"For what?" Peter asks him. "Why'd you lure us all here?"

"Need your help." Grodd tells them.

"Help?" Barry asks.

"You sent me here! Remember?" Grodd asks Peter as the memories flash in their minds of sending Grodd through the breach when Peter kicked him into the portal. "To live in this hell! Where I am forced to serve under the rule of Solovar."

"Who's Solovar?" Peter asks him.

"Leader of Gorilla kind. Ruler of Gorilla City. And now...he wants to rule the humans. He will bring war to your Earth." Grodd warns them.

"Why would he do that?" Barry asks Grodd.

"He has seen many conflicts between gorillas and humans. He is afraid the humans will attack, but now that you're here, he will bring the fight to you." Grodd explains.

"So you roughy us here to stop him?" Peter says.

"As trespassers...you will be sent to the arena and executed." Grodd tells them.

"You know, a sign at the door wouldn't take too much time. Like a _cross this point, you will be executed_ warning maybe." Peter tells him.

"It will be Solovar's great honor...to kill you...himself. But, Flash...if he were to be defeated, the other gorillas would see his weakness and would no longer follow him." Grodd tells him.

"Well, I'm not gonna kill anyone, not even a gorilla." Barry states.

"Kill or be killed! This is the only law gorilla kind understands." Grodd tells him.

"What do you get from this?" Peter wonders knowing Grodd isn't just doing this to save humans.

"Solovar falls. I take his place. I rule gorillas, and I promise to keep them in Gorilla City." Grodd promises.

"And why should we take your word for that?" Peter asks since he knows this gorilla should never be trusted.

"Because...even though you sent me away, your Earth is still my home. And there are those among you I will never forget." Grodd explains while looking at Caitlin when Harry drops to the floor and Grodd enters the room.

"_Kill Solovar, and Central City will be spared_." Grodd tells them as he approaches them. "_Fail, and see your home turned to ash._"

-

Barry was standing with his fists wrapped around the bars of his cage, absentmindedly rubbing his forehead against the metal. Caitlin finally decided to break the silence and walked over to him. She laid her hands against the bars, tilting her head.

"Barry, do you really think you could kill this...Solovar?" Caitlin asked softly. He glanced over at her, then back down at his hands. "Do you think you could take a life?"

Barry opened his mouth a little and was about to respond when the sound of loud, thudding gorilla footsteps echoed down the corridor.

They all glanced up to see a giant, light colored gorilla come heavily down the dungeon steps. He was closely followed by Grodd, who walked behind him in a respectful way.

"_It is just as a feared,_" the light-colored gorilla said in their minds. They presumed him to be Solovar, though they couldn't be certain. "_Humans sport war with gorilla kind. Why did you not tell me that more humans had entered the city_?"

"_I was about to inform you, Solovar-_" Grodd started, but Solovar backhanded him roughly across the chest.

Caitlin flinched and looked away as Grodd crashed to the floor and even Peter felt bad for him.

Barry eyes widened, suddenly seeming to realize how dangerous an angry gorilla was when there wasn't a pretty young scientist that could calm him down.

"_Why_?!" Solovar growled. "_Why are you here? To study us like animals? To make us your pets_?"

"No," Barry said quickly. "No- I- no. We came here in peace. We entered your city by mistake...we mean you no harm. Please." Barry looked up at gorilla with his trademark earnestness, hoping that Solovar would see he was telling the truth. "Just let me and my friends go. I promise we'll never come back here again."

Solovar's eyes squinted, and suddenly Peter began to speak.

"My brethren have seen you_,_" Peter said, and Caitlin jumped, realizing that Solovar was now speaking through him. "Your fate is sealed. You will all die by my hand...in the arena_._" Slowly, Peter rotated to look out the small window in the dungeon. "So that all will know that Solovar's justice is wise and swift."

Barry nodded a little bit, eyes turning hard. He walked up to the cage, turning back to the gorilla. "Alright, I'll make you a deal," he said. "I'll fight you in the arena, just me. But if I beat you, you let my friends go, and you leave us alone for good."

But Peter spoke for Solovar again, sealing his fate.

"I accept." Peter says. "Humans And their arrogance. First you will suffer. Then I will grant you each...a horrible death." He says as the gorillas leave.

"Never thought I'd hear Peter say that." Cisco jokes.

"What? What'd I say?" Peter asks, unaware the gorilla entered his mind.

-

Now Barry stood in the middle of a stadium filled with cheering, roaring, stomping gorillas.

Solovar was in front of him, while back in the cells Cisco was monitoring Barry's vitals from his phone.

"Speedster vs. Super Gorilla," he murmured. "Best-Worst video game _ever_."

"Do you really think Barry can beat Solovar?" Caitlin asked Peter.

"I hope so," Peter said. "For all of our sakes."

"Oh, it's starting." Cisco tells them.

Back in the arena, Solovar gripping his spear. "_After you die, your friends will follow you into the black_."

"We'll see." Barry said calmly.

"Okay, Barry," Cisco called into the phone-comm. "I got a plan for you. It's all about the speed punches."

Barry nodded, then ran at Solovar.

"You've got this, Barry." Peter cheers his friend on.

Solovar deflected him with his shield, and Barry's shoulder hit hard against it, flying over Solovar's body. He crashed to the ground, and felt it begin to shake as Solovar ran towards him, punching him in the face.

Barry smashed back into the dirt, tasting blood.

"Forget that plan, Barry," Cisco yelled nervously. "It's all about the running away."

"Run, Barry, run!" Peter tells him.

Solovar thundered toward Barry again, and slammed his spear down toward him. It hit the hard dirt and sent a crack running through it, right where Barry had been a second ago.

Now he was running, zipping in circles along the perimeter of the arena.

"What about a lightning throw?" Caitlin suggested to Cisco, gripping the bars of her cage and nervous watching the fight through the opening the gorilla's had provided.

"Yes, Barry. Lightning throw." Cisco tells him.

"Worth a shot." Barry agrees.

Barry continued to speed around the arena, but before he could throw the bolt, Solovar moved, ran toward the center of the arena, jumped at in the air, and slammed his spear back toward the ground.

A giant wave of impact traveled out from the hit. The wave of dust slammed into Barry and he tripped, tumbling vertical along the wall before he stumbled and did a face-plant on the ground.

"Come on Barry, get up," Peter whispered, starting to get nervous.

"This is definitely reverse of our fortunes." Julian states.

"You're not helping!" Peter informs him.

Barry struggled to his forearms but cried out in pain, dropping back down to the ground.

Cisco frowned a little bit, looking like he might have an idea. "Wait, maybe he actually did help." He states. "Barry...it's time to pull a Reverse Flash."

Caitlin and Peter looked at him, confused, just as Barry pushed himself from the ground.

Solovar leapt into the air, flying towards him, and Cisco screamed, "DO IT!"

Barry vibrated his hand, and as the gorilla flew towards him, he slammed it into Solovar's stomach.

Solovar crashed back, landing heavily on the ground, spear clattering out of his hand.

"He actually did it," Julian breathed, arm dropping. "He bloody well did it."

All around Barry, gorillas were grumbling and shifting. "I won't kill him!" Barry yelled between pants. "I WON'T! I know you all fear humans! You think they want war with gorilla kind. We don't! We're not all murderers and killers! We only want peace! WHICH IS WHY I'M SPARING YOUR LEADER! We call it mercy." He tells the gorillas.

Abruptly, a small, sharp pain in Barry's calf made him look down. A feathered dart, just like the one he and his team had been hit with before, was sticking out of his leather pant leg.

The world began to spin and Barry's dropped to his knees. He was awake just long enough to feel his head bounce of the hard packed dirt as he landed.

-

Barry later wakes back up in the cells with the others.

"What happened?" Barry asks.

"Congratulations. You beat a super gorilla." Peter informs him.

"What about Harry?" Barry asks.

"He's still catatonic." Caitlin tells him when Harry stands up.

"Flash." Grodd greets through her Harry.

"I won. Solovar promises to let us go." Barry reminds him.

"No." Grodd tells him.

Peter looks to the man in anger as he should've known. "You never intended to release us, did you?"

"I told you I needed you. I could not defeat Solovar in combat, but you could. You did, and now I am ruler of Gorilla City, and all the gorillas will follow me." Grodd tells them as now they see what his plan was.

"Solovar never wanted to attack Central City. You do." Barry realizes.

"You took my home from me, and now I will take it back!" Grodd tells him. "The gorillas all saw what you did, Flash. They saw you defeat Solovar, and now they are afraid of humans and will do anything I order, and I will order them to invade your earth, and your city will burn. Father taught me well. Always think ahead. Ann I had plenty of time to think in cages built by you and then by Solovar."

"Then why not just kill us?" Cisco asks. "Since we already did your dirty work for you."

"Still need you." Grodd says.

"He needs you to open a breach to our earth." Peter puts together.

"Spider-Man smart. My army will cross that breach, and all the humans in Central City will burn before Gorilla Kind!" Grodd tells them.

"Grodd, you're smart enough to know you can't do this." Barry states. "Intelligence and violence, they're opposites of each other. What you want to do, it's not logical, not for someone as wise as you."

"You forget, Flash. I am an animal. I am a gorilla. Kill or be killed!" Grodd tells him.

"We're gonna get out of these cells and stop you." Peter promises as Harry drops to the floor and Grodd approaches them himself.

"_No, you won't. You will die._" Grodd states.

-

Harry had woken up, but Barry hadn't reacted much. He had been trying to vibe through the bars of his cage for the past ten minutes, but now he slumped back on the ground dejectedly.

Peter has also been trying to regain his powers but whatever he was hit with was seriously strong. Either that, or they have a power dampener strong enough to dampen even his powers.

"I still can't phase through the bars," Barry reported needlessly. "We have to find a way out of here so we can stop him."

"You keep saying that, but what if we can't get out?" Julian said, his face pinching. "What if we're stuck here? What if-"

"We can't think like that." Barry cut him off sharply. "While there's life, there's hope."

Cisco let out a sigh, leaning against the wall. "And if there isn't life?" He asks.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Peter asks him, not liking the tone.

"Grodd needs me to open a breach so he can attack Earth-1," Cisco elaborated flatly. "What if I wasn't alive to do that?"

Caitlin's eyebrows shot up. "You planning on dying?"

"Only if you kill me." Cisco tells her.

She squinted, trying to figure out if he was serious. Peter huffed out a disbelieving laugh, shaking his head.

"Look," Cisco said, backing up his point. "This is something we have to consider. Right now, I can't think of any other way to stop them. They'd have no other way of getting to Central City."

"He's right," Julian mumbled absently. "Cisco's death would change the newspaper headlines in the future."

Harry frowned. "Headline?"

"It's a long story," Caitlin said, not wanting to get into the whole future mess they were in at the moment.

"But it could also make another one come true," Peter said softly, looking at Caitlin. "The one about...Killer Frost."

Caitlin's eyebrows shot up once again, and she got her adorable deer-in-headlights look Peter loves, sending it at Cisco. "You want..._me_ to kill you?"

"Think about it," Cisco murmured dismally. "Grodd doesn't know you have cold powers. You might be able to use them."

"Cold powers?" Harry wrinkled his nose, pointing at Caitlin. "She-you have cold powers?" Caitlin sighed a little and nodded and Harry curled his hand into a fist. "I knew it, I knew that you and I didn't get Barry out of that mirror."

"Wait, Caitlin," Peter interrupted, and she turned her gaze on him. "If you kill someone...I don't think there's any coming back from that. You'll be Killer Frost, and I don't know if I can talk you out of it this time." He warns her.

"And I didn't come all this way to see that happen." Julian states and now Peter and Caitlin look at him.

"Did you come here because you _live for danger _or to protect me?" Caitlin asks him and gets silence from him.

"I just don't want to see you become something you're not." Julian answers.

"Okay, what's happening? You do realize I'm dating her, right?" Peter asks Julian.

"Well, I was thinking that someone needs to worry about her safety." Julian tells him.

"Oh. You did _not_ just say I don't care about her safety." Peter states while looking at him with anger in his eyes.

The two start arguing back and forth until Barry yells at them, "guys, stop!" He tells the two and they quiet down.

Caitlin bit her lip, looking down, then back up at her friend. "Okay Cisco, I'm not gonna kill you, and neither is anyone else, okay? So let's come up with the next best plan that doesn't involve murdering one of our friends."

Cisco shrugged, and Barry got a strange look on his face.

"No. Cisco's right. It's the only way," Barry said thoughtfully. "One of us has to die."

"What?" Peter asks, not liking his plan.

-

Later, Grodd comes back and sees Barry is dead with his face frozen.

"He started coughing...violently. And then he clutched his side and keeled over. The injury...it must have ruptured one of his kidneys. He went into shock. His heart stopped. I couldn't resuscitate him." Caitlin lies as he'd opens the doors and feels Barry's face.

"_Cold_." Grodd says.

"He's dead." Caitlin says.

"_He was no use to me anyway._" Grodd says as he drags Barry's body out of the cell and drops it in a garbage pile.

As soon as Grodd left, they waited for Barry to start moving and he starts phasing the cold off of him and he's back.

"Yo, it worked!" Cisco cheers and everyone shushes him. "It worked."

"You okay, Barry?" Peter asks him as he stands up.

"Yeah. I'm good." Barry assures him.

"I didn't feeeze you too much, did I?" Caitlin asks.

"No. I'm good." Barry says as he opens their cells.

They start making their way out and Barry speeds them off away from the city.

"We should be far enough away for our powers to work." Barry tells them.

"We need a breach open right now." Harry says.

"Guys, we gotta get out of here before they realize..." Peter was saying when his senses go off. "Hallelujah, my powers are back. Bad news, my powers are back!" He states as they hear the gorillas roaring.

"Run!" They all say and start running away.

"Open a breach!" Caitlin tells Cisco.

"Time to warp out of this madhouse." Cisco says as the gorillas are coming and they all run into the breach just in time before Grodd could catch up.

-

"A city of apes. I'll stick to our city if you don't mind." Fox tells Peter after telling him about the city.

"Yeah, word of advice; never volunteer for these things." Peter says as he lays down in a comfy chair in the Spider Cave for the first time all day. "We outsmarted super gorillas and changed the future. Score one for team Spider-Flash."

"Yeah, and I was able to use Frost's blood to see if I could work out what makes her and Caitlin different." Fox says.

"Anything interesting?" Peter asks.

"No, not anything you want to get into right now." Fox warns him.

"Okay, I'll take your word for it." Peter says and heads off to meet Caitlin.

What Fox didn't tell him was he found something but he can't make any sense of it.

Earth-2 Killer Frost was created by the particle accelerator explosion, which should mean Caitlin should be the same way.

But Caitlin's Frost was...there. After doing some research, he learned that her father was working on something and he needs to leave the city to talk to her mother and to gain some more information about it.

-

As for Caitlin, she was walking home and wanted to talk to Julian about what happened.

"Listen, if I overstepped, then I apologize." Julian tells her.

"You were willing to risk your life for me knowing that I was seeing somebody?" Caitlin clarifies to him. "I like you, Julian. But Peter...he's been there for me for the past four years. He knows about me, wasn't even that interested in dating me until recently. We are happy and he knows that these powers I have are dangerous but he's willing to help me through it. I'm sorry."

"Yeah, I understand." Julian says and sees he did overstep and leaves her be.

-

Peter and Caitlin were spending the night alone and were preparing for their movie as Peter lays down and Caitlin snuggles up close to him.

"You were amazing out there." Peter tells her.

"Same goes for you." Caitlin replies. "This mean you're over your fear of gorillas now?"

"Oh dear god, no. I think it's increased." Peter states and Caitlin laughs at that. "But we did it, we changed the future without loosing anyone. And I will always protect you." He promises while playing with a bit of her hair.

"How do you constantly do this?" Caitlin asks him.

"Do what?" Peter asks her, not understanding.

"Stay positive even when the odds are against you?" Caitlin wonders.

Peter just smiles looking at her. "Because I've got no reason for being negative. It's just not something I'm good at." He states and starts kissing her and she kisses back before she pushes herself away from his lips.

"Hey, are we watching the movie or continuing this?" Caitlin asks referring to their activity.

"Fine." Peter surrenders and plays the movie, the original _Planet of the Apes_.

"You're upset you didn't get the chance to say the line, aren't you?" Caitlin asks Peter.

"_Get your stinkin' paws off me, you damn, dirty ape_." Peter says just to say he said it and Caitlin just laughed at the silliness of her boyfriend.


	58. Return of the city of the apes

Caitlin had spent the night at Peter's new place he moved into, now that he has the money to afford it. Which was a habit that was becoming frequent to the point Caitlin can't remember the last time she slept at her place.

It was hard to resist the temptation of waking up in the morning curled up against Peter's side, his arm around her back and sleep still masking his face. It was that he was just too darn _cute_ when he was drowsy in Caitlin's eyes.

Today, however, Caitlin woke up to an empty bed and the sound of flipping and grunts coming from downstairs. The sound was a bit worrying, thinking at first some criminal learned Peter's identity and they were fighting, but since there were no crashes or cries of pain that meant that there wasn't a Spider-Man battle going on.

She threw on Peter's long sweater that was draped over his desk chair and walked downstairs, yawning while rubbing her eyes.

Normally, Caitlin was the kind of person that could easily get out at 5 am, but she and Peter had stayed up rather late last night...let's just say talking, and she was looking forward to sleeping in a little.

"Peter?" Caitlin murmured blearily, stepping off the last step and shivering a little as her bare foot hit the tile.

"Good morning!" Peter called back with a huge grin on his face, sliding the last plates of breakfast down onto the kitchen island.

The entire room was covering with pink and white and red decorations, complete with some heart shaped balloons tied to the couch to where Caitlin blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't seeing things.

Was there a holiday that she had forgotten about? Their anniversary?

"Good morning...seem to be in a pretty good mood for someone who is up at six in the morning." Caitlin informs him. Usually, Peter's the type of guy who wouldn't get up until at least noon if he needed to.

"Yes I am!" Peter said brightly when he eyed her in concern. "Sorry, was I too loud? I did make breakfast. We got pancakes and waffles and May's perfect french toast recipe, and I picked up some of those caramel lattes that you love so much from Jitters, and I might've asked May to come by and make sure I didn't burn the place. Picked the lattes up while I went swinging around to get the morning cleared of any crimes."

"Peter Parker, what has gotten into you?" Caitlin wonders, her entire chest feeling warm with pleasure as she stared around his pretty, decorated apartment and her over energized boyfriend.

"I just realized that I finally have the chance to do things like this. You being my first real girlfriend ever since high school. Even then, I was still bad." Peter mumbled that last bit, as an adorably happy smile comes back on his face. "Also...Happy Valentine's Day."

"C'mere," Caitlin said, and he walked over to her. She kissed him gently, arms around his waist, before pulling back and staring lovingly at him. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Peter said, kissing her again. Then he jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. "So...do you actually want some of this?"

"Heck yeah." Caitlin responded as her stomach growled. "I can never pass up May's french toast." She says as they sit down to eat.

-

When the two of them arrived at STAR Labs, both stuffed and about an hour later, they found it looking rather similar to Peter's living room.

"Wowww..." Barry murmured, staring around at the heavily decorated Speed Lab. "What a transformation. Again!"

"So, this is HR's contribution to the team?" Jesse asked, eyebrows raised as she walked in beside Wally. "Being Martha Stewart?"

Feeling the need to defend her friend's actions, Caitlin shrugged. "Guys, he's just trying to do something nice."

HR himself came skipping into the Speed Lab, firing a cupid bow towards Peter, who caught it with ease without looking.

"I'm not really too good at this kind of thing," HR admitted with a grin, dancing around in a circle. "Maybe I need to take some lessons from that guy in the green elf suit!"

Barry snorted with laughter. "Green Arrow," he corrected. "What is all this?" He asks, gesturing around the speed labs.

"Friend's day!" HR said grandly. "Ba-dah!"

Peter raised his eyebrow. "What? Friend's Day?" He asks, no idea what he's talking about.

"Oh, right, right," HR clarified. "It's my Earth's equivalent of Valentines Day. I just-just thought that after our success with the gorillas we should celebrate the loooooove."

Wally covered his mouth with his hand, snickering.

"Was all this...necessary?" Joe asks with a raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, Joe!" HR exclaimed. "Speaking of- where is your lady friend? 'Cause I would like to-"

"No, you wouldn't like to do anything," Joe said firmly, giving him a look. "She's at work, which is where I should be going." He turned and fled the room.

As HR continued undaunted. "Look what I have, ladies and gentlemen! Your own personal _friends-day cards_."

He bowed low in front of Caitlin. "Ms. Snow..."

"Thank you, HR," Caitlin said with a wide smile, opening her card.

This was impossibly cute. '_Some may say you have a heart of ice, but Caitlin, I think you're rather nice'._

"Spider-Man!" HR said to Peter, saluting. "Co-Leader of the ship."

Peter opens his card and sees what HR wrote for him. _'If I need a friend to cry, I know you'll swing on by.'_

HR was certainly a unique spirit, and is probably running on more caffeine than is logically healthy.

He gave everyone else their cards and then bolted out of the room. "I forgot the coffee!"

Caitlin looks at at what he wrote in peters card and laughs at how true that is.

"He surely summed you up in a sentence." Caitlin says while chuckling.

"You know, HR is right about one thing." Peter tells Caitlin.

"What's that?" She asks.

"That was a pretty big win for the team," Peter said with a shrug. "Defeating those gorillas...we're changing the future, one headline at a time."

Caitlin smiled, wrapping her hands around his neck. "I don't know what the future's going to bring," she said softly. "So I wanted to ask you. Peter Parker?"

"Yes?" Peter answered with a quizzical look.

"Will you be my friend?" Caitlin asks him.

"Always and forever." Peter promises with a chuckled, hugging her tightly while reaching behind her to grab a donut.

"You two are so sweet, I'm gonna get cavities soon." Cisco warns them.

"Oh, Cisco, when you find someone, we will allow you to do to us what we're doing to you." Peter promises him.

"Yeah, right." Cisco scoffs, believing he doesn't have a chance of getting someone.

"Cisco, there is someone out there for you. Someone who's beautiful, intelligent who's gonna challenge you to be your best version of yourself." Caitlin tells him. "In fact, she could be right around the corner."

Suddenly, a breach opens and Gypsy appears.

"Why is she here? Is it like Bettlejuce?" Peter asks when Gypsy sends a vibe blast his way and hits Peter when Harry comes out and shoots her.

"Who the hell is this?" Harry asks, and they remember that they never met.

-

Grodd had used Gypsy to open a breach instead of Cisco, and now he and the Gorillas were in Central City.

They hadn't changed the headlines after all.

"This is a giant gorilla with an army of gorillas, he can't just walk down main street without being seen." Peter states since they can't find any sign of them at all.

"He's probably figured out a way to scramble our satellites." Cisco tells him. "We're talking about a genius super ape here."

"And a master strategist who successfully fooled us on my earth." Harry reminds him.

"We Wellses, we don't fool easy, do we, hard hat?" HR asks.

"Don't call me hard hat." Harry tells him.

"We have to find him before he hurts somebody else." Barry states.

"We'll find him, man. There's only so many places you can hide an army." Peter says.

"Every time I think we've beat him, he comes back stronger, smarter, and more dangerous." Barry replies to him.

"You've summed up my relationship with doc Ock, you know." Peter informs him.

"We just have to come up with a different way of beating him." Iris says as if that's easy.

"What we need to do is get ahead of him for once." Barry states.

"We can. You've seen the future. You know there's an attack coming. If we just figure out where that attack happens, we can launch a preemptive strike against Grodd." Harry tells him.

"Stop the attack befor it begins." Peter adds on.

"And fortunately, we have someone who can foresee future events." Harry says looking at Cisco.

"Before they happen." HR adds.

"Okay, there's one problem. I can only vibe what Barry saw, and a ticker on the side of a bus stop doesn't give us a whole lot of info." Cisco tells them.

"What if we widen the scope of your vibe? Then you can see more of the future." Caitlin suggests.

"I can do that. Just need to borrow you Vibe gear." Harry promises.

"Harry, that's my only pair." Cisco says referring to the glasses.

"I'll be careful." Harry promises.

"We're gonna need all the help we can get. Can you talk to Joe, see if he can rally the CCPD?" Barry asks Iris and she leaves to do so.

"I'll give Miles a call, tell him it's hero time." Peter says and goes off to get him.

"What about Gypsy? She's a powerful meta." Caitlin says.

"Can you convince her to help?" Barry asks Cisco.

"Bro, she won't say no to me." Cisco promises.

-

"SWAT's ready to roll whenever y'all are. We find Grodd yet?" Joe asked as he burst through the doors to the bunker.

"We're about to." Barry reported, striding over to Cisco, Harry, Peter and Caitlin, who were preparing Cisco to location-vibe. "Cisco, you ready?"

"Harry... if this thing- if it fries my brain..." Cisco said nervously, strapped to a chair in the middle of the room.

"It's an improvement." Harry shot back.

"What's that, Rocky?" Peter asks.

"Yeah." Harry smirked at him.

Cisco laughed nervously. "Ha. Yeah, I'm ready."

"Word of warning," Harry said. "Vibing. It's like...surfing a monster wave. You need to stay _above_ the temporal flow, otherwise your consciousness can get sucked under."

He demonstrated dramatically with his hands, and Caitlin eyed him nervously. "And then what happened?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know," he said happily. "Guess we'll find out."

"Wait... what?" Cisco asked, straining at his wrist-bonds, but Harry had already pressed the activation button. Cisco went rigid.

"Where are you, Ramon?" Harry asked, squinting at him. "What do you see?"

"I'm at an intersection." Cisco reported. "State and Oak Hill. I think this is where it goes down."

"That's a block away from the bridge," Joe reported. "That leads right into the heart of town. But if those gorillas get over that bridge..."

"They'll overrun in the city in no time," Peter finished.

"Not if we stop them first." Barry said firmly.

-

Joe got the CCPD ready and Peter brought in Miles knowing they're gonna need everyone they can get.

"Grodd' s army could be here any second, all right?" Joe warns the cops.

"There's no sign of them." Wally states.

"You sure this is the right place?" Joe asks.

"It's the place Cisco divined." Peter reminds him.

"Was it the right time?" Jesse asks.

"We're too early." Barry realizes.

"No, Flash." Joe says and they all look at him. "Too late." Grodd corrects him.

"Wha-What's happening?" Miles asks.

"Grodd's here, he's taken over Joe's mind." Peter informs him.

"I remember, this human is important to you. Now..." Joe raises his gun to his own head. "He's all mine."

"No! Do not hurt him. I'm the one you want!" Barry pleads to him.

"I warned you, Flash. And now I'm here on First Earth to make good on my promise. And when I'm finished, this city and all the puny humans will die." Joe says before shooting his head.

Barry works at super speed and was able to save Joe from the bullet.

"I don't get it. How is he attacking detective Joe West a part of Grodd's plan?" Wally asks.

"It wasn't." Barry tells them.

"Then what was it?" Miles asks.

"A distraction." Peter tells them since his senses don't work with Grodd around, meaning he could do anything he wishes.

-

Thy go back to Star labs where Caitlin patches up the scratch Joe received from the bullet as it grazed him.

"That damn gorilla almost got me this time." Joe states.

"Shouldn't even have a scar." Caitlin promises him.

"Do you remember anything from when Grodd was controlling you?" Harry asks.

"Not really. Just some flashes." Joe says.

"Flashes of what?" Peter asks.

"Like these images places I've never seen before. It was like I was seeing what he was seeing." Joe explains.

"Gypsy said the same thing." Cisco tells them.

"A couple of years ago on my Earth, there was a neuroscientist that was able to achieve memory recovery using transcranial magnetic simulators on brain damaged patients." Harry tells them.

"We use that here but more as a depression treatment." May tells him from across the room, watching over Frost who is still unconscious for some reason.

"Well, in this experiment, one neuroscientist focused all the energy on the occipital cortex of the patients, allowing them to achieve almost full memory recollection." Harry explains.

"So, you're saying the looking into minds move Grodd goes can go both ways?" Peter asks him.

"Could be." Harry tells him.

"Maybe we could use Grodd's memories that he left behind in Joe to figure out what his plan is." Caitlin says.

"We'd just have to make some TCM simulators." Cisco says. "All it takes is some magnets. Throw together some magnets, make a helmet out of 'em." Cisco finishes,

"Hold on. Y'all want to put a bunch of magnets against my skull to look into the mind of a psychotic murdererous ape?" Joe clarifies to them.

"Yeah." Harry confirms.

"Fine." Joe says, seeing no other way.

-

They strapped Joe up to a headset and began fiddling around him.

"So, all you need to do is concentrate on your memories of Grodd, okay?" Harry instructed.

"Yeah," Joe said, sighing a bit. "That won't be a problem." He promises.

"Alright-" Harry started, before another voice interrupted.

"Hey, Dead Man." Jesse said, striding into the Bunker with an angry look in her eyes.

Caitlin and Peter exchanged glances and winced. They weren't quite sure what the title "Dead Man" was supposed to imply, but paired with the expression on Jesse's face, it wasn't anything good.

"Seriously?" Jesse continued, stopping on the upper platform and giving her dad a look. "You told Wally you were dying?"

Caitlin's eyes widened. "Dying?" she murmured, concerned.

Harry winced awkwardly. "I didn't say I was- I said I didn't- I didn't know how much time I had left," he clarified. "None of us-"

"What is wrong with you?" Jesse demanded.

Another awkward glance was exchanged between the couple.

Caitlin resisted the urge to back away slowly and leave the family drama to a quiet, unwatched room.

"Is there seriously nothing you won't say to get me to stay by your side?" Jesse continued. At this point, she didn't even seem angry. Just disappointed. Harry started to speak, but she cut him off. "Look, whatever. I'm moving here. Whether you like it or not."

With that, she spun on her heel and left the room.

Harry let out a deep sigh and turned back to Joe. "Anyway, all you have to do is concentrate on your memories of Grodd," he repeated flatly. "Ready?"

"Waiting on you, Dead Man." Peter said with a faint smirk.

Harry mumbled something unintelligible in weak retaliation.

"Hey-" Joe said, catching Caitlin's attention. "If I start to Grodd out at any point, turn the power off. Immediately."

"Of course." Caitlin said quickly, giving him a reassuring smile.

Harry started up the machine, and, almost immediately, Joe's expression went blank.

"Joe?" Barry asked, waving a hand in front of his face.

Joe didn't answer, or even flinch. He reached down and picked up the pencil and clipboard with a paper that had been lying on his lap and began to draw.

Caitlin tilted her head as a very clear face came into view. "I didn't know he could draw." she said idly.

"Well, that's the thing, anybody can actually draw." Cisco answered. "It's just that some have more developed visual cortex to manual ability. And right now these magnets are taking that part of his brain and lighting it up."

Joe put a few finishing touches on his drawing before his arm went limp and the lights on the magnet died.

Peter reached for the clipboard and squinted at it. "Well, it worked. But now we have a new problem. We have to figure out who this guys is supposed to be."

"So we ran our John Doe image through every database." Caitlin started.

"And it was tough," Cisco cut in. "This guy's a ghost. We've been calling him Jason Borne." He smirked at the reference, and Caitlin shook her head fondly.

"But then HR noticed something." Peter continued.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"Well, at first it was a real brain-twister." HR said. "Then I remembered a quote from a renowned poet from my Earth, Alfred Yankovic."

"Are you talking about Weird Al?" Iris asked, nose scrunching.

"Why, because of that hair?" HR asks.

"Get to the point already. If you have one." Harry rolled his eyes.

"I can, hard head. It's hishair. Standard. Military. Cut."

Caitlin picked up the thread before Harry could start acting on the murderously-annoyed look on his face.

"So, we ran the image through the department of defense database, and, as Cisco would say: Yahtzee!" Caitlin tells them.

Cisco nodded, looking proud. "You're right. I would say that."

They fist-bumped, and Peter grinned at the two.

"You're just too cute, you know that?" Peter murmured to Caitlin and she flushed, smiling.

The picture matching up to a photo and Barry nodded over at the newest member of their team. "Nice work, HR," he murmured.

"I know." HR said happily, spinning his drumstick.

"DOD has him listed as Air-force General Mathew McNally." Iris read.

"General Mathew McNally," Cisco spoke up. "And I'll give you one guess, just _guess_ what he's in charge of."

The smile that had been on Peter's face just a second ago faded away. "I know you're going to say military weapons but I really hope you're not going to say military weapons..."

"Air Force, Baer." Joe said flatly. "Nuclear Missiles."

"That's worse." Peter responds.

"McNally has the highest clearance; he can have a rocket in the air in less then 10 minutes," Caitlin reported.

"So are the satellites back to functional?" Barry asked Cisco.

"We ran a full diagnostic." Harry assured him. "Any nuclear weapon that's authorized to fire...an alarm will sound."

An alarm sounded.

"Ugh," Peter groaned, reaching up to rub his face knowing they jinxed it.

"Does it sound like that?" HR asked blankly. "That's an alarm."

"Yeah, it's that alarm HR," Harry growled, coming around the side of the desk to stand next to Cisco and Caitlin. "Oookay. Short range, ballistic missile, authorized to fire from Fort Reynolds."

Joe's eyes went wide. "How much time do we have?"

Cisco shook his head. "Minutes."

"Grodd..." Caitlin breathed, shaking her head sadly. "What have you done?"

Iris strode over to the computer monitors, eyebrows scrunched with worry. "Can you stop it from here?"

"Military weapons are basically analogue, I mean, they still use floppy disks." Cisco reported.

Barry shook his head. Too much discussion, too little time.

"We're going after it," he said decisively about him and Peter.

Wally and Jesse exchanged looks and started after him, but Barry stopped and turned to them.

"Guys, no. I appreciate, but I need you to stay here, okay? If we can't stop it...we need you to get everyone to safety, okay?" Peter asks of them.

Peter leaned down and kissed Caitlin's cheek, and then ran out of the room.

-

It only took Barry a few seconds to get them to the missile launch. He skidded over the frosted grass, nervously eyeing the launchers, which were turning towards the sky. General Mathew McNally was lying unconscious on the ground, eyes shut.

"Alright, we're with the missile," Barry said, forcing himself to stay focused.

"_Okay, to access the keypad, remove the panel at the base of the missile vehicle_." Harry instructed. He was standing in front of the missile launcher schematics, his hands behind his head.

Barry found the panel and Peter mused his fingers to yank it open, then vibrated the lock off to reveal a keypad. "Alright, that's done. What's next?"

"_Well, the good news is, this missile has a built in, five-digit kill code._" Caitlin told them.

"Great!" Peter gasped. "What is it?" He asks

"_That's the bad news. We don't know_." Caitlin breaks to him.

"For real?" Barry resisted the urge to bang his forehead against the missile. "Well then, what are we supposed to do?"

"_You have to try every combination, Barry_," Harry said. "_It's okay; with this type of launcher you won't set off the nuke_."

"_The simulators are predicting that hundreds of thousands will die._" Iris told them.

Peter takes a quick second to register what Iris just said.

"It's a nuclear missile, Iris! Of course hundreds are gonna die!" Peter informs her, as if they needed that explained to them.

Barry shut his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. This was probably the most tedious and also most important thing he had ever had to do. Thousands of lives were counting on him.

He started to type at super speed.

-

"Five digits, how many combos is that?" May asked Caitlin, leaning anxiously over the desk.

Caitlin winced, unsure.

HR frowned. "I'm guessing it's about..."

"Precisely 90,000," Harry growled. "Which you would know if you weren't a moron and you were an actual genius."

Caitlin scanned her readings, biting her lip. "Two missiles are locked on target."

-

"Guys, we need something else; this isn't working!" Barry cried desperately.

Cisco spun back to the group in the Cortex. "_Plan B? Anyone_?"

Silence greeted him and Peter comes up with an idea.

"Back up." Peter warns Barry and the two of them step back and Peter shoots the vehicle with a taser web and starts frying its systems.

At first, nothing seems to change and Peter sees there's not enough voltage and he ups the voltage.

"WORK!" Peter growled, panic filling him up like fizz from a shaken soda can as he ups the voltage of his taser web.

-

"How much time does he have?" Cisco asked.

"Fifteen seconds," Caitlin breathed. There was a possibility that she and the rest of the group at Star Labs would be able to make it out with the help of Wally and Jesse. But everyone else in Central City...Caitlin shuddered, and bit her lip harder.

"Six missiles are locked on target." Cisco said softly and walked over and took her hand.

Caitlin tasted blood.

-

Just when it seemed all hope seemed lost, the systems were fried and the missiles shut down.

"It worked." Barry breathed, staring at the vehicle disbelief. "It worked! We did it! WE DID IT!" He said, whooping and letting out an excited laugh and pulls Peter into a hug.

"We did it! Oh thank God." Peter cheers happy hugging the speedster back.

-

Unfortunately, the fight wasn't over.

"I found them," Cisco reported as his Gorilla-Tracker started to beep. "They're right outside the city."

"They're right outside the city." Cisco tells them.

"Headed to State and Oak Hill. Fast." Caitlin said.

"Alright, so what do we do?" Jesse asks.

"Barry." Wally had come foreword, Jesse close by his side. "I know we are Speedsters, but we are _way_ outnumbered here."

"Yeah, I mean, he's right. How are the three of us going to take on all those gorillas?" Jesse echoed.

Peter shook his head slowly. "There's five of us." He said as Miles comes in ready to fight.

"This is my city, if I can protect it, I'm gonna." Miles promises.

"Spoken like a true Spider-Man." Barry nods with a smile.

"As much as I hate these gorillas- especially Grodd- if you kill him the others might stand down, but you might not be able to come back from this Barry. You know that, right?" Joe said softly to Barry.

"I know." Barry breathed. "But there's another way. It's not gonna come to that. Cisco, I'm gonna need your help."

Cisco nodded, face pale, and the six heroes headed for the door.

-

On Gypsy's earth, she was talking to the head of the Collector's who's also the head of the Collectors, Doctor Steven Strange.

"Tracked her down on Earth-2. Breach has been taken care of." Gypsy assures him.

Strange turns to face her. "You did good work, Gypsy." He assures her before opening a portal back to the sanctum and vanishes.

When he left, a breach opens and Cisco appears.

"Risky move coming to a earth where inter-dimensional travel is punishable by death." Gypsy tells him. "Especially when I'm the one who's supposed to uphold that law."

"I need to talk to you." Cisco tells her.

"I don't do long distance relationships." Gypsy warns him.

"Don't get me wrong; this is something I'd love to talk about in more detail, especially if distance I you only hesitation." Cisco states and gets back to the problem at hand. :But I'm here to talk to you about Grodd."

"Okay, I see you don't take no as an answer."

"Gypsy, please. He's gonna destroy my city. And he's gonna hurt the people I love."

"I told you before, that's not my problem. Look, just go back to Earth-1 before someone sees you and o have to do something that I don't want to."

"You know, you told me I could do things with my powers I'd never even imagined, and you're right, 'cause I'm not just vibing people anymore. I'm giving what they feel. And you know what I'm getting from you, right here, right now? You're more than this. You're like me. You want to do something good. Look we need something to stop Grodd, and I'm gonna need your help getting it. Be the hero I know you want to be."

-

Back on Earth-1, Peter, Miles, Wally, Jesse and Barry flashed themselves to State and Oak Hill. It was dead empty, no people in the streets.

"Wells," Barry asked. "How long do we have?"

"_Two minutes, Barry_," HR reported.

"_Two minutes_?!" Harry asked in disbelief, glaring at him. "_Ten seconds! Can you not even tell time_?!"

"Can the two of you fight later?" Peter asks them, even though it's more Harry fighting than HR.

"Sooo..." Wally said casually. "Got any pointers on how the five of us are going to save everyone and stop a few hundred gorillas?"

Barry sighed. "Go for the legs?" he suggested. "Just try not to get caught. Trust me...they won't let go."

"That's a speedster tip; spiders hit their backs hard." Peter tells Miles. "But yeah, don't get caught." He warns him.

With that less-then-reassuring thought in mind, the three speedsters and two spiders prepared themselves as a huge army of armored gorillas came storming down the empty street.

Wally and Jesse exchanged glances and nodded, running off at the same moment and flashing around and in between the gorilla army.

Miles went invisible and ran at them as Peter just webs something and starts swinging at the gorillas.

Grodd broke into a run, heading straight for Barry.

It seemed it was time for their rematch with no help.

Barry ran up to meet Grodd, only to be roughly knocked aside by his shield. Barry crashed into a car and rolled to his front, groaning.

-

"Well that was _not_ the start we're looking for," HR commented dryly. Both Iris and Caitlin glared angrily at him, and he started to explain before finding Harry to be shaking his head at him and shutting up.

"How long to they have to last?" Iris asked, leaning over the monitors, her fists tight around the side of the desk.

"Hopefully not much longer." Caitlin murmured nervously.

-

It wasn't long before the gorillas managed to land a hit on first Wally and then Jesse. They flew out of the crowd, landing with sickening thuds and rolling to a stop on opposite sides of the street.

Peter didn't exactly last long like he believed he wouldn't have. Miles, being invisible, he was able to stay in a bit longer until the gorillas started searching for his mind and swatted him like a fly.

"_You're city will fall, Flash_." Grodd growled as Barry struggled to stand. "_There's only one way to end this. You kill me...But you won't do that. All you care about is mercy_."

"Yeah, you're right!" Barry said, finally forcing himself up. "Except I'm not the only one who wants to stop you."

Grodd leaned foreword, preparing to attack, when a blaze of bluish vibe-light caught his attention.

Cisco and Gypsy, hopped out of the breach together, following by a tan, gigantic gorilla.

Solovar.

He roared so loudly Barry's ears rang, and Grodd's head swiveled to face him.

"_Solovar_!" Grodd grumbled as the gorillas behind him shifted and grunted.

"I_ challenge you, Grodd_!" Solovar cried.

"_And you will fall again_!" Grodd roared, and the two gorillas dove at each other.

The fight was messy and intense, but it didn't take too long for Solovar to come out triumphant.

As he stepped over Grodd's unconscious body, beating his chest and roaring, all the other gorillas dropped to their knees in worship.

Then Solovar turned, and picked up his spear. "_Goodbye, Grodd_."

"Stop!" Barry cried, startling forward. Solovar turned to him, dropping his spear. "Death isn't the way," Barry continued.

"_He betrayed me!_" Solovar tells him

"I know, so leave him here, where he's from!" Peter said as he joined the speedster while clutching his most-likely-broken ribs. "We won't let him go back to Gorilla City ever again. Just spare his life like we spared yours." He asks of the gorilla.

Solovar's head swung back and forth between Grodd and the heroes, but at their words, he stopped and nodded.

Barry and Peter nodded back, and Solovar stepped away from Grodd.

"_Send us home_," Solovar commanded. "_All of us!"_

-

All of the gorillas had been returned to Earth-2, and Grodd was safe, and everyone safe from him as Peter said, at Argus.

Frost eventually woke up as it seemed she was being held in a coma by Grodd and she along with Harry went back to their Earth.

Caitlin was relieved as some small part of her still remembered the soft, gentle, giant gorilla she had known so many years ago, and Peter could easily tell.

"Whatever goodness Grodd had is long gone," she said softly, trying to convince him... and herself. "For all I care Lyla can throw him in the same cage as King Shark."

Peter nodded a little, not seeming convinced. Detachment wasn't a usual emotion in Caitlin Snow, and now was no exception.

Gypsy had gone home and everyone at STAR Labs had dispersed.

Peter and Caitlin were heading back to his apartment, ready to finish up the tiny remainder of Valentines Day snuggling on the couch, watching _Letters To Juliet_.

"You doing okay?" Peter asked as the movie got to the scene of Charlie and Sophie lying out on the grass and watching the stars.

Caitlin snuggled closer to Peter's chest, feeling sleepy from his warmth and the empty glass of wine on the table in front of her.

"I'm okay." Caitlin murmured. "I'm glad all of this is over, though."

"Grodd will be okay, you know." Peter said softly, even though he doesn't personally care what happened to him, the guys been through a lot. "I bet we can even arrange something with ARGUS if you want to go visit him in captivity."

Caitlin shook her head. "I don't...don't think I could do that, Peter. Not only would it probably break protocol, but Grodd doesn't deserve kindness. I mean, he tried to kill you, me, and Barry, and tried to destroy Central City. I mean, he almost fired a nuclear weapon, and almost succeeded it getting it to hit the city and kill everyone! How are you supposed to feel empathy for someone that does something that awful..."

She broke off abruptly, her lower lip wobbling. Peter wrapped her tighter in his arms and kissed the top of her head.

"Feeling empathy is one of the most amazing and beautiful things about you that I love, Caitlin Snow." Peter whispered in her ear. "And it's what keeps you such a strong and amazing person even though everything we've faced. It's nothing to be ashamed of." He states to her.

Caitlin nodded wearily, shutting her eyes. "Maybe...maybe I'll go and visit him sometime," she mumbled into his shirt. "Right now, I think we should go to bed."

Peter smiled softly and kissed her hair again, swinging her up into his arms. "That sounds just fine to me."


	59. Savitar's wrath

Peter and Miles were doing their morning routine of crime fighting while Barry, JQ and KF are training for Savitar when he finally shows up to kill Iris.

"I thought the whole point of this was to make sure we don't need to fight this God of Speed." Miles says when Peter explained what they're doing.

"Yeah, but if I'm right, we're not going to be able to change events as big as his _Wraith_ as Savitar once put it." Peter informs him when he gets a text. "Hey, I've gotta call it a morning. Gotta get to the labs."

"Yes, sir." Miles says while solutions before running off the edge of the skyscraper while doing a backflip before swinging off.

"Showoff!" Peter shouts as he heads for the labs.

-

Peter just gets off the elevator with a cup of coffee in hand and is greeted by Caitlin.

"Peter, how was your morning?" Caitlin asks him while pulling him into a kiss.

"Pretty standard. Taught Miles a few things, beat up some criminals." Peter tells her. "Hey, did you hear from Fox about him going out of town?" He asks her.

"Yeah, said that he needed to do something, and would be back when he can." Caitlin says as they join the others in the cortex.

"Hey, does anybody know what's going on?" Jesse asks as they've all been wondering why Barry called them in.

"I was hoping to ask you guys that." Peter says when Barry and Iris come in and start whispering to each other with smiles on their faces.

"What's going on with you two?" Joe asks them.

"Do you want to?" Iris asks Barry.

"This is all you." Barry promises Iris.

They just look to the group with smiles and Iris raises her hand and reveals an engagement ring.

Everyone then upon seeing the ring looks in shock and cheers as Joe and Peter are confused for two different reasons.

Joe walks over to them and is happy for them and he pulls Barry out of the room to talk privately.

"You broken there, Pete?" Caitlin asks him.

"What?" Peter asks, now finding the wording as he's really confused to what just occurred.

Barry and Iris were dating even shorter than Peter and Caitlin have. Half the time, Peter would forget they were even together.

And now they're engaged?

But his questions get interrupted by an alert going off.

"We've got a fire." Caitlin tells him and he rushes to get his mind off of what just occurred.

-

Peter took the cycle and while the speedsters were on their way, Wally was seeing Savitar and was getting thrown around.

Luckily, Miles was the first out of all of them to get there and was able to get everyone to safety as Peter used his foam webs to put out the fire while Barry attains to Wally.

"Where'd he go?" Wally asks looking around.

"Who?" Barry wonders, not knowing what he's talking about.

"Savitar." Wally says and now Barry is concerned.

-

They later return to Star labs to learn what it is Wally's seeing.

"So now Savitar's mind-punting you?" Cisco asks Wally. "Oh, boy. This never stops never stopping."

"How long has this been going on, Wally?" Barry asks him.

"Like a week." Wally answers honestly.

"Why didn't you say anything before now?" Peter wonders.

"Because I didn't know what this was. I thought it was just maybe in my head. I wasn't looking at it like I was keeping it to myself." Wally tells them.

"Except, that's exactly what you did, Wally. You did keep it to yourself, and with Savitar, that's not something we can do." Barry informs the kid. "This is Iris' life we're talking about."

"And Caitlin's." Peter adds on.

"I know that." Wally tells them.

"Do you, Wally?" Barry asks him.

"Okay, hold up. Until now. You only saw him, right?" Jesse asks.

"This was the first time it was physical." Wally explains.

"He wasn't there. Okay? You weren't fighting him. He was messing with your head. It was all in your mind." Barry says while getting in Wally's face.

"Okay, why don't I run a brain scan on Wally, see if he was similarly affected to when Julian was possessed?" Caitlin suggests.

"Yeah, that's fine. Why don't we do that?" Barry agrees. "He shouldn't be in here anyway."

"What?" Wally asks.

"Dude, we know he messed up with secret keeping, but give him a break" Peter tells him.

"That's not what this is about, Okay? Look, it's...if Savitar's using Wally the same way he was Julian, how do we know he's not spying in us right now? We don't know how this works. How do we know he can't see and hear everything we're doing?" Barry asks them and he does raise some valid points. Julian wasn't aware when Savitar was taking over.

Wally leaves in a huff of anger and Jesse follows him.

"So what now?" May asks.

"Well, we know from the future that Savitar gets out of wherever he is, but for now, he's still trapped, so...we need to talk to him again." Barry tells them.

"We can't do that. We don't have the stone." Caitlin tells them.

"Actually, we can." Cisco interrupts her. "We still have Savitar's spatial frequency from when we plugged in Linda Blare, so we could work without the stone."

"Well, for this to work, we're gonna have to get Julian to agree to do this." Peter states.

-

Actually, it didn't take a lot to get him to agree to this and they have him hooked back into the machine and are ready to talk to Savitar once again.

Julian goes unconscious and he gasps oncemore as Savitar comes to.

"**_Bow before my greatness_.**" The voice of Savitar tells them through Julian. "**_Be in awe, as you are in the presence of the almighty_**."

"Can we move pass your religious crackpot stuff?" Peter asks, trying to hold himself back from making a Bruce Almighty reference.

"You were just a man. Like me." Barry reminds him.

"**_I'm nothing like you, Barry. You're cruel, you're selfish. From my point of view, you're the big bad_**." Savitar states to him.

"Well then, you are lost." Peter says while quoting _Revenge of the Sith_. Come on! It was right there, he had to take it. "Sorry, I had to."

"_**Look at who's making quips. You know, the sad thing is you're not like this in the future. You loose everything**_." Savitar informs Peter. "**_And it's all because of your friends. The people you say make you stronger betray you in the end, and you have nothing._**"

"Where are you?" Barry asks, wanting to get on track. "You said I trapped you in the future, where?"

"**_The only place you could think of. The only place that could hold me_.**"

"How long have you been imprisoned?" Barry asks.

"**_Long enough to loose my mind several times over. It's only my will that keeps me on this side of sanity._**"

"We have very different definitions of sanity, I'm guessing." Cisco tells Savitar.

"**_Well, that's because you're small, Cisco. You've always been small. Reverb told you that you could be a god. But instead, you'd rather work as...tech support_.**"

"You want to tell me why were enemies?" Barry asks him.

"_**Because we had to be. Only one of us could live. You thought that Thawne and Zoom were your biggest foes, but...it's me. It's always been me, Barry**._"

"Man, What did we ever do to you?" Joe wonders.

"**_YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!! I never asked for any of this, Joe. I am only this way because of you. All of you_!**"

"When are we supposed to become battle buddies?" Peter asks him.

"**_Not long now. Your friend was there when I become who I am_.**"

"You're saying I caused you to get our speed?" Barry clarifies. "I created you?"

"**_No. I created myself, Barry. Only I can bring out my greatness_.**"

"Your greatness? Well, yours still trapped, wherever you are, and I don't know how you're gonna escape. We got rid of the Philosopher's Stone." Barry informs him.

"**_Did we_**?" Savitar asks as he stands up. "**_I am closer to my freedom than I have ever been. Every step, every move that you make, it only brings me nearer to it. I only need one more thing_.**"

"What's this last thing you need?" Miles asks him.

Savitar just looks down on him and sees the sweat on his head.

"_**Miles Morales, trying to show that you're not afraid? But I know you are. I know more about you almost more than Spider-Man himself. And despite your feeble efforts to change the future, you can't, Parker was right. I am the future, Flash**._"

Peter just goes over and is ready to shut this guy down after threatening Miles.

"**_Peter, _****_you've had suffered worse than anyone. You've endured pain your whole life. Your father, your mother, your uncle...Caitlin. Trust me, they will betray you_.**" Savitar promises and Peter shuts it down, not wanting to hear anymore and Julian comes back.

"Well? Good chat, was it?" He asks.

They all head back to the cortex and process what they were just told and Peter sent Miles home for the night.

"Wow. I-I don't know if I can take another one of those chats. Is anyone else with me?" HR asks them. "I almost filled my drawers."

"Okay, so other thank Savitar taking scaring the bejeezus out of us to a whole new level, did we actually learn anything?" Cisco asks.

"Please say yes." Julian begs.

"Maybe we did." Peter says and they look to him. "My senses can't tell me anything about Savitar himself but I can tell when somebody is hiding the truth. He knows something we don't. He asked if we did get rid of the stone like we still have it."

"We did. We threw it into the Speedforce." Caitlin reminds him. "Like throwing it into outer space."

"Yeah, and didn't Jay mention how the Speedforce goes on for eternity?" Peter asks.

"Savitar said he was trapped in eternity." Cisco says as he realizes where Peter's going. "He's trapped in the Speedforce."

"And if he created Wally, he knew he needed a speedster to get it to him. What if the stone was a fracture and he's waiting for the whole thing?" Peter asks.

"Like a skeleton key?" May asks him.

"Exactly." Peter stays.

"Maybe the Acolytes have the rest of it?" Joe guesses.

"What about that one guy, Craig? The Acolyte that Killer Frost drooped in on and everything?" Cisco asks and pulls up his informs.

"His car GPS has him located somewhere near..Mount Buccelato." Cisco tells them.

"That's miles away. What would he be doing out there?" Miles wonders.

"There's one way to find out." Barry says and looks to Peter.

-

Barry speeds him and Peter there and see a bunch of worshipers surrounding a Savitar statue.

"This is giving me _Temple of Doom _flashbacks." Peter informs Barry.

"I was thinking the same thing." Barry agrees when they see one of the followers raise a box similar to the one that held the philosopher Stone.

"God of Speed, soon your enemies will fall and you will rise once more on Earth." The follower says holding the box.

"Looks like you were right, Spidey." Barry congratulates him.

"Okay, what do we do now?" Peter asks.

"Let's see what's inside it." Barry guesses and speeds off and punches them all and Peter just walks down the hill.

They were like 10ft away, no need for Barry's theatrics.

"What exactly were you guys doing up here?" Barry wonders.

"Worshiping His Greatness." The follower says.

Peter just grabs the box and flips it in his hands.

"Let's see how far he gets without this." Peter says when he opens it and sees its empty.

"He's ten steps ahead of the two of you. There's no stopping Savitar. If I were you...I'd move up the wedding." He tells Barry which shocks the both of them how he and Savitar knows what's happening.

-

They brought the box to the labs and as the last time, there's no box according to the equipment.

"We sure this isn't the same box?" Iris asks them.

"It can't be. I threw the other one into the Speedforce." Barry says.

"Didn't the explosion from doing that send you to the future?" May asks. "What if it's like _Back to the Future 2_, when doc got hit by the lightning bolt and it sent him and the time machine into the past?"

"You mean that when Barry was sent to the future, the box was sent back in time?" Cisco asks, deciphering exactly what she's saying.

"In all of my studies and searches, I've never come across a second box or stone; I think they might be right." Julian admits.

"If that's true, than Savitar must already have the stone." Joe says.

"I'm gonna check for any radioactive isotopes or gravimetric force residue, 'cause if it is the same as last time..." Cisco was saying and Barry finishes.

"We're in big trouble." Barry says and Cisco leaves with the box.

Peter also looks over to Caitlin and notices that she looks scared of something but needs to go help Cisco.

-

While they were working, Wally and HR come to them asking to have them vibe Wally into the future to see what he needs to do.

Peter also decides to go with them, if he was there, he knows how to leave subtle clues in order to change things. Let's hope he did the same for himself.

They vibe the future and Cisco along with Wally watch Iris die as Peter runs over to see his older self.

"Come on, Peter. Speak to me." Peter begs himself as he sees himself bleeding, beaten and his entire arm is cut straight down the middle. It was horrifying to look at his own face to see it beaten to a pulp and to see nothing but complete fear in his eyes.

Even his breathing was rapid as if he had ran around the world.

"Save...ca..." Peter's future self was struggling to say and Peter prays that he gets the wording out fast before he passes out from blood loss. "Choose...to save...Caitlin..." he says and Peter is confused to what he means by that.

"Choose Caitlin? Wh-What does that mean?" Peter asks him.

"Forget...everything else...be selfish...for once." His future self whispers as if he can hear Peter talking to him. "Please, Peter."

Now Peter knows he was talking about him and is shocked he knew he would be here while Wally was looking at the now dead Iris and she doesn't have a engagement ring on her finger. With that, they exit the vibe and are back at the labs.

Wally speeds off to confront Barry about why he really proposed to Iris.

Peter just stayed at the Ned lab to think about what his future self said when Caitlin approaches him.

"Cisco told me you went to the Future?" Caitlin asks him.

"Well, I saw the future. And it's just as confusing as the present." Peter admits to her.

"What did you see?" Caitlin asks him.

"Myself, beaten to the point of death. Barry didn't seem to care and was too focused on Iris. Then he said to choose you." Peter says looking to Caitlin. "Savitar said one would fall, one would betray us. One would abandon the rest. What if I'm the guy who betrays everyone? What if that's what he was warning us about?"

"Peter, you can't be the one to betray us." Caitlin tells him.

"How can you be so sure?" Peter asks her.

Caitlin just gets up and reaches into the back of the labs storage and pulls out a piece of the stone.

"Because...I'm the one who betrayed everyone." Caitlin says and Peter is shocked to see that, but maybe she didn't betray, but saved them.

They filled the rest of the team in on what happened and Barry looks over the piece.

"How long have you had this?" Barry asks her.

"Ever since you threw the box into the Speedforce. It was such a small piece. I didn't think it would really matter." Caitlin explains as Barry puts the piece inside the box.

"Why would you even do that?" Peter wonders.

"Because...I thought I could use it to get rid of my powers." Caitlin explains.

"And...can you?" Cisco wonders.

"I don't know, I haven't been able to figure out how to use it." Caitlin admits.

"Okay, I think we can all agree that this is a simple case of the other side, Killer Frost side, clouding her judgement." HR tried defending her.

"No, HR, this wasn't her. It was all me. I'm really sorry." Caitlin tells them.

"I don't think there's a reason for you to apologize." Peter says and they all look at him as he's holding the piece. "I think that the only reason that Savitar hasn't been able to escape is because that he doesn't have the whole stone. He doesn't have the whole skeleton key." He explains and May understood that.

"So as long as this piece of the stone never reaches Savitar, he doesn't escape?" Cisco clarifies what he's saying.

"Exactly." Peter agrees with him.

-

As they were talking, Wally had another episode and had a vision where Savitar is gonna escape and he knows he needs to get rid of the stone as nobody filled him in that's how he's going to escape.

With Peter and Caitlin, they returned home for the night to talk about recent events that occurred.

"I'm sorry that I lied to you." Caitlin starts off.

"You did it for good reasons, I'm a bit hurt you didn't tell me so I could help. I mean, me and Fox are working around the clock to find out what's happening to you." Peter reminds her, happy she at least stoped Savitar.

"I know, but it's just like that...you've been so focused on the future, on Miles, on the company...I feel like I'm pushed to the side." Caitlin says and Peter is angry at himself for making her feel like that. "You're terrified of loosing me, and I'm terrified that I'll loose myself in this battle."

"You're saying we need to take a break?" Peter says, understanding where she's coming from, but it hurts to see she's right.

Suddenly, their talk gets interrupted by their phones going off and they look to see Jesse texted them saying they need to get suck to the labs.

-

They make it to the labs and see Wally has stolen the piece of the stone.

"We've gotta stop him before he releases Savitar." Barry states as they try tracking him.

"I can't find him, he turned off the suit's telemetry." Cisco tells them.

-

Miles was doing his night shift wanting to stretch his legs when he hears screaming and runs over to see Kid Flash yelling at someone he can't see.

"And that...giving me speed...that was your biggest mistake." Wally says and starts running in circles when a portal appears.

"Hey, Spidey, The Flash's sidekick seems to be loosing it." Miles says into the com link.

-

Peter grabs his mask and places it on, hearing Miles has eyes on Wally.

"Miles, where are you?" Peter asks his protege.

"_Near the water, by the shore_._ This old, abandoned warehouse near us_." Miles describes and Cisco pulls up Miles' tracker and they have a location.

"They're at the old Kob factory." Cisco says and Barry grabs Peter and they hurry to stop Wally.

-

Miles watches as Wally throws something into the portal and he starts getting sucked into the portal.

Miles leaps in and tries shooting Wally with a web but the portal flings the webs in opposite directions like magnets.

Barry and Peter come in and see what's happening.

"Wally?" Barry asks as Wally cries out in fear as his suit starts to flake apart and he follows and the portal closes.

"What the hell just happened?" Peter asks.

"Ditto." Miles says as he is just as confused as Barry walks forward and picks up what's left of Wally's suit.

Suddenly, Peter and Miles' senses go off and they look to see the portal reopens and they are given their first look at this Savitar, as one word comes to mind.

Monster.

Savitar crawls out of the portal and stands up on his knees.

"**_I am free_!!!**" Savitar cheers and now the heroes see they need to fight off the God of Speed now. "**_Ground. Air...I can feel again. I can breathe again. I've beaten you, finally_.**"

"Where's Wally?" Barry asks as Peter is trying to find a weak spot within this thing that looks like some sorta armor and Miles is paralyzed in fear.

"_**Like the Greek myth of Atlas, who could not put down the sky until someone took his place, Wally has taken my place in the Speedforce.**"_ Savitar explains to them. "**_You know me. I love a good myth._**"

"He's inside the Speedforce?" Peter asks him.

"**_When you created Flashpoint, Barry, you unwittingly provided me with the means for my return. You gave me the idea to turn Wally into Kid Flash, to make him fast enough to replace me in your prison. His youth and ego were my allies. So taken with his fame and speed, he never saw he was running right into my trap._**"

"How do I get him out?" Barry asks.

"**_Wally's gone. Suffering in an endless void for all eternity. Another victim Barry Allen failed to save_.**" Savitar says, provoking the Speedster as they run at each other and start running around.

"I'm gonna kill you!" Barry promised.

"**_If you had the strength to end my life, you would have done it in the future. But Barry Allen doesn't kill. He's the good guy. The boy Joe raised. The am Iris loves. The hero Peter trained. You have everything. And deserve none of it_**." Savitar says and speeds at Barry when Peter interrupts and pulls Barry to safety and comes face to face with him.

"Pick someone your own size." Peter dares the god.

"**_I'm going to destroy this city, like I did the the future, so you can see the truth, Peter. And then, you'll treat me like a god_.**" Savitar promises.

"You're not a god!" Miles shouts and Savitar turns only to be hit in the face.

But it doesn't even seem to harm him and Peter activates a taser web and shoots Savitar. Only do when it was activated, it did nothing but make him sizzle out and Barry grabs onto his back.

"Show your face!" Barry comands him and Peter crawls up the wall to leap and hit Savitar when the god pulled out a blade and stabs Peter, deep in the shoulder.

"**_I won't kill you yet, Peter. Because I need you to live a little while longer. So that you can see the truth about your friends_.**" Savitar explains while Miles comes leaping in and uses his super strength to pull the sphere out of Savitar's suit and he leaves them.

Barry picks up Peter and speeds him and Miles to Star labs.

-

"The blade didn't hit his organs, but it did shagger his clavicle." May tells Caitlin.

"Hang in there, dude." Cisco tells Peter.

"We have to take it out. But any medicine I give you, your metabolism will burn." Caitlin tells Peter, hating seeing him like this.

"Just do it." Peter begs through the pain.

"Hold him down." May asks the two of the men.

"You're gonna be okay, man." Barry assures him while holding his chest down.

"I'm so sorry." Caitlin apologized for the pain he's about to endure and rips the blade out.

-

Later, Peter is okay and stable and is resting.

"How long will he be out for?" Barry asks Caitlin.

"Not long, but he will be in tremendous pain when he wakes up." Caitlin tells him. "His healing should be able to help him though."

"Did something happen between the two of you?" Barry wonders.

"It's nothing we need to be concerned about now." Caitlin says, not needing to get into their relationship right now.

But a part of her is now wondering if she and Peter are meant to be together.

Her fear is the reason that Savitar wasn't able to escape, but it's also the reason Peter is hurt right now.


	60. Green Goblin

The team is trying to figure out a way to save Wally, so Barry is planning on going inside the Speedforce to retrieve him himself.

"I'm just trying to wrap my mind around you going into the Speedforce again. Savitar said he was there for years. You said it was like being in space. So what are you gonna do? You run in there and run around until you find him?" Joe asks his son.

"This is the only way to save Wally." Barry tells him.

"Yeah, I just...We need a plan. I can't loose both of my sons." Joe states.

"Look, gang, I don't understand the Speedforce, but there are plenty of people in this room who do." HR says and looks to Cisco.

"Am I correct to assume there's a point coming?" Cisco asks.

"My point is why can't you use your knowledge to fashion some kind of safety precaution for young BA right here so that, while he's in the Speedforce, he doesn't get lost." HR explains.

"Oh, so you're saying I can just whip up some kind of inter-dimensional tether to just anchor him to the universe?" Cisco clarifies with HR. "That's exactly what I can do." He realizes.

"And maybe me and Cait can create a biological component that will measure his vitals when he's in there." Peter adds, with his shoulder still wrapped up after the Savitar stabbed him.

"Yeah, because if we can monitor Barry's vitals, we'll know if the fluctuate, and pull him out." Caitlin agrees and they leave to get to work.

-

They all head to the breach room, ready to send Barry into the Speedforce and Cisco gives him what he needs before vanishing.

As soon as he leaves, Peter's alert in his phone goes off.

"What's wrong?" Caitlin asks him.

"A...temporal anomaly has been detected by Fox's satellite's tracking dimensional activity." Peter tells them.

"What does that mean?" Joe asks.

"It means we might've have chosen the wrong time to get rid of Flash." Peter says as he shows them the footage of a man in a Goblin outfit and a glider.

"Yo, that outfit is sick in both scary and menacing." Cisco states looking at the picture.

"I've gotta go find out who this is." Peter tells them and grabs his mask. "If something happens, give me a call." He says before leaving.

-

The Green Goblin is flying around while terrorizing the people of the city.

Everyone's running as they're wondering where the Flash is as Goblin is still looking for one man.

"Where are you, Wall Crawler?" Goblin asks when he gets kicked off of his glider and he turns to see the red and black suited Spider-Man.

"You called?" Peter quips.

"Ah, this world's version of Spider-Man. Nice. Very experienced." Goblin comments on his outfit.

Peter leaps down and grabs Goblin by the chest-plate and raises him to his face.

"I don't know if you've heard, but I'm the inner dimensional sheriff around these parts, and you're trespassing on my turf." Peter informs him. "And also, what's with the suit? Costume shop out of Santa Claus outfits?" He asks.

"Your quips get more agitating the more universes I travel to." Goblin informs him which confuses Peter. "And I've come for you!" He states and punches Peter, sending him flying.

Before he could hit the ground, a web comes in saving him and brings him away from Goblin.

"Hey, it's okay. I've got ya'." A new voice says and Peter looks to see a version of himself wearing a blue and red version of his suit, and he's younger. He gets pulled up to the roof of the building seeing the Goblin is gone.

"This is a new one." Peter says and gets back on his feet. "Thanks for the save. Now who are you?" He asks.

"I'm...Peter Parker. And I've come to help you stop that maniac." Peter explains to his older self. "By the way, that black and red is amazing."

"Yeah, I had a friend of mine help me make this. So you know that cuckoo bird?" He asks his younger doppelgänger.

"He's an enemy of mine." Peter explains to the older him.

Peter was about to ask him more when his suit goes on the fritz.

"Oh, great, I need to head to Star labs. You can explain everything to me on the way and to my team." Peter tells his doppelgänger and starts leading the way.

"Wait, I have a headquarters? And a team?" Peter asks before following him.

-

Peter and his younger self make it to Star labs where everyone is confused to what's happening.

"Who's this?" Cisco asks.

"This is Peter Parker, from an alternative universe." Peter explains to his friend while fixing his suit.

"Did you come with this green glider guy?" HR asks.

"We call him Green Goblin." Younger Peter tells them.

"Hmm, dope name." Cisco comments, thinking that's something he would make up.

"He's been traveling through the multiverse, attacking multiple Spider-Men and women in every reality and is stealing their DNA so he can create an army of Spider-Men. He's already got the DNA of three different Spiders, I need to stop him before he actually murders a Spider-Man or gets back to my reality." Peter finishes explaining.

"Right, because our city doesn't have enough problems." Joe comments on this information after everything.

"Look, as long as your Spider-Man is here, he's safe." Peter promises when he looks at his doppelgänger who realizes something.

"I'm not the only Spider-Man." Peter informs his younger self.

"What?!" Peter asks, shocked by this information.

"I've been training a new kid. Miles Morales." Peter explains to him.

"If he gets his DNA and gets away, I will be trapped here forever." Peter says, starting to freak out.

"Hey, hey, settle down Spider-Kid. We can just start track that glider of his." Cisco tells him and Caitlin starts tracking the dimensional signature.

"Oh no, he's headed straight for Miles." Caitlin tells them.

"I've gotta go." Peter tells them and starts leaving.

"Not without me, you're not." His older self informs him. "Miles is my responsibility."

-

Goblin heard rumors of this second Spider-Man and runs into the new black and red Spider-Man.

"What a young Spider-Man." Goblin comments on his age.

"Hey! I'm fourteen." Miles informs him before rushing in to fight him.

Norman just grabs him by the neck and releases another drone.

"You're such an inexperienced Spider-Man as well." Goblin states when someone webs the drone and Goblin looks to see the two Spider-Men come flying in and both come in punching his face in.

"That's three against one, Gobby." Young Peter tells his enemy.

"Three Spider-Man in one universe, you think this is a bad thing?" Goblin asks him. "It just means that I can collect the DNA of two different Spider-Man's at once."

"Collect our DNA? Three in one?" Miles questions, trying to figure out what's happening.

"Yeah, I'll catch you up later." Peter promises the kid.

Goblin starts shooting rockets at all of the Spiders and they all run and duck for cover.

"_The itsy bitsy Spider went up the water sprout. Down came the Goblin, and took the spiders out!_" Goblin starts singing and activates his machine guns.

"I hate that song." Peter states while running away from him.

"_It was kinda on the nose, don't ya think?_" Cisco asks through the comms.

"You wanna tell him that?" Peter asks his friend before an explosion goes off and sends him into a building, knocking him unconscious.

"Spidey!" Miles shouts, seeing he's unconscious and can't save himself.

Goblin sends a drone at him and gets ready to finish him off when Miles swings in and goes to punch him and feels energy searing through his veins and he punches Goblin, but with an added venom strike and he topples to the ground.

"What was that?!" Alternative Peter asks the kid. Hey, he beats Miles by two years.

"I have no idea." Miles admits and looks at his hands.

While he wasn't looking, Goblin picks up his Peter, getting annoyed by him constantly following him.

"You're still vainly following me, I see." Goblin says.

"I have a _Frequently Alternate Universe Hopper_ ticket." Peter quips before grabbing him and flips Goblin over his head. "I collect points with each world I visit. I'm saving up for a new motorcycle." He says before kicking Goblin.

"You're not going to win this!" Goblin promises.

"Get Spider-Man out of here." Peter tells Miles. "I'll take care of this freak." He promises.

Mikes sees his mentor needs help and he knows he can't handle someone like this Goblin quite yet. He decides to listen and starts trying to pick his Spider-Man up and starts swinging away.

"Come on, Osborn. Let's rumble." Peter tells his enemy and goes clashing in and the two began to fight hand in hand.

"I won't allow you to stop me. Once I return to our reality, I will end everything you know and love." Goblin tells Peter.

"Not gonna happen, Spock!" Peter says while using his webs to spin goblin around and sends him flying.

"_Ha! Spock. Because of the pointy ears._" Cisco says while chuckling.

But when Peter threw Goblin into the air, he called his glider back so he can start hunting the young Spider-Man.

"That's not good." Peter sees and starts chasing after him.

-

Miles swings as far as he could before dropping as he climbs one of the tallest buildings in Central City to give him some time to wake up Peter.

"Yo, Spidey. I kinda need you. We never went over how to stop psychos dressed like a Goblin in training yet." Miles says and starts smacking Peter to try to wake him up when his senses go off and he turns to see the Goblin caught up with him.

"Hello again, child." Goblin greets.

Miles looks at Peter and sees he's on his own and gets ready to defend his mentor. He watches as Goblin readies his guns again when Miles shoots a web to stop him from using them.

"Nope. Sorry, that's cheating." Miles tells him and Goblin comes flying in to crush him.

Miles flips and avoids it, but Goblin saw that coming. What he didn't see was when Miles goes invisible to attack.

"Ah, a new ability. That's something I haven't seen in previous Spider-Men." Goblin says but then uses his heat sensors to track Miles and punches him as he gets close enough.

Miles takes the hit and gets ready to use that venom strike again until he realizes he can't focus hard enough to control his powers and goblin grabs him.

Goblin releases a drone and Miles tries fighting back, but goblin is ten times his strength.

"Not so easy when your on your own, isn't it?" Goblin asks as the drone starts collecting his DNA.

"One spider closer to my ultimate goal." Goblin says and is ready to kill Miles when a web gets thrown in his face and drops Miles.

Miles looks back to see Peter is back up and ready to fight again.

But before anyone did anything else, the younger Spider-Man comes flying in and punches underneath his glider, making it go on the fritz as Goblin opens a portal and escapes through it.

"Well, it was nice meeting you guys, but I've gotta go rescue the next Spider-Man, or woman, or child, or...you know what? I wouldn't be surprised if it was a pig by this point." Peter admits while leaping off the building and falls straight into the portal and it closes.

"So...that was a different version of you from another dimension?" Miles asks Peter.

"Yep." Peter confirms.

"There's a multiverse?" Miles asks.

"I thought you learnt that after the whole super gorilla thing." Peter states. "Come on, let's head back to Star labs and see what we can learn about that taser ability of yours." He says and the two swing off to the labs.

-

"It was like, I went in to punch the guy and the next thing I know is I feel electricity flowing through my body." Miles explains what happened.

"What exactly happened?" Peter wonders.

"Some spiders have different abilities from different species. Maybe the radioactive spider that bit Miles wasn't exactly the same that bit you." Caitlin guesses.

"That's cool." Miles says looking at his fists.

"What about Barry?" Peter asks.

"We sent Jay in to help find him but we don't know where they are." Cisco says when they get alerts from Jay's helmet meaning it's time to bring them out.

-

They were able to pull Wally and Barry out but it seems Jay stayed behind because the Speedforce needs a prisoner for some reason. Barry learnt that Wally can't be the one to save Iris, only Barry can for (again) some reason.

Jesse even went to Jay's earth to keep it safe with him in the Speedforce.

"So, did we miss anything?" Barry asks Peter.

"Oh, nothing much. A younger doppelgänger of mine stopped by, a psycho with a glider tried to impale me and Miles, you know the usual." Peter recaps and Barry's shocked to hear all of that happened while he was gone.

"I'm gone for one night, and that all happened?" Barry asks.

"You missed quite a lot." Peter says and looks to Caitlin who turns to look away from him.

Will things ever be able to go back to the way they were?

———————

**_In case you're wondering, that's Peter from Peter Parker-Coulson, Agent S. If you're confused to why he's here, the siege perilous Norman's using finds weak spots within the universe they're traveling to._**

**_Meaning they not only traveled through space, but time._**


	61. Duet

**_Seeing how much everyone liked the first crossover, I was looking forward to writing their next crossover. And here we are!_**

**_I don't own any of these songs, lyrics or anything. Just getting that out of the way._**

**_Now on with the story._**

**_——————————_**

Earth-1

Peter was sitting at home watching some television when Cisco comes in and sees him.

"This...is a sad thing to see Spider-Man, who fights crime most of the time, on his couch watching television in his sweatpants. Are you gonna spend the rest of your free time on this couch?" Cisco asks him. "I mean, you've been sulking for days about Caitlin instead of trying to make it up to her."

"There is nothing I can do, I cannot think of any way of apologizing for making her feel unimportant when she's the most important person in my life." Peter states as Cisco joins him on the couch.

"What is it with you and Disney and musicals, and things like that anyway?" Cisco wonders.

"Growing up, May always said everything gets fixed with a solution if it comes from the heart." Peter explains.

"Okay, seriously man, you've been through some tough times I get that. You're juggling the company, trying to save Caitlin from becoming Killer Frost, and training Miles, and trying to come up with how to make it up to Caitlin. Look, whatever you need, I'll find a way to help." Cisco promises him.

"There's nothing you can really do, Cisco. I need to figure it out from myself." Peter tells him.

"Really? What do I have to do to get you to _Let it go_?" Cisco asks him jokingly and Peter laughs.

"Okay, that was good. I'll give you that one." Peter says when his phone goes off and so does Cisco's.

"It's HR." Cisco says and Peter got the same and they make their way to Star labs.

-

When they are it there, they see there's a breach open.

"Someone's coming through." HR warns them.

"Could be Gypsy." Cisco guesses.

"Could be, or it could be..." Barry was saying when the breach closes and J'onn, Mon-El and Peter-38 appears while holding an unconscious Kara.

"The Super-Spider team?" HR says seeing them.

"What happened to her?" Barry asks.

"We don't know, but whoever did it has come to this world." J'onn informs him.

-

They bring Kara to the med lab where Caitlin take a look at what's wrong.

"Her vitals are low. How long was she like this?" Caitlin asks.

"A hour at best." J'onn answers her.

"Okay, we need to find whoever did this to Kara and punch him repeatedly until he reverses whavetee spell he put her under, and I get to punch first." Mon-El tells the team.

"Who is this?" Peter asks his doppelgänger.

"My name is Mon-El." He tells Peter. "I'm Kara's...friend. Well, more than friends. We've been kissing a lot."

"She never mentioned having a boyfriend." Caitlin says.

"It's a recent thing." Mon-El explains.

"Didn't she dump you recently?" Peter-38 asks him.

"Shhh..." Mon-El whispers to him.

"I'll tell you what, I know enough not to mention the breakup between PP and Cai...Sorry." HR was saying when looking at their faces.

"Whatever's going on between me and Kara, I cannot leave her like this, Okay?" Mon-El say.

"We'll get her back." Peter-38 is confident enough to say.

"So who did this to her?" May asks.

"An alien prisoner escaped our custody. He did something to her, then disappeared." Peter-38 explains. "We followed him after he said."

"He said he wanted to chase the partner to the fastest man alive." J'onn says and they look to said partner, Peter Parker.

"Wait, why me?" Peter wonders.

"We don't know. But his last words were about finding you." Mon-El states.

"Well, then he's a breacher. And if there's one thing I can do, it's find breachers." Cisco says and they all leave Kara and into the cortex.

"So what else can you tell us about this guy?" Barry asks them.

"Not much. It's like he just materialized out of thin air." J'onn tells him.

"He reminded me of Mxy." Peter-38 says when Cisco looks at the computers.

"Like this clown just did?" Cisco asks and they look to see the man looking at the cameras while waving.

Peter grabs his mask as Barry speeds to take him on.

Peter quickly puts his suit on and runs after him.

Barry makes it to the basement and sees the man.

"Hello, Barry Allen." He greets.

"How do you know my name?" Barry asks him.

"I know a lot of things. And I can do a lot of things too." He explains when Peter comes swinging in from above.

"Peter Parker made it here, finally. It's good for you to join the party, Spider-Man. I'm happy to have you." He says.

"What do you want with Supergirl?" Peter asks the guy.

"Same thing I want from you and your doppelgänger. To teach you all a lesson." He explains to them before moving at superhuman speed and knocks Barry across the room.

Peter quickly webs him and yanks him towards himself before the guy turns and grabs Peter's throat.

"Sorry, Spider-Man. Too slow." He states. "Night-Night." He says and Peter starts getting tired and passes out.

-

Peter then later wakes up and sees he's in some sort of old timey bar with live entertainment and he hears someone singing _Moon River_.

Peter looks at himself and he's wearing some tuxedo and is seriously confused to what's happening. He turns and sees that it's Kara who's singing and she notices him in the crowd and is shocked to see her friend, thinking it's her Peter.

As Kara sings, Peter is amazed to how good her singing is as she finishes singing and Peter starts sneaking backstage.

"Peter?" Kara asks as she joins him backstage.

"Hey." Peter greets her as she goes into a hug. "Yeah, it's me, Kara."

Kara then breaks the hug and looks at him. "Kara or Skirt?" She asks Peter.

"Kara?" Peter says, confused and realized she thinks he's the doppelgänger.

"You're his doppelgänger, aren't you?" Kara asks.

"Yeah, your Peter and friends brought you to my Earth." Peter explains and looks around. "Speaking of which, Where are we? What's going on?"

"I was hoping you could tell me or explain to me why I pulled an Audrey Hepburn and sang in a nightclub." Kara states.

"Maybe were in some sorta shared hallucination state. Either that or Mysterio got a whole lot better at his illusions." Peter guesses.

"Who's Mysterio?" Kara asks, never hearing about him before.

"Long story, I'll tell you later." Peter promises and gets back on topic. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"I was at the DEO, my Peter has just brought in a new prisoner. He got loose, and...I was here. He was weird, he had this..."

"Pocket handkerchief?" Peter guesses as he has the same guy. "I saw you, you were in a coma. Your boyfriend and Peter brought you here."

"He is _not_ my boyfriend." Kara warns him. "He's a Boy...who's not my friend."

"Okay...All right, whoever he is, they both said you were whammied, then he escaped and then showed up in Star labs, me and Barry went after him."

"And then you got whammied." Kara guesses. "So where is this place?"

"Could be a parallel dimension, or again, maybe it's like one of Mysterio's illusions. If so, we just need to find our way out." Peter states seeing no other choice.

"I could click my heels together three times." Kara jokes and Peter understood that reference.

"Come on, there's gotta be something." Peter says and they leave the backstage. "You're a really good singer, by the way."

"Hey, thanks. My sister says I put the _Kara _in karaoke." Kara says when they walk and run into Malcom Merlyn.

"There you are." He says seeing the two of them.

"Merlyn?" Peter asks.

"Who?" Kara and Malcom asks, not knowing who he's talking about.

"My name's Cutter Moran, I own this club, and both of you work for me." Malcom informs them.

"We what now?" Peter and Kara ask him.

"I pay you to sing, not pepper me with questions. And I hope you got something better in your songbook than what you were belting out up there, blonde." Merlyn tells Kara.

"Hey! Don't call me blondie." Kara warns him.

"Hey, I don't know who you think you are..." Peter was saying when Malcom pulls out a knife. "Obviously you're someone who's quick with a knife."

"You have to excuse my friend. He doesn't think before he talks." Kara quickly lies.

"Sadly, that's true." Peter admits.

"Yeah. I had a cousin like that. I had to slit his throat too." Malcom tells them. "Grady! Get these two set up. And nothing I've heard before. I want something original." He says before walking off.

"I don't have my powers." Kara tells Peter.

"I wasn't able to sense his knife coming, so I guess neither do I." Peter says when someone who looks a lot like Winn approaches them.

"Winn? You're here too?" Kara asks.

"Who's winn? My name is Grady. I tickle the keys around here." Winn explains to them. "Say, you realize how he got the nickname Cutter, don't you? Because he likes to cut people."

"You ask me, I think he's all talk." Cisco says and they turn and see his hair is combed to the side and is straight instead of the usual hair he usually has.

"I pray that, one day, you do not find out how very wrong you are, Pablo." Winn tells Cisco. "Now go do your job." He says before leaving.

"You see, Grady doesn't know this, but one day, I'm gonna be somebody. I'm gonna be somebody, and it's gonna happen right there on that stage." Cisco promises and leaves them.

"This is getting weirder and weirder. And I fought a giant Lizard, so that's saying something." Peter tells Kara.

"Yeah, it's like in _The Wizard of Oz._ You were there, and you were there." Kara replies.

"Except, they're not really them. They're all playing characters in a..."

"Musical." They both finish.

"Peter, where are we?" Kara winders.

"I...have no idea in the slightest." Peter admits to her.

"Well, you know what they say." The man who trapped them says and they turn to see he's on the stage. "The show must go on!"

They both look at him, wondering where he came from and how he got there.

"Supergirl, I loved your rendition of _Moon River_, such a beautiful song. You were a little flat in places, but I'm willing to let it slide because you're so cute." He says as they approach him.

"What did you do to us?" Peter asks him.

"Nothing much. Just put a little song in your heart." He tells them.

"Why did you bring us here?" Kara asks.

"I didn't bring you anywhere. We're inside your heads. You created this world. And we got lucky because it could have been a war movie or a space opera, but thanks to your love for musicals, with the countless times you watched, _Wizard of Oz_. With your adopted parents."

"How did you know that?" Kara asks.

"And you, all those sad times in your life. Loosing your parents, then your uncle. _All your troubles go away with a solution if it comes from your heart_. Isn't that what May always tells you? Well, where else would we end up?" He tells Peter.

"How could you possibly know that?" Peter asks him, since nobody but he knows May told him that.

"All right, all right." Kara says while walking up, ready to beat this man. But as soon as she swings, it goes right through him.

"Swing and a miss. I didn't tell you. I'm not really here. See, I'm out there in the real world. Central City's mine for the taking."

No. There's still Flash, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Vibe ready to stop you." Peter reminds him.

"Yeah, but it's a school night and I have a feeling Miles isn't going to be out this late. Flash, you do have a point, but I do have your powers to help me." He admits. "And the two of you are welcomed to try and stop me. If you can get out at least."

"How do we get out of here?" Kara asks him.

"You're in a movie musical. So all you have to do is follow the script. Reach the end of the plot, and you get to go home."

"Why do I feel a _but_ coming?" Peter asks.

"BUT, if you die in here, you die out there."

"I've reached my limit with magical creeps." Kara states remembering Mxy.

"In the meantime, I hope you're both ready to get the rust off those pipes of yours."

"We're not singing for you!...Anymore." Kara informs him.

"Come on, now, maybe just one little fun opening number just to...kick things off." He asks while removing his jacket. "_Think of your fellow man._"

"Stop singing." Peter tells him.

"It's not happening." Kara states.

"_Lend him a helping hand. Put a little love in your heart_." He sings and goes over to Winn who's at the piano and starts playing.

"_You see it's getting late. Oh, please don't hesitate. Put a little love in your heart._" Winn sings as the whole nightclub breaks into a dance

"_And the world will be a better place. And the world. Will be a better place for you and me you just wait_." Malcom, Cisco and Winn start singing.

"_And see, yeah._"

"_If you want the world to know we won't let hatred grow. Put a little love in your heart._" Malcom sings and that ironic since Peter remembers this as the same guy who tried to destroy a city. Twice.

"_And the world will be a better pace, and the world. Will be a better place. For you. And me._" Their mind captor keeps singing.

"_You just wait. And see._" Malcolm continues,

"_You better take a good look around. Oh, if you're looking down. Put a little love in your heart._" Winn continues.

"_And the world will be a better place._" Cisco sings.

"_All the world. Will be a better place for you. And me. You just waiiit and seeee."_ Malcolm says and they all come in for the finale.

"_Put a little live in your heart._" Sad thing is, Peter actually getting into it and Kara watches as he starts rocking his head to the beat. "_Put a little love in your heart. Put a little love in your heart. Put a little love in your heart. Put a little love in your heart. Come on and...put a little love in your heaaaaaart."_ They finish singing and he vanishes on them.

"God, I hate this Music Meister." Peter says.

"Music Meister?" Kara asks.

"Well, I can't just call him _he_. And we're in a musical." Peter explains.

"Music Meister it is." Kara says and they leave to find where he left to.

They go backstage and have no idea where he could've gone.

"So what do we do now?" Kara asks Peter.

"Why do you keep asking me? I haven't been in this predicament before." Peter states, getting annoyed by how she assures he has the answers. Maybe she's used to his doppelgänger knowing everything or something, but he's not him. "I guess we just do what he said. Find out the plot of the musical, and then follow the story."

"Okay, what do we know so far?" Kara asks.

"We're supposed to be singers." Peter bulletpoints.

"And apparently we work for a gangster." Kara adds.

"Yes, who wants us to perform for him. Honestly, it's pretty straightforward. Kinda lame if you ask me." Peter states when the familiar noise of a gun cocking comes in and they turn to see two men wearing all black.

"Hi! I miss being bulletproof." Kara tells Peter.

"I miss my senses." Peter tells her.

"You're coming with us." One of them tell the two.

"Says who?" Peter asks when he gets hit in the back of the head, rendering him unconscious and Kara looks to see Harry from Earth-2 is here.

"Says me." Harry tells the unconscious man.

-

Peter later wakes up and sees Kara is next to him and they're in a warehouse of sorts.

"Where are we?" Peter asks her.

"I don't know." Kara admits.

"God, I hope Barry and the others find a way of getting us out of here." Peter tells Kara.

"Yeah, I'm glad my Peter brought me to your Earth." Kara states.

"Mon-El seems to care about you." Peter says.

"Mon-El only cares about himself." Kara states to Peter while scoffing. "He lied to me about who he really is for nine months. I can't shake it. I thought it was gonna be something special like what your doppelgänger had with his girlfriend. Or what you and Caitlin have."

"Well...were not exactly together as of now." Peter informs her.

"I'm sorry." Kara apologizes.

"I just got lost in all of my responsibilities. There was Spider-Man, my company, I recently started training a kid who has powers like mine, and he idolized Spider-Man and wanted to be a hero like me."

"Sounds like a lot, I can see that."

"I guess I subconsciously pushed her to the side. I just got caught up in everything, I forgot that she's the future I want. But so many people rely on Spider-Man, my company relies on me. And I guess I pushed her away so I could focus on stopping her from becoming evil...and now it's a mess."

"Shut up! Both of you." Harry tells them and Peter now notices he was listening in.

"Harry?" Peter asks, forgetting where he is.

He stands up and starts walking towards them. "Do you not know who I am?"

"Not Harrison Wells, I'm guessing." Peter jokes.

"Digsy. Digsy Foss. I run this town." Harry tells them.

"So you're the mayor?" Kara asks and Harry chuckles like the real deal.

"The mayor may have gotten the vote...but I got the power." Harry tells her. "I got a situation...that you two are gonna help me with."

"We would love to help you any way that we can." Peter says, trying not to get himself killed for once.

"My daughter, Clarice. She's missing." Harry says and one of his men carry over a photo. "Last she was seen, she was heading into Cutter Moran's place." He explains while handing the photo to them and Peter is shocked that it's a black and white photograph of Caitlin, just altered to look like the timeline. "Have you seen her in there?"

"Clarice, did you say?" Peter asks.

"Yeah. Why?" Harry asks.

"We haven't seen her. I haven't seen her." Peter replies.

"She is the only think that is good and decent...about my life. If anything happened to her,cynics town will run red with blood." Harry warns.

"Starting with yours." A woman with a oversized hat says and they can't see her face, but the voice sounds familiar to Peter, just with the accent he can't tell for sure.

"We wouldn't want that, now would we?" Peter says while looking to Kara with a grin on his face, keeping his cool. "So how can we help?"

"You two sing for Cutter. You could poke around and see if you can find her." Harry explains their part and the two see this is the plot they need to follow. "So are you gonna do this for me?"

"We're gonna finds her, sir." Peter assures him and Kara agrees.

"Good." Harry says and walks over to the woman and the goons escort them out.

-

They got Cisco's help to lead them to where Caitlin was last seen and it's Apartment 4B.

"This is where we can find Caitlin?" Peter asks.

"Clarice." Kara corrects him.

"Yeah, she's in there, all right. Now you two listen to me. Don't you go telling anyone I showed you this." Cisco warns them. "Word to the wise. You go digging in this dirt...you might not like what you find." He says and walks off.

"Okay, so remember, she might look like Caitlin, but she is _not _Caitlin." Kara reminds Peter.

"Yeah, I know. It's just weird." Peter says.

"Yeah, tell me about it. I'm glad we haven't seen someone that looks like Mon-El. I'd probably punch him in the face for the fun of it." Kara states when they then hear screams from the other side of the door.

"That's Caitlin. She's in trouble." Peter says and gets ready to kick the door.

"Hang on, I'll kick the door in." Kara says and pushes him back.

"What? It's not a gender thing, I just really wanted to kick a door down." Peter admits.

Kara rolls her eyes at how funny this Peter is compared to the seriousness of her Peter. It's kind of a strange difference.

"Look, how about together?" Kara asks him.

"Okay." Peter agree and they do it and look to see Caitlin and Mon-El making out on the couch.

"What the hell is this?" Peter asks as the two of them get off the couch.

"All right, you caught us." Caitlin tells them.

"We're in love." Mon-El explains.

"Ugh, gross." Kara states in disgust as Peter wishes he could forget seeing that.

-

In reality.

Barry brought Peter to the med bay and he's in the same coma as Kara is.

"Guys, we have a problem. Well, another problem." Caitlin tells them. "The radioactivity in Peter's body has been severely depleted, as has the amount of solar radiation in Kara's body."

"And what does that mean exactly?" J'onn asks.

"They're being drained. The guy who did this to them...I think he's stealing their powers." Caitlin explains.

"But didn't Peter say the radioactivity was like his blood?" Cisco asks Caitlin.

"And the more he looses, the less chance he has at waking up." Peter-38 says looking at his unconscious doppelgänger as he has the exact same thing in him.

They then get footage from the Central City bank and see Music Meister is using Kara's powers to break inside.

"We gotta being him in." Mon-El tells them.

"We're on it." Barry says as he puts his suit back on.

"You're gonna need a new spider." Peter-38 offers and his suit forms around him.

"I'm coming, too." J'onn tells them.

"J'onn, I respect the whole special agent thing you got going on but this needs someone with..." Cisco was saying when J'onn shows his true Martian form. "Green skin and a sick ass cape."

"Call me the Martian Manhunter." J'onn tells him.

"Yeah, J'onn's more than just a pretty face." Peter-38 tells them.

"Guys! Peter and Kara's vitals are all over the place." May informs them and just notices the Martian. "Hello." She greets.

"He's using their powers, meaning they're in trouble." Barry guesses and knows they need to hurry.

-

Cisco opens a breach and the four of them are ready to take him on.

"Hello, friends!" Music Meister says as he exits the building. "Hello again, Spider-Man. Or is it Iron-Spider to not get confused with your doppelgänger? Anyway, I wanted to apologize for tricking you into bringing me to the DEO to whammi your friend. I'm such a huge fan of your work, your suit, everything. But I have to say...recently, you've been phoning it in or going too far. You know what I'm talking about? I think maybe you're just upset with everything that happened. But, ooh...What would Gwen say if she could see how low you've fallen?" He asks them.

_'Oh, he did not!_' Peter-38 thinks before raising his repulsers in anger to blast him but when the blasts almost hit him, he dodges both of the lasers.

"Spidey senses. I can sense anything you plan on throwing in my direction." Music Meister informs him.

Peter-38 gets more irritated as Music Meister uses Kara's speed and runs off. Peter takes off to track him in the skies, wanting to end him for what he said as Barry chase him on foot.

The two race throughout the city as Peter calculates where they're going to be.

"Cisco, they're headed towards 4th and Aspen." Peter-38 tells him.

"Got it." Cisco replies and opens a breach there.

Upon arrival, they see the two when suddenly Music Meister takes into the skies and Peter starts fighting him off using his webs, his arms and repulsers.

"All right, J'onn, how do you dele about a little one-two combo?" Cisco asks him and explains. "I'm gonna open a breach, you be ready to hit something bar on the other side."

"Hitting hard I can do." J'onn assures him.

"Barry, you get ready to do the same on the ground level. Peter, hold him up there." Cisco tells them the plan and opens a breach for J'onn.

Music Meister was flying with Peter when J'onn interrupts him and punches him in the face. Peter-38 gives him a helping hand and blasts Music Meister into the ground.

Barry comes speeding in and punches him, sending him flying.

But Music Meister isn't down yet as he starts getting up only to be electrocuted and Barry looks and sees Miles and his arm stretched out.

"Venom strike, baby!" Miles cheers raising his fists in the air.

"Nighty-Night." Barry tells Music Meister and high-5s Miles.

-

The musical.

"Hey, who are you?" Mon-El asks Peter and Kara. "Your names now."

"I'm Kara and this is Peter." Kara tells them. "We're singers at your dads nightclub."

"Clarice, your dad thinks you've been kidnapped." Peter tells Caitlin.

"Well, clearly he's mistaken." Caitlin states.

"He really wants you to come home." Kara says.

"Listen, I am never going back there." Caitlin promises

"Why not? There's no place like home." Kara says and even Peter looks at her for that reference.

"Marvin Moran...is my home." Caitlin says referring to Mon-El.

"And besides, if our geezers ever caught wind of this, they'd go to war." Mon-El tells them. "It'd be the end of more than just us."

"He's right. Our fathers hate each other. Our love is forbidden." Caitlin says while leaning on Mon-El.

"This is seriously familiar to _West side story_." Peter tells Kara.

"I was thinking more _Fantasticks." Kara admits._

"Look, the point is...we ain't telling nobody nothing. And neither are you, capisce?" Caitlin tells them.

"Can you give us a second?" Peter asks and they back away from the two. "Okay, so we have to follow the script. We're in a musical. So if we convince them to tell their fathers about this _Romeo and Juliet_ story they have going on that'll get us out of here."

"And back home to being...single. Yay." Kara states.

"Well, at least we still have people. My doppelgänger seemed concerned about you a lot." Peter informs her.

"Yeah, you're right. No matter what, at least I still have my super friend." Kara agrees knowing Peter's been there through her tough times.

"Okay." Peter says and turns back to the couple (whilst trying to remember that's not Caitlin). "Your fathers aren't perfect, right."

"Love isn't perfect." Kara adds.

"But you can't let your love for somebody cause you to be afraid of what might happen to them. You gotta take what you can while you still have it." Peter tells them. "That includes telling your fathers about your feelings."

Caitlin and Mon-El seem to think before agreeing with them.

"All right, you make a convincing argument. We'll do it." Caitlin states.

"We should go now. Thanks, kid." Mon-El says and they two leave.

"Okay...that was easier than I anticipated." Peter tells Kara.

"Convincing people in musicals is really easy." Kara states.

"Yeah, and lets hope we can get out of it just as easy." Peter adds and they split up to make sure it goes all right. Peter goes with Caitlin and Kara goes with Mon-El.

-

Peter brings Caitlin back to the warehouse where Harry and the woman runs up and she removes her hat to reveal May.

"Thank god you're safe." May tells Caitlin.

"Of course I'm safe, Mom." Caitlin states.

Peter looks in shock as he puts the pieces together...if Caitlin is May's daughter, Harry is her dad...**_NOPE_**. He's not thinking about that. **_EVER!!!_**

"Peter and Kara told me you sent them to find me." Caitlin tells them.

"We were concerned." Harry tells her.

"Guys, there's no reason to be concerned." Caitlin assures them. "But...There is something that I need to tell you. I'm in love!" She tells them.

"Who is the lucky boy?" May asks her.

"Um...Marvin Moran." Caitlin tells them.

"You mean Cutter Moran's kid?" Harry asks her in shock.

"Dad, look, we're in love." Caitlin tells him.

"The hell you are. He's a hooligan. His father's a hooligan." May informs her.

"You're not loving that boy." Harry adds on.

"Well, She isn't a little girl, you know." Peter tells May and Harry as they look to him with daggers for eyes. "She's incredible, brave, and doesn't take no for an answer. And she wants to be with him. No matter how scared she was to tell you, no matter how difficult it was to be with him, all that matters, is that they're together. And when you find someone like that, you...you push everything else to the side and focus on them. No matter what tries to stand in your way. That's been made clear to me now." He realizes knows he shouldn't be juggling everything and Caitlin.

Caitlin and him should be doing this together, and working together. Not pushing her away to help her, but having her there by his side, like always.

-

"Have you lost your mind?" Malcom asks Mon-El after he told his father the news. "She is the daughter of my enemy. Digsy Foss is a dirty, rotten scoundrel, and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

"Dad, if you just let me explain." Mon-El asks of him.

"There's nothing to explain, Marvin. I knew you were keeping something from me. I never imagined it was something like this." Malcom states.

"I think you're being a little tough on your son." Kara tells Malcom.

"Excuse me?" Malcom asks her.

"Well, it's obvious why he didn't tell you right away. I mean, look at how you're reacting. Maybe if you just listen and-and hear his reasons and try seeing things from his point of view...maybe you'd understand why he didn't tell you before now." Kara says and realizes what she just said.

-

"Baby girl, it's just...you'll never understand what it means to be a parent." Harry tells Caitlin.

"My darling, we've always taken care of you. We just want you to be happy." May adds on.

As they talk, Peter hears Guatemala stringing and look to see someone on the guitar and knows a song is starting.

"_Velvet, I can wish you for the collar of your coat._" Harry starts singing and Peter is surprised to hear he has a great voice. "_And fortune smiling all along your way. But more I cannot wish you. Then to find your love. Your own true love this day._"

"_Mansions, I can wish you. Seven footmen, all in red._" May starts singing. "_And calling cards upon a silver tray. But more I cannot wish you. Than to wish you find your love. Your own true love this day._"

Then the two parents start singing together. "_Standing there. Gazing at you. With the sheep's eye. And a licorice tooth._"

"_Music I can wish you._" Malcom starts singing at the club. "_Merry music while you're young. And wisdom when your hair has turned to gray. But more I cannot wish you than to wish you find your love. Your own true love this day._"

"_With a sheep's eye. And a licorice tooth._" The three of them start singing in sync. "_And the strong arms to carry you away. And the strong arms to carry you away._..." they finish singing and hug their children.

-

"Thanks for telling us the truth." Harry tells Caitlin and she's happy that it went better than she expected and leaves to see how it went for Mon-El.

"Thanks." May tells Peter.

"Okay...I'll make like a tree and leave." Peter says not wanting to spend another minute thinking about the two of them and leaves.

"So what do we do?" Harry asks May.

"Gather up the boys. We're going to war." May tells her husband and they walk off.

The same thing happened at the nightclub as Malcom has declared war as well.

-

Reality.

Caitlin and Mon-El come face to face with Music Meister whos inside the pipeline.

"Well, well, well...if it isn't the two people I was hoping would visit me the most. The ice queen and the ex boyfriend." Music Meister says.

"Fix them. Now." Caitlin commands him.

"I'm sorry. I can't." Music Meister tells her.

"If you ever want to get out of that cell, that's exactly what you're gonna do." Mon-El tells him.

Music Meister just chuckles as they don't understand. "That's just not how it works. My power don't work that way."

"You're the one who did it and you can't undo it?" Mon-El clarifies.

"They are the ones who are in control of what happens to them now, as are the two of you."

"What do you mean by that?" Caitlin asks him.

"How much...do you love him, Caitlin? What would you give up for just one more minute with him?" Music Meister asks and Caitlin remembers that's what she told Peter about what she used to do with Ronnie.

"And you, Mon-El, how much do you love her?" Music Meister asks him regarding Kara. "So the question is: is your Love strong enough to save them? You want them back from where they are, then go get them. You have that power. I just can't tell you. You gotta figure it out yourself. If you don't mind, I'm just gonna chill in this nicely decorated cell of yours." He says and the two walk off.

-

Musical.

"Okay, so what is there left to do?" Peter wonders, knowing musicals don't just stop. "We got them to tell their fathers that they're in love."

"Which, I know we're in a musical and everything, but seeing Mon-El in love with someone else was..." Kara says while trying to find the words.

"Yeah, it was hard to see." Peter agrees.

"Ah, there you are." Winn says as he approaches them. "You two ready?"

"Ready for...?" Peter asks.

"For rehearsal, you dolt." Winn informs him. "The boss said you had more songs in your repertoire."

"We have to finish the musical." Kara realizes and that's how they escape.

"Do you know anything original?" Peter asks Winn.

"As a matter of fact, I've been working on something all day." Winn says and goes to the piano and starts playing.

"Okay..." Peter says and starts trying to find the words. "_At time's like these. When life is getting me down. And the world seems like it's gonna end-ship. There's at least one power that we both still have. And that's the power of..."_

"Friendship?" Kara guesses.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I was gonna say." Peter agrees.

"Yeah, it's an easy rhyme." Kara states.

"_I'm your super friend,_" Peter says and Kara laughs while he starts doing a tap dance. "_Your super friend. I'll be there in the nick of time, if you're ever in a spot._"

Kara then gets up and joins him in dancing. "_And if you're not there in time, you have a friend who can go back in time and give it another shot._" She sings.

"Actually, he's not supposed to be doing that. But I have a feeling he's going to be doing it still." Peter tells her as he stops dancing.

"Oh." Kara sees.

"Sing!" Peter tells her doing a twirl.

"_I'm your super friend._" Kara sings. "_super friend._"

"_When you need a compliment, I can rattle off a dozen. For instance, I have to say I'm not impressed...by your more famous cousin._" Peter tells her.

"Thank you! No one ever says that." Kara states to him before passing him a hat.

"_I'm your super friend_." They both start singing.

"_When it comes to buddies, pal, you're the best._" Kara tells him while sliding past.

"_I love you more than the spider I wear on my chest._" Peter sings as they both dance with the beat and hats.

"_If you're ever sad...I'll bring you flowers._" Kara sings, doing a soprano at the end.

"_And you can list soprano as one of your powers._" Peter compliments.

_"If you're ever broke..._"

"_I've got the cash._"

The two then crash down on a couch in the room.

"_On my shoulder._.." Kara waits for him.

"_You're welcome to cry._" Peter adds.

"_And if you ever need a hand..._"

"_I'll find the time to swing on by._" Peter says as he puts an arm around her shoulder.

"Peter!" Kara complains, loving this side of her friend she rarely sees. Even when it's not him, she knows that deep down her Peter can have as much as this one does.

"What? That was funny." Peter defends as she gets up.

Later they're back on the stage together and singing the same thing.

_"I'm your super...That has a double meaning friend!" _Peter and Kara finish singing.

-

Out back, the two families have have started going to war with each other.

Peter and Kara run out and see them shooting and tries to stop them when he gets shot in the chest.

"Peter!" Kara cries out, seeing he's hurt and runs to him before getting shot herself.

-

Reality.

"Something's happening to them!" May says as she's trying to figure out what it is but there's nothing wrong physically.

"Can you stop it?" J'onn asks.

"Not if I don't know why." Caitlin tells him.

"Then what're we going to do?" Peter-38 asked softly looking at his only friend in pain and he can't help her.

May stared at the two figures, then at Mon-El, then at Caitlin. "You guys need to go to whatever world they're in," she realized.

HR pointed a triumphant drumstick at her, and then paused. "_How_ are we going to do that?" He wonders.

Caitlin paused her search of the monitors. There was nothing to see anyway.

"He-he said that if we loved them we could save them wherever they are," Caitlin said, following where May's' idea was heading. "Cisco, you can vibe us there."

"I don't think it works that way." Cisco murmured.

"You sent Iris into the Speedforce. You brought Wally, Peter and Barry into the future." Caitlin stared at him pleadingly, her hand on Peter's arm as he continued to jerk around on the mattress. "You can do this, too."

"What is she talking about?" J'onn demanded. "What's a vibe?"

"I'll explain later," Cisco deflected, grabbing his vibe-glasses from the table and sliding them onto his face. "Come on, just grab on to my shoulders."

Caitlin hurried around the table, nodding at Iris to keep on eye on the monitors, and gripped both Peter and Cisco's shoulders.

"Let's hope this works," Cisco murmured.

-

Peter and Kara were bleeding out in the street when a breach opens as Caitlin and Mon-El appear.

"Peter!" Caitlin shouts seeing the man she loves on the floor bleeding and races over to him as Mon-El does the same for Kara. "No, no. It's me, Peter. I'm here." She assures him.

"Stay with me, I'm gonna get you out." Mon-El tells Kara.

"There's no time." Kara tells him.

"We have to go! We have to get them out of here." Mon-El tells Caitlin and she looks that there isn't a way out of here.

"Come on, Peter stay with me." Caitlin begs of him.

"I'm sorry...I made you feel unimportant...you're my whole world...Caitlin Snow." Peter tells her as he passes.

"I love you, Peter. More than anything or anyone." Caitlin says before kissing him.

-

The next thing they know, they end up waking back up in the labs with Kara and Mon-El close behind.

"They're back!" HR cheers.

They then start hearing clapping and turn to see Music Meister has escaped.

"Bravo! Round of applause! Standing O. That was so good!" Music Meister tells them. "I loved it. That was a hell of a show. And you two...I guess your love really was strong enough after all." He tells Caitlin and Mon-El.

"Man! How did you get out of the cell?" Cisco asks him.

"Cisco, do you really think that cell is gonna just hold me like that?" Meister asks him.

"I'm sorry, what just happened? Why did you do this?" Peter asks, completely confused.

"I did this because I believe in the good guys. I told you at the beginning, it was to teach you a lesson. All three of you." Music Meister explains pointing to the three heroes. Peter, his doppelgänger and Kara. "'Cause I see everything, and I saw two Spider-Men that needed a push for opposite reasons, but with the same problem. Two spiders. Two broken hearts. You were pushing someone you love away, and you were clinging onto someone who's gone."

"So the lesson was..?" Kara asks.

"Love, Supergirl. Love is about...letting yourself be saved. Not just saving other people and emotions." Music Meister explains to them. "Anyway, I'm sorry that I had to mess with you. I was just trying to get you to play the game, do the song and dance."

"Wait, are you from another earth? The multiverse? Or whatever." May asks.

"Yeah, you wouldn't be able to comprehend where I'm from." Music Meister informs her. "Anyway, Spidey, remember...it's time to move on." He informs Peter-38 and starts leaving.

"Wait, wait. That's all?" Peter-38 asks.

"Yeah, that's it. _Think of your fellow man. Put a little love in your heart_." Meister sings before vanishing in front of their eyes.

"That was freaky." Miles states and HR agrees.

-

"Wait, so, let me get this straight...you got knocked unconscious by some guy you named Music Meister and thrown into a musical?" Cisco asks Peter.

"I'd pay money to hear Spider-Man sing a broadway musical." Barry states to him.

"I have a feeling not many people would care for that." Peter replies.

J'onn just looks over to Peter-38. "Can you sing?" He asks his friend.

"Not on your life will you ever hear me sing." Peter-38 warns him.

"Well, if you're anything like your doppelgänger here you're holding out. He's really good." Kara states.

"He does." Caitlin agree. "I actually seen him sing." She says remembering that karaoke night.

"Wait you have? How have we not made a GIF of that?" Cisco wonders.

"Technically, I'm not the only one here who can sing." Peter says looking to Kara.

"Thank you PP." HR says.

"I was referring to Kara." Peter explains.

"Of course Kara can sing." Cisco states.

"Her name is Supergirl." May states.

"Well, we better get going home. Promised Alex I'd get Kara back in one piece." J'onn tells them.

"What do you think? You and Caitlin getting back together?" Kara wonders and Peter sees she's gone.

"I've got something I need to tell her. I finally know what to say." Peter states.

-

He returns to his home and sees Caitlin is there waiting for him.

"See you got my text." Peter starts off.

"I couldn't bring myself to ignore you. I was thinking back to that karaoke night at the bar...before all this craziness." Caitlin tells him.

"...I've been trying to find a way to make it up to you. Everything up to you." Peter explains why he hasn't called her.

"And..?"

Peter smiles and pulls his phone out and plays a piano melody.

_"Paralyzed...By a terror in my dream's. But I can't wake up. No, I can't wake up. Erase my mind. 'Cuz my conscience, it won't sleep. Like it's all my fault. Is it all my fault?_" He asks as he starts walking closer towards Caitlin.

_"Failures not an outcome we are used to. Reality don't care about what we lose...But I won't say forever. So I won't ever say is through. 'Cause maybe if I try to leave it all behind, I'll find a journey back to you._" He says as Caitlin is surprise to how much effort he put into what he wanted to tell her.

_"We may be out of time together. But I got nothing left to lose. So maybe if I try to leave it all behind, I'll find a journey back to you. Back to you. Can't just forget it all, that's a power in don't have. Did I give enough? Did I give enough? Yeah the mountain's tall. But there's a space to take a chance. Oh, I won't give up. No, I won't give up. Failures not an outcome we are used to. But I know my soul's get something left to prove."_ He tells her as he comes face to face with Caitlin and takes her hands into his.

_"I won't ever say forever. No, I won't ever say it's trough. 'Cause maybe if I try to leave it all behind, I'll find a journey back to you. We maybe out of time together. But I got nothing left to lose. So maybe if I try to leave it all behind, I'll find a journey back to you. Back to you...Back to you...Back to you. I won't ever say forever...No, I won't ever say it's trough. 'Cause maybe if I try to left behind. I'll find a journey back to you."_ He promises her.

Caitlin looks up with tears in her eyes and pulls him into a kiss, sealing the unspoken agreement they're back together.

Whatever problems they face, they do it together.

Caitlin has made a unspoken promise to not hurt Peter ever again, no matter what.

Peter makes a promise to protect Caitlin with all the power he has, no matter who or what she is or whoever stands in his way.

Peter Parker and Caitlin Snow are always in it together.

Now and forever.

———————————

_**the song Peter sings to Caitlin if you're interested is titled "Journey Back To You" by Nerdout and a**__**ll credit goes to them.**_


	62. I hate magic

Cisco was checking the future and it's still the same, Peter bleeding, Barry trying to save Iris and failing.

"Everything's stillthe same. The future has not changed." Cisco tells them.

"All right. Well, we have two months to make sure that it does." Barry says.

"Okay, well, we should approach this the same way we approach any other problem. Start with what we know." Caitlin tells them. "Problem can't be solved if it's not understood."

"Therein lies the rub. I feel like we can't understand any of this until it actually happens. It's like Savitar's prophecies." Cisco says.

"And just like the newspaper headlines, they've all already happened or have been changed...all except one." Peter says looking at the last one.

Killer Frost still at large

Peter swore that he would change Caitlin's fate, no matter what. And there is nothing that's going to stop him from saving her.

Barry and Joe get called in to a crime scene and leaves the couple and Cisco.

"Oh, Cait, before I forget, I got us tickets to the Central City opera." Peter tells Caitlin.

"The opera?" Cisco asks.

"Yeah, Cait and I talked about it once and she mentioned she never gone before, and it seemed since I've finally got more money than I really need, I can afford them." Peter explains and pulls Caitlin into a quick kiss before leaving.

"It's nice to see the two of you patched things up." Cisco tells Caitlin.

"Yeah, it's great to have things back to normal." Caitlin says when their phones go off and they're a robbery in progress. "Looks like it's time for Spider-Man to get back into action."

-

Peter swings over to Korg Industries where Barry meets up with him.

"Hey, I beat you by the way." Peter tells Barry.

Barry just laughs when they look up and see some old man walking down the stairway.

"I don't think that's yours, buddy." Peter tells him.

"The Flash and Spider-Man?" He asks them.

"You thought we didn't want to be the welcoming party to the newest resident of Iron Heights?" Barry asks.

"No, I assumed you two would show. I just didn't expect the two of you to be so...young and working together. Barry Allen and Peter Parker." He says and shocks the heroes.

"How do you know our names?" Peter asks and sees he's holding a device in his hands.

"I'm from the future." He explains and pulls out a hanky. "You don't believe me? Let's see, 2017. How are things going with the two of your loved ones, Iris west and Caitlin Snow? Or as I know her, Killer Frost. Or your greatest foe, Savitar?" He asks and makes the device in his hand disappear.

"You know Savitar." Barry sees.

"I know everything about him, and the two of you." He states and Barry speeds at him but when he grabs his hand, it comes off to reveal a fake hand.

"What the hell?" Barry asks when he flashes a light in front of Barry and a breach opens and Gypsy steps out before blasting their crook.

"Still seeking revenge, I see, Gypsy." He tells her.

"I'm gonna get it this time." Gypsy promises.

"We'll see." He says and pulls out a stack of cards.

Peter shoots out a web at him as Barry races to him through the cards but the web hits the doors and Barry misses as he vanishes.

"This is a new one." Peter says.

-

"He call's himself Abra Kadabra." Gypsy tells them as they return to Star labs.

"As in hocus pocus?" Caitlin asks.

"He's certainly got a lot of tricks up his sleve." Barry comments.

"He would put Mysterio to shame, that's for sure." Peter says.

"Yeah, we think he has some sort of nanotechnology built into his body, allowing him to do some extraordinary feats. Teleportation, Telekinesis, you name it, and believe me, I have seen it all." Gypsy continues to explain.

"So that card trick he did, the water tank, that's futuristic technology?" May asks.

"Well, it's Arthur C. Clarke's third law." Caitlin tells her. "_Any sufficiently advanced technology is_..."

"_Indistinguishable from magic_." Peter finishes the quote.

"You two think like one mind, and it's creepy." Cisco tells the two.

"Before you appeared, he said he was from the future." Barry says.

"He is, 64th century." Gypsy confirms.

"Great. Can't the future's problems stay in the future?" Peter wonders.

"What are you after him for?" Joe wonders.

"He's at the top of the Collectors' most wanted list. Showed up on my Earth a few years back, did a string of robberies that ended with a lot of people loosing their lives. Our heroes were able to stop him only by getting rid of him. But he showed up once again a few weeks ago, looted some tech companies, came here." Gypsy tells them.

"And he seems to be doing the same here. So he must need the technology for something." Caitlin puts together.

"Well, whatever it is, we can definitely help you figure it out. 'Cause I don't know about you guys, but ever since last time you were here, I've been looking forward to some Gypsy-Vibe action." Cisco tells her.

"That's way too much." Joe says.

"Embarrassing." Iris agrees.

"Yeah, I just want to catch him so I can bring his ass back to Earth-19 and put him down." Gypsy states.

"Don't worry. We can help you do that." Cisco assures her.

"We should see if Julian's gotten anything." Joe tells Barry and he leaves.

"In the meantime, I think I know how to find where this guy disappeared to." Cisco says and he takes Gypsy with him.

Peter smiles at maybe his friend getting someone and looks to Barry and sees he's thinking.

"Wanna fill me in on what's going on with you, speedy?" Peter asks him.

"This guy knows what's happening between us and the people we love. If he knows something about Savitar, he might be the key to saving them." Barry explains to him.

"Maybe. But, we still need to find him." Peter says.

-

They get an alert that now Abra has made his way to one of the Parker Industries locations and they all make their way their.

Abra was walking down the halls and comes face to face with Peter.

"Man, you can't help yourself, can you?" Peter asks him. "But you should have known this place would have a Spider-Guard on standby."

Barry and Wally come speeding in behind Abra as Cisco and Gypsy appear on his left.

"You brought the whole team this time? That wasn't very smart, was it?" Abra asks.

"Oh, this guy sucks." Cisco states. "I can see why you want to bring him down so badly." He tells Gypsy.

"Do yourself a favor, and give yourself up." Wally tells him. "There's nowhere for you to go."

"You can't out-trick all of us." Gypsy informs him and the two vibe masters shoots at him and the blasts go through him.

"I think I just did." Abra says before the hologram shuts down.

"I hate magic." Peter states.

-

At Star labs, Miles came in after hearing of the attacks to offer his assistance.

"Upon further expecting, there was some strange residue that was found at Stagg Industries." Caitlin says showing what's she found.

"That's the nanotechnology that Gypsy was talking about." Joe tells her.

"What's it made of?" Miles wonders, interested to how that works.

"It's definitely organic, but it has some metallic hydrogen properties. It's-" Caitlin was saying when Abra appeared in the labs.

"Beyond your understanding." Abra says as Joe and Miles getting ready to attack.

"You make a move, you'll regret it." Joe tells him.

"Do you know how many times I've heard that, detective?" Abra asks and Joe's gun squirts water.

Miles tries to take him with his webs but the start shooting green smoke instead of webbing.

"Told you." Abra says and causes an explosion.

"Go, go, go!" Joe tells them and they all run into the labs. "Guys, move to the side." He tells Miles and Caitlin as Abra walks in.

Joe grabs Harry's gun and blasts Abra but he vanishes at the last second. But Miles was able to sense where he was long to appear and quickly punches him in the face, sending him flying across the room.

Barry and the others return as Abra gets handcuffed by Barry.

"Everyone okay?" Barry asks them.

"Magic or tech, doesn't matter. Those are designed to keep people like you stuck." Peter informs Abra.

"Maybe not. But if you let me him I will tell you Savitar's greatest secret." Abra bargains with the heroes. "The key to defeating him...the key to stopping him. I know who he is. I know his name." He tells them as Gypsy comes back.

"Hand him over." She tells the heroes and Barry quickly knocks him out.

-

They bring Abra into the pipeline and made a deal so that they can get the information they need, and then he goes with Gypsy.

"What do you know about Savitar?" Peter asks him.

"I know everything about the God of Speed, hallowed be his name." Abra confirms.

"Like what?" Barry asks.

"That he's unstoppable, he was the first speedster, and that you two defeat him, but not until he takes what matters most to the two of you. The loves of your lives." Abra tells them.

"Tell us who he is, now!" Iris commands him as if a criminal like him is gonna break because he was told to.

"I don't think so. It's frustrating, isn't it, knowing that you're gonna die and this team of yours is going to fall apart unless I give you what you want. All that power, all that knowledge, and yet neither of you are good enough."

"This isn't a game or a trick. This is about my daughter's life." Joe says.

"And it's my life if you hand me over to that Collector." Abra informs him. "It's simple. Let me out, and I'll tell you who Savitar is. Give me to Gypsy, Iris dies, and your dear Caitlin becomes Killer Frost."

Peter just quickly closes the doors before walking off, not knowing what to do. He would do anything in order to save Caitlin...but letting him out would go up against everything Spider-Man stands for.

Caitlin was in the med labs, patching up Miles from the blast.

"Hey, how's the Spiderling doing?" Peter asks her.

"A few bumps and bruises that will go away in under a hour or so." Caitlin assures him.

"I told you, I'm fine." Miles says.

"Come on, skedaddle, Miles, I'll find you later if you wanna train, but rest up for now. I gotta talk to Caitlin." Peter tells Miles and he takes off.

Peter explains what went on in the pipeline and her answer is exactly what Peter expected.

"You're not considering letting out a criminal so you can find a way to save me, are you?" Caitlin asks him.

"No, of course not. But...I have a feeling Barry isn't going to take that chance." Peter admits. "I just want to do everything I can if it means to stop the future from happening." He tells her and Caitlin pulls him into a hug.

"We're gonna stop this, Peter. I know you would do anything to keep me safe." Caitlin says but wasn't sure herself.

On one hand, it seemed like Abra had hurt a lot of people. He deserved to be locked up just as much as any other metahuman. But the information he could give them...wouldn't stopping Savitar save even more lives that stopping the technological magician?

Their thoughts however are interrupted when their alerts go off.

"Abra is loose in the building." Peter says and they run off to find him.

Abra was currently in the time vault and stole a device from Thawne's case.

"_He's headed for the elevator!_" Cisco's voice tells them and they all race to stop him.

Abra makes a small bomb appear in his hands.

"Move!" Joe says and he throws the bomb and it throws everything and everyone backwards.

Peter quickly gets up and fights off the pain his senses are in and sees Caitlin is trapped underneath the container.

"Caitlin! You okay?" Peter asks her as he lifts it off of her.

"I'm okay. I'm okay." Caitlin assures him when Peter gets her free and sees she has a pole buried inside of her side.

She starts groaning, almost unintelligible in her pain, and Peter feels that nausea rising in his throat. "It's okay," he whispered over and over, grabbing her hand so she had something to squeeze. "It's okay."

"Grab the-the x-ray machine, grab it!" May tells Cisco, stumbling over her words in her haste to get them out.

Cisco dove across the room and yanked the x-ray over Caitlin. Peter took it from him and held it over Caitlin's middle section.

The pole that had impaled her had broken off, but as May now saw, there were pieces of shrapnel now imbedded in Caitlin's skin.

"It's-this is bad." May breathed. "There's-there's quite a bit of shrapnel in there and some deep enough to pierce your kidney if not removed immediately."

May removed the x-ray and Cisco hurriedly passed Barry a cloth to press to the wound. Peter pushed down, trying to block out Caitlin whimpers of pain.

"Guys, we have to get her to a hospital," Iris said gravely.

"We can't, they're gonna ID her as a meta." Cisco informs her.

"Yeah, and not just any meta," Wally added, shaking his head. "One they have a file on for attacking CCPD."

"Then what are we going to do? I'm not qualified as a surgical professional." May tells them.

"We do have another option," Cisco said softly. "When Caitlin goes meta, her metabolic rate offsets cold tissue destruction. She could regenerate."

"No!" Caitlin croaked, squeezing Peter's hand and forcing him to look at her as she looked at him and May. "We're not going to take of my necklace! I don't need a hospital. All I need is a mirror and set of steady hands." She tore her gaze away from May and stared hard at Peter. "Your hands are steady, right?"

Peter shook his head desperately, sweat trickling down his temple. "What? No, I-I've never operated on anyone before. I didn't go to med school for a reason."

Caitlin shook her head. Her face was almost as pale as it got when she turned into Killer Frost, dark circles underneath her eyes the only color left besides her lips.

"That's okay, I'll walk you through it." Caitlin promises him.

"Caitlin," Cisco interjected. "You're talking about staying awake during your own surgery."

"I'm putting my life in your hands," Caitlin said to Peter desperately. "I trust you."

Peter sees that just like he did with her, she trusts him with her life. He'll do anything for her...even at the cost of fainting.

Which at this point seems most likely scenario for this to end.

-

It didn't take them too long to prepare Caitlin for surgery. Cisco hooked Caitlin up to as many pain meds a possible without knocking her out.

Caitlin helped him keep pressure on the injury to try and staunch the blood flow until Peter could start operating on her. May gathered a couple of swabs to keep the blood away from the wound once the surgery started, and Peter prepared the tools (and himself) for what he was about to do.

Once Peter was back in the room, Caitlin took a deep breath. "You ready?"

If possible, Peter seemed more nervous then her. "Ready as I'll ever be," Peter breathed, readying his tools. "If I faint, remember, I chose not to become a doctor for this reason." He warns her, trying to make light of the situation.

"Let's start with the shrapnel near the surface." Caitlin instructed.

"Just...let me know if I do anything wrong, okay?" Peter begs as he pressed his tweezers to the top of the gash and Caitlin let out a small "ah" of pain.

"That's the first bit, well done." May tells him reported, and the tiny piece of metal plinked off of his tweezers and into the bowl he had beside him.

May pressed the cotton swabs to Caitlin's wound as more blood seeped out, soaking it up so it wouldn't get in Peter's way.

"Okay..." Peter breathed, and pulled out another piece.

Caitlin gritted her teeth, hissing in pain, as a giant glob of blood spurted out with the piece. "Whoa, whoa whoa whoa," Iris called out. "Is there supposed to be this much blood?"

"It's normal for...the shrapnel to...cavitate the displaced tissue," Caitlin managed. "But if I loose to much blood I'll start hemorrhaging."

"Okay," Peter said again, and hurriedly pulled out the third piece of shrapnel. He found his entire body was trembling and took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. It was going to be fine. It was going to be perfectly fine. God, he was gonna pass out.

"Alright, nearly done, hang in there," Peter said supportively as he reached for another piece.

Caitlin chomped down on her lip and let out a small cry as the audible sound of moving flesh filled the air. Julian quickly placed the shrapnel into the bole. "Okay, well done. That's all the pieces near the surface."

"Okay, great, now it's time for the hard one," Caitlin said, somehow still managing to sound calm and in control. "You're doing great. You've got this, Peter. It's wedged between my kidney and my inferior vena cava and it's surrounded by some major blood vessels. If you hit them, there's a good chance I'll go into shock."

Peter swallowed audibly, shooting her a glance. "Shock."

"It's okay," Caitlin said again. "You've got this."

Peter nodded and carefully reached for the shrapnel.

"Ahhh..." Caitlin groaned, her face going almost grey.

"Heart rates increasing," May murmured. She was rigid, eyes on the monitor.

"Okay, I've got it."Peter reported.

"Great, pull it out!" Caitlin croaked.

"I can't, Caitlin, it's stuck." Peter gritted out, his hands trembling violently.

"_Turn it_." Caitlin tells him.

"Guys, it's getting up there," Cisco said, the volume of his voice rising dangerously.

"There might be a tendon in the way." Caitlin said.

Barry hated to lose any sort of optimism that he team might have felt, but someone had to ask. "And what if it's not?"

"Then I will rip this necklace off," Cisco said, his jaw working.

"_NO_," Caitlin said firmly, glaring at him. "I would rather die."

The room was silent for a moment, filled only by the rapid beeps of the heart monitor and the rustle of the medical gown as she pressed more gauze to the wound.

Peter locked eyes with the woman on the bed. "Caitlin," he said softly. "This is going to hurt. I'm so sorry."

He twisted his wrist and pulled and Caitlin let out a scream. Blood gushed from the wound and May hurriedly pressed a disposable towel to Caitlin's skin to try and stop the flow.

Caitlin's head flopped back to the pillows and she let out a very long breath through her teeth. She made eye contact with Peter again, her eyelids fluttering. "Can you please stitch me up because I think I need to pass out."

"Yes, yes, of course. I can do that." May mumbled as she reached for the needle and began his work.

Right before her eyes slipped shut, Caitlin exchanged a glance with Peter. "I love you," he managed, and she smiled faintly before dropping into unconsciousness.

Peter, Iris, Barry and Cisco all filed into the small branching room from the Cortex, where Joe and Wally were waiting.

May stripped off his latex gloves and let out a long breath. "She's going to be okay."

"Oh thank God," Joe murmured, rubbing his forehead.

"That was amazing you guys." Barry tells the Parker's.

"Seriously. Peter Parker and May Parker, MD." Cisco congrats the two.

"Hey, I think I know why Abra's been stealing all that tech, to build a time machine." Gypsy tells them when they suddenly heard a thump and turn to see Peter passed out on the floor.

"Gonna be honest, he held out longer than I thought he would." May admits.

-

After the speedsters (with the addition of Gypsy) had caught Abra Kadabra, and Peter had resisted the urge to beat the living heck out of him when he woke up and Kadabra was brought in for what he had done to Caitlin.

For now, the spider found himself back at Caitlin's side. She was still out, pain meds, exhaustion and her body's recovery keeping her down longer then any of them had expected.

As he watched her sleep, her eyelids began to flicker, and slowly Caitlin turned towards him.

Peter leaned forward, squeezing her hand lightly. "Hey."

Caitlin licked her lips a little and swallowed. "I'm still here."

"Yeah," Peter breathed. "I wasn't going to let you get away that easy."

"Kadabra?" She asked.

"Gone," Peter assured her. "He's gone for good."

Caitlin smiled softly at him, and Peter reached out to touch her face. "How do you feel?"

"Mm...I've been better," Caitlin admitted. "I've also been worse. Like earlier today."

"That's fair," Peter murmured, huffing out a laugh at her attempts of humor. "I can't believe what you did, Caitlin," he said softly. "I mean...staying awake during your own surgery, that's one thing, but managing to stay calm and collected...even more so then the rest of us. You just...you blew me away. I mean, I knew you were brave, and I knew you were strong but...this is at a new level."

Caitlin smiled gently at him, and Peter stood up, leaning over her and brushing their lips together. His hand slipped unconsciously to her side, and Caitlin gasped a little.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry," Peter stuttered, hurriedly pulling away. "That's was...I'm so sorry."

Caitlin shook her head, amused. "That's some bedside manner you've got there."

Peter snickered. "Well, you're the one who gets all the practice taking care of me, not the other way around." He smiled down at her and took hold of her hand again, kissing the fingertips. "Anything I can get you?"

"Some jello would be nice." Caitlin says and Peter brings her some lime flavored jello.

"Sorry, were out of strawberry flavor." Peter apologizes, knowing it's her favorite.

"What do you mean we're out? I bought a bunch last week." Caitlin reminds him.

"Yeah, and we have a overgrown man child who eats them all." Peter tells her. "If you need me to, I'll go get you more." He offers.

"It's fine." Caitlin assures him when HR suddenly comes in.

"They're you guys are. I've been looking all over for you." HR says when he notices Caitlin. "What are you doing in bed?"

"It's a long story, HR." Caitlin tells him.

"I have a long story." HR tells them.

"Where the heck were you all day?" Peter wonders, since he didn't see him in the labs all day.

"Her name is Rhonda, and she's into new positions-" HR was explaining when Peter places a hand over his mouth.

"That was too much information in one sentence." Peter informs him causing Caitlin to chuckle.

"Guys, don't make me laugh, or I'll burst my stitches." Caitlin warns them.

"Yeah, and I'll faint again." Peter promises.

"Is that lime jello?" HR asks.

"All yours, HR." Caitlin says and hands it to her.

"I love...the lime. I love the lime!" HR says as he leaves.

"I think he loves the lime." Peter says and Caitlin lightly chuckles to not cause any more pain when she suddenly goes silent. "Cait?" He calls out when the life support starts rapidly beeping.

"Somebody, help!" Peter calls and HR comes in with Cisco.

"What happened?!" Cisco asks as he runs in.

"I don't know, she just started seizing," Peter explained quickly. "Hold her down!"

"HR, get her legs!" Cisco ordered at the man who had just hurried back into the room. "Hold her down!"

Suddenly, Caitlin went completely still.

The whole room went completely still.

The heart monitor went silent.

Cisco tentatively held his hand over Caitlin's mouth. When he dropped it, his face was so pale Peter reached out an arm in case he fainted right then and there.

"She's not breathing," Cisco muttered, and Peter felt he had just been shot by mr. Freeze's gun he's that frozen.

"I'm getting an ambulance in here right now," HR said, scrambling for his phone.

"HR, grab the crash cart," Cisco instructed, taking charge again. "Pete, grab the oxygen. Wheel it over here!"

Peter hurriedly pressed an oxygen mask to Caitlin's face, making sure it was secure and fighting the tears that were welling up in his eyes.

"Okay," Cisco said, starting compressions on Caitlin's chest. "Slow and steady, that's it."

"What is happening?" Peter breathed.

"She may have burst a blood clot-I-I don't know." Cisco admits. "Now I wish May stayed."

"Cisco!" HR called over, searching for something to do.

"Charge the paddles!" Cisco said. "No-no actually, give me the paddles!"

Cisco rubbed them together, spun, and pressed them to Caitlin's chest. Her entire body jolted on the bed as electricity rushed from the metal and to her heart.

Peter hurriedly put back on the oxygen mask, and they waited.

Nothing.

"All the way, turn it up to the top!" Cisco commanded. "All the way!"

"Okay, you ready?" HR asks.

"Clear!" Cisco calls.

The paddles zapped again. Peter rubbed his hand through his hair. There were tears on Cisco's cheeks.

They tried twice more before the paddles clattered out of Cisco's hands.

Peter's hand shook on the oxygen mask as Cisco started compressions again. "She's coming back," Peter mumbled. "Cisco please-"

His voice broke and he fell to his knees, pressing Caitlin's hand against his lips. Her fingers were icy cold.

"She's gone," HR breathed.

Before Peter knew what he was doing, he was reaching for Caitlin's necklace. It came off easily, even as Cisco grabbed his arm. "Stop!" he cried, face wet. "That's not what she wanted!"

"I don't care!" Peter yelled. "I can't...I can't lose her too, okay?" He leaned back over the bed and cupped her face. "Okay? C'mon, Caitlin...I know you're stronger than this."

The flat-line buzzing nose continued for a second longer, before finally coming to a stop. HR turned around as a slow, steady beeping filled the air again. Peter felt a warm, tingly wave of relief crash over him, and he hurriedly reached down for Caitlin's lower stomach area, where the stitches were.

As he pulled back the bandage, a shiver of frost floated over Caitlin's skin. The scar, the stitches, the remaining red marks from the wound, all of it disappeared in seconds.

Peter glanced towards Caitlin's face, searching for some sort of sign that she was okay. Her skin underneath his fingertips felt no less warm, and when she breathed out a small puff of frost flitted away from her lips.

Suddenly, Caitlin's eyes flew open. They were ice blue. Peter's eyes widened in shock before he, Cisco and HR were suddenly thrown backward by an explosion of frost.

When he opened his eyes again, Caitlin was gone, but there was someone else standing the med lab.

Killer Frost.


	63. Betrayed

Cisco and HR were shot to the other side of the window as Peter was thrown against the wall and was knocked unconscious.

"You okay?" Cisco asks HR as they scramble to get back up.

"We...we should go." HR says as Killer Frost starts blasting more ice at them as they run through the labs. "Wait, where's Peter?"

"He can handle himself." Cisco knows as they run for it.

"_Oh, boys_..." frost calls out in a singsong voice. "Where are you?"

They make it to the pipeline and the two of them hide inside of it.

The two try calming themselves while singing _Sweet__ Chariot_ when the doors open up and they're met with Killer Frost.

"Hey, dummies. My palms can still works." Frost informs them.

"I don't want to have to do this." Cisco tells her while raising his hands to her.

"I know you don't. But I do." Frost informs them.

"Do you?" Peter's voice calls and causes Frost to flinch.

They all turn and see Peter in the walkway to the pipeline, clutching his shoulder from the attack when Frost sent him flying and he's painting from the run down to the pipeline.

"You don't wanna do this, Caitlin." Peter tells her.

"What makes you so sure of that?" Frost asks him as he walks up her and she does the same to him.

"Because you had the chance to kill me...and I watched as you hesitated. I know you. You know me...we wouldn't do anything to hurt each other." Peter says and watches as her cold eyes start to break as he sees he's right.

"You know, you should have spent more time finding a cure for what ails me." Frost tells him, trying to act cold but Peter can see right through those eyes. The eyes that show confidence to hide her fear.

"I love you, Caitlin. I would do anything for you." Peter promises while cupping her face in his hands and she's trying to mentally fight back. "You're stronger than this...stronger than her. I know you are, and I know who you are."

The moment gets interrupted by Barry speeding in and Frost pushing back their process as Frost goes cold again.

"Come to save the day, Flash?" Frost asks him. "Good, now I can get rid of all of you." She says and tries blasting him when Barry pushes her.

"No!" Peter shouts when Frost makes an ice wall and Barry phases trough it and Peter quickly uses his strength to smash it.

By the time Barry got through the building, Frost has made her escape.

-

Everyone has done anything they could to track her, but since it's snowing they can't track her cold signature.

"Maybe we should just take five." Barry offers.

"No, sorry. Not happening." Peter tells him. "Caitlin's out there. And I've gotta find her. And I have a feeling I can't do that here." He states and moves to his portion of the labs with a large bag on his shoulder.

"What?" Iris asks, confused to what he means.

"You're quitting?" Barry asks Peter as he packs his gear and suit.

"Well, let's recap the past few months shall we, Barry. You created Flashpoint, causing Wally to get powers who ends up releasing the God of Speed, you traveled to the future by accident and saw something that you just might cause to happen, and planned on letting criminals go to save one person. You released Savitar in your attempt to stop him, got Jay trapped in the Speedforce, and now Caitlin is Killer Frost because you messed with the timeline and I knew I could get through to her and you stoped me!" Peter recaps to him all the events that have occurred as he finishes packing and gets in Barry's face with anger written all over him. "You've been so focused on saving Iris, you forgot that there are other people on this planet that need protecting. We're heroes, meaning we put others first. _Everyone_ first. Not just _one_ person. When I choose to save someone, I know I can't save someone else. When you do it, you're paying god. I've been helping people _and_ been trying to save Iris for you, and guess what? I failed to save the love of my life. It's time for me to go swing solo again, focus on helping Caitlin." He says and starts leaving remembering his future self told him to choose Caitlin, maybe this is what he meant.

He's done with the _Save Iris Squad_.

Caitlin's out there and he needs to bring her back. She needs him.

"And don't bother trying to stop me." Peter warns them as he leaves.

"One of you will abandon the rest." Cisco remembers one of Savitar's prophecies.

"Okay, I can see that PP is just upset, but I think with some time, he will come back." HR says, looking for the bright side but nobody is sure about that.

"I'm gonna do this," Barry suddenly says and they look at him. "I'm gonna run to the future. He's right, we need answers and are running out of time. If I can find my future self, I can find out who Savitar is, how we defeated him. Besides, I can be back like I never even left."

-

Barry and Wally speed through the pipeline and open a portal to the future and Barry speeds into it.

Upon arrival, a newspaper flies into his face and Barry takes a look and sees its February 3rd, 2024.

"I made it." Barry says and needs to find himself.

"What is it, throwback Thursday?" Top asks and Barry looks to see her and as soon as he looks, she uses her powers on him and he gets dizzy. "Haven't seen that outfit in a while, have we, honey?"

Mirror Master also appears as Barry falls to the ground.

"Haven't seen him in a while, either." Mirror says. "Guess we get to relive the past. Kick his ass like we used to."

"Sorry, not gonna happen." A voice says and they turn to get punched in the face with electricity flowing through him, knocking him out.

Barry looks up and sees an older Miles Morales in his Spider-Man suit.

"Don't you ever give up, Spider-Man?" Top asks.

"Sorry, the names _Ultimate_ Spider-Man. Spider-Man is the original guy." Miles says and quickly tries webbing her when Mirror Master helps her escape trough a puddle on the ground. "Flash. It's been a long time." He greets the speedster.

"Miles?" Barry asks. "What happened?"

-

Barry and Miles return to his home and he sees that nobody has been here in a while.

Barry moves a few things and sees a picture of him, Iris and Joe.

"I thought you were messing with me, Miles." A older voice of Cisco says and Barry looks to see Cisco with his hair in a bun.

"Cisco?" Barry asks as his friend walks up to him and pulls him into a hug.

"I had a feeling, sent Miles to check on it. It was a feeling I haven't felt in a long time." Cisco says. "This is no accident, was it?"

"I came here for some information. And then I'm going back." Barry tells him.

"Time travel. You say something, you might mess something else up, right? Don't worry, my powers of deduction have improved since 2017." Cisco says and starts trying to remember who they were fighting back then. "Savitar."

"I need to talk to me. Do you guys know where he is?" Barry asks them.

"Where else?" Miles asks.

-

The three of them go into Star labs and sees it hasn't been taken care of.

"So, HR stopped the Star labs museum?" Barry asks them.

"HR went on to other things." Miles tells him.

"Caitlin?"

"Once she became Killer Frost, nobody could stop her. Peter, being the believer and spark of light he is never gave up on her. But he gave up on you." Cisco informs Barry.

"Why did he give up on me?" Barry wonders.

"Because you constantly stoped him from helping Caitlin, you kept him around by saying if you save Iris, Caitlin will snap out. He says you used him for his abilities...and it didn't end well for either side." Miles states.

"So I shut down this place?" Barry asks.

"My friend, you shut everything down. Star labs, team Spider-Flash, you didn't want any of us around. So you pushed us away." Cisco tells him. "You said it was because of what we represented. That we were a constant reminder to you of what you lost."

"But you kept forgetting you weren't the only one who lost something." Miles adds.

"Where is Peter anyway?" Barry asks Miles.

"Where isn't he?" Miles rephrased his question. "He stopped being Spider-Man ever since the Sinister Six broke his back. Focused on the Industries. He left everything about Spider-Man to me."

They get off the elevator and Barry starts looking through the halls and they're not going .

"You're not coming with me?" Barry asks.

"Shouldn't even be here." Cisco says and Barry walks over to find himself and they leave.

-

Barry walk through the halls and find everything in the speed lab is broken and shattered.

"Why are you here?" Barry hears himself ask and turns to see his older self. He looks older as obvious as that is, but his hair has brown out to look like some emo Barry.

"I need your help." Barry tells him as he steps into the light.

"You're from before she dies, aren't you?" Future Barry asks himself. "You can't save her." He states.

"I can. And I'm going to." Barry tells him.

"No, you can't. Go home." Future Barry replies to him.

"Just tell me who's in the suit. All right? That's all I need. You tell me that, we'll be able to track him down. We'll learn his weakness. We'll stop him before he even tries. Just tell me who he is." Barry asks of himself.

"I can't tell you." Future Barry tells him.

"What? Why?"

"Because I don't know the answer. Sorry you ran all this way for nothing. Want some advice, spend as much time with Iris as you can. Because pretty soon...you'll never see her again." He informs Barry before walking off.

Barry starts making his way to the pipeline with Cisco and Miles on his tail.

"You sure you can't stay?" Cisco asks Barry.

"I'm not gonna get what I came for." Barry tells them as he enters the pipeline.

"Barry, there are more villains in this city and Spider-Man is the only hero we have left." Cisco tries talking to Barry.

"Well, Cisco...I can't. I'm sorry. It's good to see you both in any time, Okay?" Barry tells them and speeds off.

They watch as he speeds off and tries to open a portal but nothing's happening.

"What's wrong?" Miles asks as Barry returns.

"I can't open a portal. I'm trapped." Barry tells them. "What's wrong? Why can't I open a portal?"

"I'm not sure. We don't have the telemetry of the suit." Cisco tells him.

"Well, we gotta figure this out. I have to get back." Barry tells him.

"We're gonna get you home, man. Don't worry." Miles assures him.

"But good news...you can always go back to the same moment when you left, no matter how long you're here for." Cisco assures him.

"Maybe it was Scutter or Dillon." Barry guesses. "They seemed a little different than the last time I fought them."

"I mean, look around. Everything's changed." Miles reminds him.

"Maybe this means we could get the team back together." Cisco says.

"Why haven't the two of you done that?" Barry asks.

"We've tried. Believe me, we tried everything." Cisco states. "But Caitlin isn't the only thing Killer Frost took." He says and pulls off his gloves to show his hands are gone.

In that fight that 2017 Cisco predicted, Frost fought him and froze his hands off and Cisco got some robot replacements, a gift from Parker Industries.

"And without my powers...without Spider-Man...without the Flash...everything fell." Cisco explains.

"Where is everyone else?" Barry wonders.

-

Iron Heights.

Julian was throwing food away when he looks and sees Barry, Miles and Cisco.

"It's been a while, gentleman." Julian greets them. "Especially you, Flash."

"More than you know." Cisco says and Julian notices it's a younger Barry.

"2017. The year this all began." Julian guesses. "I'll assume you're here for some answers then, are you?"

"Something like that." Barry says.

"Well, you brought him to the wrong place, mates." Julian tells Cisco and Miles.

"We want to show him what happened." Miles explains. "Show him."

Julian brings Barry into a cell and she's Killer Frost inside.

"She only gets one other visitor, and that took some talking to." Julian tells them and they could all guess who the other visitor was.

"Caitlin. It's me." Barry greets her.

"Barry Allen...from the past I'm assuming. There's no hate in your eyes...yet." Frost says looking over Barry from inside the cell. "So to what do we owe the pleasure of your visit? Come to see how things turn out for team Spider-Flash?"

"I wanted to see what happened to my friend." Barry tells her.

"I am not friend, Flash." Frost states walking up to the glass. "You made that perfectly clear to me."

"I'm sorry. I should have saved you." Barry apologizes.

"Yet your the one who threw me in here." Frost informs him. "Said that I was nothing more than a monster that deserved to be locked up. Even when Spidey tried talking sense into you. You broke him that day. He said there was a way to help me, not fix me. Said that there was a way for both sides of me and Caity to be saved. That's all he wanted to do, and you gave up...then Spider-Man gave up. Never told him that, did you, Spider-Kid?" She asks Miles.

"Wasn't for me to tell." Miles says, not facing her.

"When I became Killer Frost, Savitar appeared to me and showed me a way." Frost tells him.

"Why would you help him?" Barry asks.

"Because he taught me to embrace who I was. But...every time I had to fight Spider...he knew there was a part of me that didn't want this. Tried pulling me back. Truth be told, I never wanted to hurt him. But the rest of you? Without a doubt." Frost says with sadness and anger in her eyes.

"You know who he is." Barry says and Frost smirks.

"Of course that's all you care about." Frost whispers to herself.

"Who is he?" Barry asks Frost and she doesn't answer.

"I'll never tell. In fact, you want to talk to someone who does know? Find the original vigilante. The first hero. The one true hero of Central City. Because that sure as hell ain't you. Maybe he'll help you. Yet again, you two aren't exactly friendly these days." Frost tells him while getting in her bed and he turns to the others.

"We need to see Peter." Barry says and sees their faces. "What? Where is he?"

-

Parker Industries.

They walk in and see Lucius Fox is still working and sees them.

"Let me guess, wanna see Peter?" Fox asks them and they Miles nodes his head as Fox allowed them into his private elevator that travels up to his floor personally.

Peter was in his new office that was mainly the top floor of his building and was sleeping in his desk when the team comes in and sees him.

Barry is shocked when he sees Peter and how he turned out.

Peter's hair hasn't grown out like his future self, but it's messier, his outfits that used to be bright and colorful is now all black like night. He has a bit of a beard staring, but that could mean he he hasn't shaved in a while.

The office was a mess with a bunch of beer bottles everywhere and a bunch of papers about their latest products being shipped out.

"Even after everything, he still finds room in his heart to care about others." Miles says as Barry picks up a piece of paper that has sketches of new Spider-Man gadgets for Miles.

Cisco walks up to the desk and slams his fist against it waking the man.

"I'm awake!" Peter shouts while waking up and sees it's just Cisco. "Oh, man, come on. I got a headache, I don't need the loud noises." He complains to his friend.

"You've let yourself go." Cisco comments to him looking around.

"Nah, I just got more lazy. I pulled an all nighter, didn't get much sleep." Peter explains when he notices Barry. "Barry? From the past?" He asks, shocked he's here.

"Hey, Pete." Barry greets as Peter gets up and walks up to Barry with a smile on his face right before punching Barry in the jaw, sending him to the ground.

"That's for what you did! Have fun figuring out what it is you did." Peter states to him as Barry rubs his jaw.

"God, that's the second time I've been hit by an alternate Peter." Barry mumbles before looking back to Peter. "I heard we didn't leave off on good terms."

"You could say that." Peter scoffs. "Savitar was right. You would betray me when I was supposed to help the woman I love, and I helped the woman you loved...and I payed the price." He says before removing his jacket to show his entire right arm is a metallic replacement.

"That day...that Iris was supposed to die, Cisco got a vibe about where Caitlin was and I said I was going to go after her, that was the chance I needed to change her back, bring Caitlin back. But you stopped me. You said if we saved Iris, we save Caitlin. Being an idiot, I believed you and ran in to help. Only to have the beating of my life."

-

The day Iris died.

Peter gets thrown around the park like a rag doll by Savitar as he's using his speed and blades to attack the Spider-Man.

Peter throws his hand out to shoot a web and escape, but before he could, a blade comes in and slices down his entire right arm, causing him to bleed out and drop in pain, passing out from exhaustion.

-

"I was supposed to die. I would have died. But the next thing I know is I woke up at the nearest hospital. My suit, gone. I was in my normal clothes when I arrived, they had to remove the arm to stop any infection from spreading...they said they didn't get the name of the woman who brought me in but said she had hair that was white as snow and said she was a friend. And I knew exactly who it was. I got concerned about my suit until I got it delivered in the mail, stitched up and all. I knew it was Caitlin. I tried telling you she still had a good side, but you wouldn't listen and threw her into Iron Heights. I've been trying to help her get out ever since by finding a cure. But until then, she's trapped behind steel doors, power dampening walls and a glass wall as her only way to see the real world. And I get to see the woman I love for half an hour a day." Peter finishes telling Barry why he left the team.

"Did she tell you who he is?" Barry wonders.

Peter just scoffs and drops back into his chair while using his metal hand to crack open another bottle. "Of course that's all you're interested in. Yeah, she told me." He admits, "but I've got no reason to tell you. And if I did, it would cause some serious time disruptions and all that. But trust me, when you learn who he is, you'll wonder how you could have missed it."

"Peter, come on. This is a chance to save Caitlin." Barry pleads to him.

"Funny, you said the exact same thing when we were saving Iris. Because that's all you care about...you're no hero, Barry." Peter states to him with a cold tone. "You're a guy in a suit, beating up criminals only if it's convenient enough. Want some answers? Go talk to baby Flash." He tells him while drinking the beer.

-

West household.

Barry meets Beth, Wally's caretaker who Miles and Cisco already know and they see Wally.

"Hey, man. We brought a friend." Miles tells Wally.

"Wally, it's Barry." Barry says as he walks up to the kid who's staring off into the distance. "Hey. Can you hear me?" He asks.

"When Iris died, Wally was sent into a rage..he went after Savitar by himself one night. Joe found him the next day with a shattered spine." Cisco explains to him. "No one knows what he saw that night, but whatever it was...he's been like this ever since."

Barry is shocked to how the team has fallen apart over the years.

"Listen, Barry, you and Joe..." Cisco was gonna warn him but Barry interrupts.

"Where is he?" Barry winders.

"He's not here, meaning there's one other place to find him." Miles says.

-

Cemetery.

Joe was visiting Iris' gravestone when Barry comes up to him.

"Why are you here, Barry?" Joe asks him, not looking.

"I wanted to see how you're doing." Barry explains .

"Now you want to know?" Joe asks. "After all this time, now?"

"Joe..."

"I'm doing my best."

"What happened to us?"

"My daughter's life was taken. My son's. And then you left me, Barry. The last piece of who I was...left. Turned his back and ran away."

"I wasn't there for you?" Barry winders, remembering he made a promise to Iris to be there for him.

"Why start now?" Joe asks him, still not facing him. "I'm gonna need you to leave now, Barry. Please."

Barry does as he asks and leaves him to go talk to his future self.

-

"You promised." Barry tells his future self who's inside the Time vault. "You promised her that you would be there for Joe."

"You don't understand,"

"I don't understand what? That you abandoned him? You abandoned him and everyone else? You made a promise."

"That I couldn't keep! Not after everything I lost. I was just as broken as Joe was! As they were!"

"I don't care."

"You will! You will...you want answers, Barry? How's this? You will go back. You will do everything that you can think of to save her. You're even gonna create time remnants of yourself, but he's gonna kill them all, mostly. You're gonna double cross your friends. And then on the night of May 23rd, Iris West will die in your arms. And in that moment that she takes her last breath, it'll feel like an eternity. And it will break you. She's the love of your life, Barry. She was the love of my life." Future Barry says as he crawls into the corner. "There'll Be Nothing heft at all but stopping Savitar. So no, you won't be there for Joe. You won't be there when Peter tries to get back on his feet and tries to help Caitlin. When Savitar destroys Wally. You won't be there for any of them. But then one day, you'll stop him. You'll lock him in the Speedforce forever. But at that point...he already won. Because everything you ever loved is gone. Go home, Barry. There's nothing for you here."

Barry can't believe this and heads into the cortex that's just as run down as the rest of the place.

"Cisco, did you learn why I can't travel back?" Barry asks them.

"You're leaving now?" Cisco asks.

"He...he's not gonna help me, he's broken. And if Caitlin's working with Savitar, I need to make things right with Peter before I loose the two of them forever," Barry explains.

"What about everyone else? Don't you want to help them?" Miles asks him.

"I can't help them." Barry states.

"No matter what I do, you're gonna abandon the ones close to you like Peter said." Cisco states.

"I just...I can't stay here, guys." Barry says. "But you want me to, so I can get the team back together. You guys did something, didn't you?" He asks and Cisco pulls out a device from the cortex.

"The resonance field you create when you run, this is supposed to disrupt it. I might not have hands, but I can still use technology." Cisco tells him.

"Why?"

"Because we miss how things used to be. If you go, we're not gonna stop you. We don't know why I thought you'd be the same Barry Allen I remember." Cisco says.

"That guy still had some fight left in him. Now he's nothing." Miles says as Barry leaves, ready to go home.

But after reaching the pipeline, Barry realizes if this is how things turn out, he needs to fix things.

He speeds back to where Cisco and Miles were about to enter the elevator.

"You're right, this isn't the future I wanted. I can't go back knowing this is how I left things. You guys wanna help get the team back together?" Barry asks them.

"Thought you'd never ask." Miles and Cisco say at once.

-

Barry sped and grabbed HR from his book tour at Jitters.

Peter was just leaving Iron Heights after his daily talk with Caitlin when Barry sped and grabbed him.

Joe was at home with Wally after he was tucked into bed.

The three of them look around as they're back in the cortex where they haven't been in years.

"Joe? HR?" Peter asks looking around.

"What the hell is going on?" Joe asks them.

"I-I would like to know the very same thing." HR tells them. "I was about to check one of the most important boxes a man can check in his life." He complains. "And who-who brought us here?"

"I brought you all here." Barry says and they look to see him.

"Great. This moron." Peter complains.

"Barry? You look..." Joe says trying to find the words.

"Young?" Barry answers.

"He's from the past, Joe." Peter explains.

"I knew something felt weird in the cemetery. You hadn't visited Iris in years." Joe tells Barry.

"Yeah, I know." Barry says and looks to the two who brought him here. "Cisco and Miles told me...well, showed me none of you have been a team in a long time. And I know I'm the reason for that. Iris' death shouldn't have driven me away from all of you like that. It should've driven me closer. This isn't what she would want. What Caitlin would've wanted. But I'm here not to tell you than no matter what happens in the past, I will not abandon you."

The team looks around when the meta human app goes off.

"Mirror Master and Top are at it again." Miles tells them.

"Guys, we have a chance to put some hope back into our lives. And I...I really need it right now." Cisco tells them all.

"So what do you say? You ready for team Spider-Flash to take down the bad guys again?" Barry asks them.

They all were thinking the same thing, that the world needs them back and they're willing to come back.

"Team Spider-Flash." HR says holding his hand out and everyone piles their on top and Peter places his robotic hand on it. "On three. One, two..." they throw their hands up.

-

Mirror Master and Top are just robbing a jewelry store.

"Baby, you're a rock star." Master tells her.

"Just like to shine for my man." Top states.

Suddenly a flash of lightning comes and they see Barry is back.

"Yeah, I don't know. It looks a little tacky from over here. But I am old fashioned." Barry tells them.

"Don't you ever learn? You can't take us on alone." Mirror reminds him.

"I'm not alone." Barry says when they see someone swinging in and does a quick double flip onto the ground.

Peter's wearing his Spider-Man suit that's been updated over the years. It's a completely dark suit with a yellow, glowing spider symbol on his chest and back. The material is made out of the same thing as doc Ock's arms so it could cover for his missing arm.

"We just couldn't stay away for the reunion." Peter says, getting back into the quips.

"You should've stayed retired, Spider-Man." Mirror tells him.

"Nah, I never retired. Just took a long break." Peter corrects him before webbing Top's face so she couldn't make them go topside.

Mirror tries running off from the two of them.

"That's sad." Peter says looking to Barry.

"Yeah, should we give him a head start?" Barry wonders.

"I think we technically did." Peter states as he's running off.

"Good point." Barry says before speeding up to Mirror Master and punching him in the face, knocking him out cold.

"It feels good to be back." Peter states looking at his hands.

-

"_In a bizarre twist, and the first sighting in years, eyewitnesses claim not just the Flash but the original Spider-Man were both responsible for apprehending Sam Scudder and Rosalind Dillon, aka Mirror Master and Top. I'm sure I speak for all residents of Central City when I say this; Flash, Spider-Man, if the two of you are watching it's good to see you again._"The news report says in the cortex.

"Ladies and gentlemen, team Spider-Flash is back at it again." Cisco cheers.

"I think this was a good first step, Cisco. But we've got a long way to go." Future Barry admits. "I heard what you said and you're right. Iris wouldn't have wanted this. She would have wanted us to stay a family. I broke that promise to her, even to you, Peter, when I promised to help Caitlin...you made me realize, even thought Savitar gone, I've been letting him win. I was wrong to do that. If you're all willing to...try to do this again..I think I can, too."

"I don't know which one of you to hug first." Joe admits.

"Him." Peter says looking to older Barry and Joe does as he suggested and hugs Barry. "You know what, I kinda missed these tights. Weirdest sentence I've ever said." He admits.

"And that's saying something." Cisco replies.

"HR, what do you say?" Miles asks him.

"Yeah, I've got a lot of coffee tastings and some book readings, a lot of women left to charm, but-" HR was saying when Peter smacks him across the back of the head with his normal hand. "I'm in. Come on, coffee at Jitters. On me, let's go." HR says to the team and they leave.

"I know how hard this must be." Barry tells his future self who's still here.

"No you don't. Not yet. That's the problem. And neither of us can change what's gonna happen. I wish I could help you, believe me, I do." Future Barry tells him.

"But you trapped Savitar in the Speedforce. Just tell me how you did it." Barry asks of him.

"I had help from a physicists. Her name's Tracy Brand, and she made the Speedforce trap." Future Barry tells him.

"Why didn't you tell me this?" Barry wonders.

"Because the only person who could figure out how to work the device was Peter. Without him, we needed to wait for the technology to catch up with us." Future Barry tells him and now Barry sees why he didn't. He then turns and grabs a small device from in the cortex. "I don't know where she is. And I don't understand anything that's on here. But that has all her information on it. Maybe when you go back, you can find her, and...make things right with Peter. We spent so much time worrying about Iris that we forgot that he was working on saving Caitlin. Let him do what he needs to do, but the two of you need to fight together. We both have separate goals, but the reason we fight is the same. To save the people we love. Good luck." He says and hands the device to Barry.

-

Barry returns to the present day and back in the pipeline.

"What, did it not work?" Wally asks Barry.

"No, I went. I'm back." Barry assures him.

Barry goes into the cortex and explains where he went and what he did and what he was able to find out..and he saw Peter did officially leave.

"We have to make things right with Peter." Barry informs them.

"That's gonna take some doing." Cisco admits.

"Yeah, but his future self said the only way for us both to get the people we love back, we have to work together." Barry tells them. "And he's right, I was so focused on Iris, I forgot about Caitlin."

If they're taking down the God of Speed, they need to get everyone back.


	64. Getting the team back together

Peter has spent the past week searching for Caitlin/Killer Frost, but nothing has turned up and Fox is still out of town.

But he did however leave Peter something new in his suit display. It's a suit he called the Velocity-Spider. It is a red and gray armored suit that includes unique looking silver visors for the eyes, as well as more defined plating and a glowing blue spider symbol that apparently glows in the dark, which isn't exactly useful for stealth.

Blitz features are the signature power of the Velocity Suit. When activated, it boosts the wearer's speed and allows him to use his momentum as a weapon, making it the perfect weapon to use against Savitar.

His computers suddenly alert him that there's a sudden wave of cold in the atmosphere.

Killer Frost is on the move, and so is he.

-

"Her name is Tracy Brand." Barry tells the team at Star labs on the information from the future. "She's one of the world's top theoretical physicists, or at least she will be."

"Girl Scout earns her merit badges. 2021 nobel prize, Copley medal, presidential commendation." Cisco lists.

"She's a genius yes, but what's that to us?" Joe wonders.

"She's the key to stopping Savitar. Future me said that four years from now, she invents the technology that traps Savitar in the Speedforce." Barry explains to him.

"Four years too late." Joe states.

"Yeah, except he did say that Peter would be able to help create it sooner, but after he left, we don't exactly talk in years." Barry says.

"So, we just need to find Tracy and make things up to Peter and we can save her." HR recaps their mission.

"Yeah, but that's gonna be difficult since Peter wants nothing to do with us." Cisco reminds them as he searches for Tracy. "Tracy Brand, currently enrolled in CCU theoretical physical program."

"So our hopes of defeating an evil speed god hinge on a grad student?" HR asks. "Could he worse." He admits.

"Let's go." Barry says and they leave to find her.

-

HR, Cisco and Barry leaves and go to CCU and head towards her labs.

"Ah, the soul sucking fluorescence of academia." Cisco says walking through the halls.

"Yeah, this is exciting. It's like meeting Norbert before he was Einstein." HR says, getting his name wrong. Or that could be his name on Earth-19.

"Albert." Cisco corrects him.

"Norbert Albert?" HR asks as they find her labs only to find Peter has beaten them to Tracy.

"Peter?" Barry questions.

"Speedy?" Peter questions back. "Cisco? Drumsticks? What are you guys doing here?"

"Who are you people?" Tracy asks.

"I'm Barry Allen. We would like a moment to talk with you." Barry explains.

"Well, I was kinda talking with her right now, Barry." Peter tells him.

"Peter, we're after the same thing here." Barry reminds him.

"Are we?" Peter asks when his senses alert of something and he looks to the door across the room starts freezing and shattering.

"Admission here is so easy." Killer Frost tells them as she steps into the room wearing a new outfit.

"_That's_ why I'm here." Peter says as Frost shoots a icicle at Tracy and Peter quickly webs the icicle with a experimental fire webbing that Fox created for cold climates, cold situations, and cold metas, as it melts the icicle.

"Look who got new toys." Frost tells Peter.

"Get her out of here." Peter tells Barry and the others as he gets ready to fight Caitlin. Not something he's looking forward to. "So I see you've gone full Killer Frost, nice suit. I'll give you that much." He tells Frost.

"I got tired of those pencil skirts." Frost quips.

"Oh, now you're making quips. You know, if you weren't trying to kill me, I'd see if we could make this relationship work between a cold hearted villain and a warm blooded hero...but I made a promise to help you. Both of you." Peter says before creating a webbing of a firewall behind him so Frost can't reach Tracy before she sends a blast at him, causing him to be knocked unconscious and Frost makes her escape.

Barry goes around the building to find Peter unconscious and Frost is gone.

-

Barry brought Peter to the medical lab to help rest off the attack and when he woke up, Barry returned to talk to him.

"I'm not coming back to the Save Iris Group." Peter warns Barry without even looking at him.

"Right. Your sixth sense alerts you when I'm near." Barry reminds himself forgetting that power half of the time.

"I have been so focused on changing your future, I was blinded by the fact I was cementing Caitlin's future into becoming what I promised her she wouldn't become." Peter says while looking down at Caitlin's belongings that are still here after the incident that are still here.

"Listen, Peter, when you left, I traveled to the future and saw what happened to us. I never apologized, or made up for what happened. And that caused us to drift apart." Barry says and Peter finally faces him. "My future self explains to how we should be working together to fight Savitar, but when it comes to the people we love, we do that on our own. Focus on who we love." He explains to him.

"So you're saying you're done asking me to help you save Iris in the long run?" Peter asks him.

"You focus on getting Caitlin back, and I'll make sure Iris doesn't die. What do you say? Ready to fight a god together?" Barry asks of him and raises his hand.

Peter can agree to that and shakes his hand. "Team Spider-Flash." He agrees. "So. Where are we at with Tracy?"

-

They tracked Tracy to Jitters and they've sent HR to talk to her and to convince her to help them and Peter is on standby wearing his new Velocity-Spider and prays that Fox was right about it improving his speed to match Barry's.

HR and Tracy leave Jitters as their drinks freeze solid.

"Guys, we need a little help here!" HR calls when a a sphere flies towards Tracy and is interrupted by Peter speeding in and catching it.

"Lucius, you're getting a raise." Peter promises himself.

"Spider-Man?" Tracy asks looking over his new suit.

"Get her out of here." Peter says as Barry joins him.

"Caitlin. Please, stop." Peter begs of her.

"So you're Savitar's lackey now?" Barry asks of her.

"More fun to reign in hell and all that." Frost replies before she starts making a ice slide which seriously reminds Peter of Frozone from _Incredibles_.

"I'm gonna have her head back this way. When she comes back, you use one of your web gadgets and you two can work it out." Barry promises, remembering the agreement and speeds off after her.

Frost looks and sees Barry chasing her as she's after Tracy but Barry keeps them safe as they head back towards Peter who seriously doesn't want to do this.

But before he could even get the chance to, Frost sends a giant mist of ice at him and Barry pushed him out of the way, ending up with him going flying and Peter hitting his head.

Frost creates another icicle in her hands and walks towards Barry and leaves Peter.

"Savitar says I'm not allowed to kill you, but I can't have you following me around." Frost says and walks up to Barry. "It was the right leg last time, right?" She asks, remembering their first attack when the icicle gets knocked out of her hand once more and she looks to see Peter is back up. "You're seriously becoming a pain, Spider." She states.

"Yeah, I've heard that before." Peter states as he's holding his side from the push it got injured. "Caitlin, you need to stop this isn't you."

And what if you're wrong?" Frost asks him.

"Then kill me." Peter dares as he walks up to her and take off his steel mask to face her. "You have put your life in my hands countless times. That's how we first met. I saved your life, remember? It's time we reverse the roles. If I'm wrong, and you're not the woman I know and love, then kill me."

"Don't think I won't." Frost warns him.

"Then do it." Peter tells her and watches the struggle going on in Caitlin's eyes again.

For a brief second, they went from ice blue to the dark brown eyes he loves before they returned to ice blue and she blasts Peter just to push him, not to hurt him and leaves them.

But all that did for Peter was prove he was right, Caitlin is still in there and is still fighting.

-

"So this is where the Flash and Spidey goes down?" Tracy asks in Star labs. "It's not exactly what I imagined, but it's cool. So I always wondered how you kept the friction from building up a lethal dose of static charge."

"Yeah, the suit is vulcanized Teflon. It neutralizes any electron imbalance." Cisco says.

"And the White Which. I'm guessing you know why she's after me." Tracy guesses.

"She's teamed up with a villainous speedster from the future, and you build the technology that stops him." Peter explains still wearing the Velocity-Spider.

"Where'd you get the new suit anyway?" Barry finally asks him.

"I now have a wardrobe of outfits to choose from." Peter admits to him. "But this one is seriously hot and the mask is itchy. I don't know how all those knights did it."

"That's cool." Cisco states, hearing he has more outfits.

"Anyway, back to the topic, he wants to kill you before you build it." Barry explains.

"And have Killer Frost live up to her name so Caitlin can never return." Peter finishes.

"Killer Frost? Her name is Killer Frost?" Tracy asks.

"We know it's a lot to take in." Joe says.

"To be fair, you're basically telling me I'm Sarah Conner in _Terminator_." Tracy informs them and they're all skeptical on that error.

"More like Miles Dyson in _Terminator 2_." Miles tells her.

"Or even John Conner in any of them." May states.

"That works, too." Cisco agrees.

"So you're telling me my ideas about the...Speedforce, being able to control it, manipulate it, all of that were correct?" Tracy asks.

"It appears so." Barry says and shows her the information from the future. "Look, Tracy, we need your help. We need you to build this trap now."

"What happens if I don't build it now?" Tracy asks.

"There will be no stopping Killer Frost for starters." Peter tells her.

"And someone is going to die." Joe says and looks to Iris and Tracy excuses herself.

"I got this one." HR promises and leaves to talk with her.

-

Later, Tracy went to the park with a statue she admires they found from her hologram pictures and HR went to talk to her and she was just scared about this and he talked to her and she's ready to go at it.

"You know, since he's a god of speed, why doesn't Savitar just finish her off himself now he's free?" Peter finally asks.

"Let's just be glad he hasn't done that yet." Cisco states.

Peter can agree to that but he still wonders why when his phone goes off and see it's May. "Hey, May, what's up?" He asks as he answers.

"_I talk. You listen._" The voice of Killer Frost leaves the phone and now Peter's getting worried. "_In an hour, you're gonna get a message with an address. Bring me Tracy Brand, or I will kill your precious aunt._" She warns him.

"Caitlin, don't do this." Peter begs when she hangs up.

"What was that?" Miles asks and Peter just grabs the mask for his suit and races off.

Peter speeds through the streets and combines that with his swinging to avoid pedestrians and cars to make it to May's apartment and sees that Frost froze off the door from its hinges and must've taken her by surprise.

-

"So you're saying that if we don't turn Tracy over to Killer Frost, she's going to kill May?" Cisco asks as Peter is pacing around the cortex in fear.

"And if she does kill May, there is no way she is going to come back from that." Peter states not wanting to loose the two most important women in his life at once.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but Tracy is our key to stopping Savitar, right?" HR reminds them.

"Yes, but what are we gonna do? We gonna just let Frost live up to her name and kill May?" Cisco asks.

"Not if I can stop her first." Peter promises.

"No ones gonna die, all right?" Barry promises. "Peter, were gonna get them both back, I promise you that."

Peter's phone goes off and he takes a look to see that it's May...well, Killer Frost.

"That's them. They're at the old Dressler Factory." Peter tells them.

"Okay, we know where they are. So what do we do?" Cisco asks.

"I have a plan. Just depends on how long miles can be invisible for." Barry says.

"How long do you need?" Miles asks.

-

At the Dressler Factory, May was zip tied to a chair in the middle of the room with Frost pacing around the room waiting for them to show up.

"You know, he hasn't stopped believing in you." May tells Frost who stops at the sound of her voice. The voice of the caring woman who has lost just as much as Peter and still believes in the good of people; just like him. "Yeah, even when everyone believes you're gone, Peter is holding onto hope. You know how he is. He's a hopefulist. I know it's not a word, but you know what I mean."

"Stop talking." Frost warns her.

"Or what, you going to kill me? I'm your only leverage to get them to come here. Kill me, you have nothing." May states and Frost is impressed by how well she's doing this. "I've watched a lot of movies with Peter and know how these situation works."

"I can freeze your lips shut." Frost dares with mist floating in her hands.

"Then why didn't you do that when you first took me?" May asks her as the icy mistress walks up to her. "You're strong, Caitlin. But everyone has their breaking point. And when we reach that breaking point, we need someone. You have someone who isn't going to stop until you are safe. This life is nothing but people hunting you down and trying to end you."

"The Spider can believe whatever he wants, but I'm not going back." Frost states when they finally show up. "Look who finally showed up. Hand her over." He tells them.

"You don't have to do this." Barry tells her.

"Yes, I do." Frost replies.

"Why? Because Savitar commands it?" Barry asks as he walks towards her. "You're..."

"Family?" Frost once again finishes.

"We protect each other, till the end." They both say and they're seriously confused.

"Savitar told me everything you'd say. You two are more alike than you realize." Frost tells Barry. "You see, that's how Savitar knows every move you're going to make. He's always one step ahead of you, because this is all history to him. That's how I know Cisco is in the rafters right now." She says and holds a detonator remote and the roof explosion when Miles and Cisco come down on a web.

"That failed." Miles states as Frost freezes Joe's gun and Barry speeds May out and Peter raises his hands.

"You think your webs can stop me?" Frost asks him with an arm raised.

"Wrong suit." Peter tells her and sends a dart out and she dodges it.

"You're full of surprises, Spider." Frost states.

"I'm here to help you, Caitlin." Peter promises.

"Caitlin is dead."

"Not to me, she's not. I know you're in there, Cait. And I'm never going to stop believing in you." Peter promises and Frost sends a blast of ice at him that he quickly speeds around and punches her across the room.

Seeing she's knocked unconscious, Peter runs up to her and takes off his mask.

"I love you, Caitlin." Peter says as he takes a sample of her blood in the process when his suit alerts him of a approaching speedster and Savitar appears and doesn't seem to notice Peter.

"**_My ascension is nearly at hand, heroes. As I rise, you will fall._**" Savitar promises them before Peter speeds up behind him and pulls out an inertron blade, the strongest material Fox could find, from his suit and stabs Savitar in the back, causing the god to cry out in pain before speeding off with the blade embedded into his neck as he takes Caitlin with him.

-

"I don't know how we keep surviving these things." Cisco states as the team reverses returns to Star labs.

"How did she even know we were up there?" Miles wants to know.

"Yeah, and how she knew exactly what I was going to say. That was weird." Peter agrees with him. "That was percist. Like Savitar was watching us. He knew what he was doing."

"He must've taken Caitlin so he could use her for something else." May guesses.

"Well, now I have a sample of her blood, when Fox gets back he can work on a cure to help save her." Peter promises.

-

After everything Barry thinks of the events that have occurred and realizes everyone was right.

There was no way Savitar knew exactly what he was going to say, what they were going to do by just remembering it...he was there.

Barry knows who he is.

He races off to an empty street and just waits a minute until Savitar suddenly appears.

"I know who you are." Barry tells him.

"**_It's about time_**." Savitar says.

"Yes, it is. Everything with you is about time, isn't it? The past, the present, the future. You know all of it, right? And you know everything about me! About Joe! About Wally. About iris! About Cisco, Caitlin, Miles, May and Peter. You know our strengths, you know our fears. You know how much we love each other. And you know how to use that love against us. That's why you took Caitlin, so that Peter would distance himself from the rest of us. But that blade...when he stabbed you, you didn't see it coming because that wasn't supposed to happen. Peter wasn't supposed to be there. All this time, we thought we couldn't stop you because you were one step ahead, but that's not it! You don't just know what's gonna happen to us. You were there. You lived it. You remember, when you were me." Barry finishes.

Savitar kneels down and the suit begins to open to reveal Barry Allen, and his face is burnt from the speed he's running at which is why he wears the suit and Barry can even see a scar on the side of his neck from Peter's blade.

"Like Peter said...we do like to play god." Savitar tells Barry as the two stand face to face after all this time.


	65. I know nothing

Savitar explained to Barry that it was his fault that he was created and he was a time remenant that was the only one left after the future Flash created him to fight Savitar and he was left alive to become Savitar and was abandoned.

The two fought but it became a stalemate as they both left with their lives and Barry informed the team on his discovery.

"This explains...everything." Peter admits.

"I don't understand. How could Savitar be you?" Joe asks Barry.

"He's all the worst parts of Barry. Like in _Star Trek_ when the transporter splits Kirk into good Kirk and bad Kirk." Cisco tries explaining and looks to HR. "You have _Star Trek _on your earth, right?"

"I've only seen _Voyager_." HR admits.

"I hate spinoffs." Cisco states.

"So, Caitlin decided to follow him because he looks like Barry?" Miles asks, trying to make sense of this.

"And it explains the message that the Legends found on the Waverider when the future Barry said don't trust you." Peter puts together.

"Oh, it's all coming together...in the worst ways possible." Cisco says.

"You said you made Savitar? How? He was supposed to be around forever, isn't he?" May asks.

"Like this." Cisco says and draws a line. "Four years form now, future flash creates time remnants to fight Savitar. But Savitar lets that time remnant live so that it can later become Savitar. So once Savitar is imprisoned, this remnant starts going crazy. And he goes back in time to the past and becomes Savitar."

"Using the timeline to create the lie of him being the first speedster, spreading the myth of himself and recruiting acolytes throughout the rest of time." Peter finishes.

"So which came first, Savitar or the time remnant?" Joe questions.

"It's a closed loop. No beginning, no end. It's like who came first, chicken or the egg?" Peter explains.

"But if the time remnant is basically a second version of you, why would he want us dead and kill Iris?" Wally asks and nobody has an answer to that.

"If Savitar is Barry, and he remembers everything, how do we fight someone were working with?" Miles asks and that means they can't use Barry to come up with any plans.

"I just came up with the best idea ever." Cisco states. "Either that, or the worst idea ever."

-

They go to the medical wing and see the device Cisco wants to use on Barry.

"You wnat to give me a perm?" Barry asks Cisco.

"It's not for your hair. This is for your brain, okay? I want to stop you from making new memories." Cisco explains and that just raises more questions.

"Wait, you can do that?" Miles asks. "And, follow up question, why would you do that?"

"Savitar is a Future Barry, he remembers everything. So what if Barry can't remember what we're doing now?" Cisco asks.

"You wanna mess with his brain?" Joe asks.

"Just a little bit. It's a minimal procedure. It'll still be the same Barry, except he won't be able to hold onto any new information." Cisco explains.

"There's two types of memory; short term and long term. There's the part of our brain that retains new information before sending it to the cortex to be stored forever." May explains to them, being a medical professional but the technology is out of her zone.

"So what if we block that chain with a magnetic disruption?" Cisco explains his plan,

"So Savitar won't be able to remember anything up to this point." Wally puts together.

"Which means we will be ahead of the game for a change." Miles finishes.

"Except there's a problem, Caitlin was our brain expert." Peter reminds them knowing this plan is going to go array one way or another.

"Peter, it's a simple procedure. I can do it." Cisco promises him as Barry gets into his seat and placed the device on his head and turns it on.

"This is going to end badly." Peter promises and they shut down the machine.

"How do you feel, man?" Cisco asks Barry.

"I feel fine." Barry tells them.

"You see? He feels fine." Cisco says to Peter but he's acting weird.

"Barry?" Peter calls out.

"Who's Barry?" Barry asks them.

Peter looks to Cisco with his _I told you so_ look.

"Not fine." Cisco realizes.

"Who are all of you?" Barry asks. "What's going on? Seriously, who are you guys?"

"Okay, Barry, stay calm." Iris tells him.

"Who's Barry?" Barry keeps asking.

"Cisco!" Joe calls out.

"Slight miscalculation." Cisco realizes.

"Alight wouldn't be the word that comes to mind." May says.

"Where the hell am I?" Barry asks as he looks around. "Is this a dentist office?"

""No, this is Star labs, man." Peter tries explaining.

"Labs? Laboratory? What are you...you guys experimenting on me?" Barry asks them.

"No...well, technically, yes." Cisco realizes.

"You...why can't I remember anything?" Barry asks. "Why can't I remember my name?"

"Your name is Barry." Iris tells him.

"My name's not Barry. I don't know what my name is, but my names..." Barry says as he pulls out his wallet. "Bartholomew Henry Allen. That's not a good name. Are you sure I don't go by Bart? Bart feels more natural to me. Can we go with Bart?"

"Okay. Let's just get you back in the chair." Cisco tells Barry.

"No, no, no. I'm not-I'm not getting in the chair." Barry tells them and Peter quickly pulls his web shooters out with a tranq dart ready.

"Just say the word, I'll make him take a nap." Peter tells them.

"Okay, Barry, look at these photographs." Iris says as she pulls out her phone and shows them to Barry. "We're your friends. Your family. We just want to help you, Okay?"

"That's a nice ring. Who's the lucky guy?" Barry asks iris.

"You are, Barry. Look, I know you're scared, okay? You can trust us." Iris promises him and everyone walks out of the room, leaving Wally with Barry.

"There is no sign of any permanent structural damage." May tells them as they look over the results of the experiment.

"Then why can't he remember anything?" Miles wonders.

"He appears to be suffering from a form of psychogenic retrograde amnesia." May explains since Barry shows all the symptoms of it. "Cisco, did you account for his increased neural velocity due to his super speed?" She wonders.

"Oh, that would have been useful to accounted for." Cisco realizes.

"Wait, do we think he knows he's the Flash?" Joe asks and they see they could be in trouble if he does.

Peter quickly opens the doors and passes a key to Barry and he doesn't catch it.

"Nope. No super speed." Peter tells them.

"Can't we just flip the switch, undo this?" Joe asks.

"Lets stop flipping any more switches until we learn exactly what we're doing, okay?" Peter tells them, and with Barry out of commission, that makes him official team leader. "We could end up doing something a lot worse if we keep doing this wrong. Like..turn him into a man-baby or something."

Joe gets a call and it's Cecile and this could be a new problem.

"Cecile needs Barry at CCPD, right now. She says it's urgent." Joe tells them.

"We can't let him out in this condition." May sates looking at Barry through the window.

"Okay, my dad and I will take Barry to Cecile. Peter, you and Cisco figure out a way to get Barry's memories back." Iris tells them and leave to do that.

"Well, that gets them out of the way at least." Peter says since they can get more done without needing to explain everything they need to do. "Miles, since I'm gonna be busy here, I'm gonna need you to go out there and make sure the city stays safe."

"You can count on me." Miles salutes to him and leaves to protect the city.

-

It's been hours, and Peter is coming up with nothing that can help.

Right now, he's now just banging his head onto the wall until something comes into his noggin.

"Fox picked the wrong time to take off." Peter states to himself.

"You can say that again." The voice of Killer Frost goes through the labs and Peter turns to see her in the labs.

"How long have you been standing there?" Peter asks her.

"Long enough to feel sorry." Frost answers.

"Let me guess, Savitar lost his memories?" Peter guesses.

"You warned them this wasn't gonna work and they ignored you." Frost guesses.

"You know me so well." Peter chuckles. "So, you here to help?"

"Only to help Savitar." Frost warns him.

"Barry's memory loss is starting to become a problem." Cisco says as he and Wally enter the cortex.

"It sure is. For more than just him." Frost agrees and Wally tries to speed at her and his powers don't work.

"I don't have my speed." Wally realizes.

"Not anymore. And I know why. If you want to fix this and help Barry, you are going to do exactly as I say." Frost tells them.

Later, Joe, Iris and Barry come in and Barry has discovered he has powers.

"We just walked into a buzzkill." Barry says seeing their faces.

"My presence usually dampens the mood." Frost says and Joe pulls out his gun and Peter runs in front of Frost.

"Whoa, whoa! Joe, put it away!" Peter tells him with his arm stretched out.

"What the hell is she doing here?" Joe asks.

"She's here to help me clean up this mess you guys made." Peter tells him.

"Barry, why don't you give us a minute?" Iris asks and Barry looks to Frost.

"Are you like a super villain?" Barry asks as he leaves.

"What's going on?" Joe asks.

"You got rid of Barry's memories. What Barry remembers, Savitar remembers." Frost says.

"Savitar looses his memory, he doesn't give these metahumans their powers, including Wally." Peter finishes explaining.

"Why wasn't Miles affected?" Cisco wonders.

"Spider-Boy's powers are radioactivity based, not dark matter like the other hundred metahumans, just like the original Spider-Man here. No matter what, he's stuck with them." Frost explains to him. "But now I'm here to help you figure out how to get Barry's memories back."

"And Savitar survives." Iris finishes.

"Life is full of difficult choices." Frost states.

"If Savitar gets his memories back, what's in it for you?" Iris asks her.

"That's my business." Frost answers. "You really think that Barry can become the Flash?'

"He can learn." Iris states.

"Wait, the plan was to get his memories back. When did that plan change?" Peter asks her, seeing she changed it to _Barry needs to learn everything from scratch_. That's like handing the keys to a car to a person who forgot how to drive. "I'm in charge with Barry out of order, so we need Cait...Frost to help us get his memories back. With Wally out of work, Miles is going to need some backup in his ears. Joe, mind making sure he's safe?"

"Yeah, I'll make sure he does nothing dangerous." Joe promises, agreeing Peter being the one with the most experience, making him the obvious leader.

-

The three geniuses, Peter, Cisco and Frost start working out how to get Barry his memories back.

"You should have listened to Spider about trying this without Caitlin." Frost states to them.

"Well, we didn't really have much of a choice, did we?" Cisco informs her.

"Also, don't refer yourself in the third person." Peter asks of her. "She's Caitlin. You're Caitlin. The same person. You're just two different sides of the coin."

"Hand me the girard processor." Frost says, ignoring him and Cisco does it. "It'll help prime his neocortical and medial frontal lobes."

"Oh, golly. Look at us. The three musketeers working away. Just like old times, huh?" Cisco tells them. "Hey, Pete, remember that time we were working on the particle accelerator with Ronnie?" He asks Peter.

"The time with the deadline and Wells was seriously hard on you guys?" Peter asks.

"Oh, yeah that's the one. When we were working on the iridium plating for the..." Cisco was taking a second to think waiting for Caitlin to finish and she doesn't. "The synchrotron, that's what it was."

"And then in the middle of the night, Ronnie just lost it? And he started yelling at the device." Peter remembers.

"Yeah, he was all like..._come on, you dumb-nium capacitor_!"

"_Take charge_!" Frost finishes and that's exactly what the boys were hoping for.

"Yes! Oh, my god. I think about all the memories I cherish most, and...the two of you are in every single one of them, guys." Cisco tells the two of them. "Even back then, when we first started working together, I knew you two had something cooking. The SnowParker's." He says and Frost turns to look to Peter who just smiles at the memory and he sees Frost has a small smile herself.

They stayed like that until Frost broke out. "Let's just figure this out." She says, breaking out of the gaze and gets back to work. "I don't want to be here longer than I have to."

"Guys! It's Miles." Joe calls out, running into the labs. "He's in trouble. Lucious Coolidge has set fire to a building."

They all run into the cortex and see what's happening.

"At that rate, it won't be long until the whole building burns down." Cisco says. "There are hundreds of people there."

"We need to stop it and save Miles." Wally states.

"Okay, Barry, Wally, stay here and get your memories and powers back." Peter tells them as he looks to the Velocity-Spider. "I'm home after my protege."

-

Peter takes off speeding off in his suit at almost Flash speed and goes swinging into the building and he sees Miles.

"Spidey! Thank god. We never covered how to take care of fires." Miles reminds him.

"Okay, on your web settings are one named foam webbing. Activate it." Peter tells him and Miles shoots the webbing and it releases foam that takes out the flames.

"Yeah, let's go!" Miles says as he swings through the building using one web shooter for webs and the other for the foam and they both start taking the flames out.

Peter went into the other direction to stop the flames from reaching other people inside when the floor gives way and he falls through.

"No!" Miles shouts as he shoots a normal web out and catches Peter as he knocks his head onto the ground. "Guys, Spider-Man is down. I don't think I can do this alone." He admits to the rest of the team as he tries shaking Peter awake.

"Please, Spider-Man, wake up!" Miles begs as the entire floor is filled with flames and he ends up using all of his foam webs. "Guys, I'm out!"

The entire floor is now just waiting for the flames to take them when Miles breaths and he suddenly sees his breathe as the entire building starts to freeze over.

Peter starts waking up as his senses are alerting him of something and he looks out a window to see Killer Frost using her powers around the building, taking out the flames.

"I knew you were still good, Caitlin." Peter whispers as Lucious tries getting away and the two spiders get back up and quickly take him down.

"You know what, you're fired." Peter quips as he and Miles fist bump.

-

After they took care of that, they were able to use the device the three were working on to bring Barry's memories back and it worked perfectly.

"Now with your memories back, we can focus on trying to find a way on stopping Savitar." Joe states.

"Good luck with that." Frost tells them before she walks off.

"Please tell me we're not gonna just let her walk out of here." Joe asks of them.

"No, were not." Peter says and walks after her.

Frost notices him and puts mist flowing from her hand. "Now you wanna fight?" She asks him.

"I just want to show you out." Peter explains and the two walk to the elevator in silence.

"Whatever you are planning, it's not gonna work." Frost warns him.

"I don't have anything planned, I'm being a gentleman, you're free to go." Peter states as they reach the elevator and Frost calls it down. "Or...you can stay with the people who love you. Your friends. Family. I don't care what I have to do for you to see there is good in you, but there is. You could have let me die in that fire, but you actually saved me."

"Save isn't what I would call it." Frost states.

"I don't know what you call it, but I promise you, Caitlin. I will do whatever I can to help you. I love you more than anybody else in my life. White hair, brown hair. Blue eyes, brown eyes, no matter what, I'd die for you." Peter swears.

"I don't love you, Peter. I never did." Frost states as she starts to enter the elevator.

"If you walk out those doors-"

"Never come back?" Frost guesses, finishing his though.

"Come back, whenever you're ready to return." Peter corrects her and Frost just steps into the elevator as the doors close. As they close, Caitlin was able to take control back for a blimp second. And even Frost is questing the side she's chosen if someone like him is willing to put up with her.

Peter walks into Caitlin's labs and sees just how empty the labs are without her around.

"You let her go?" May guesses as she joins him.

"Yeah." Peter admits.

"You have any idea on how to get her back?" May asks.

"I have a man on the job." Peter says, thinking about Fox, hoping that he found something.

"You are officially one of the strongest members of this family, Peter." May admits to him.

"I got it from you, you know." Peter informs his aunt. "Think about it. You lost my mother, your sister. Then there was Ben, and I was kinda just dropped on you. And you somehow stayed strong, for my sake or your own."

"Peter, you weren't dropped on me. When I heard what happened to Ben, I wanted to take you in before they even had to ask. I didn't want you to feel like you had to go through the loss alone. And that just tells me that we've both been fighting our own personal demons, and that is the man I raised." May tells him and pulls her nephew into a hug. "You're strong as both Peter Parker and as Spider-Man."

"Hey, guys!" HR calls and they turn to face him. "You got to come see this."

-

They follow HR into the labs where Tracy shows them the Speedforce Bazooka and it's ready for use.

"What's the problem?" Peter asks. "There's always a problem."

"In order to generate enough power to magnetize Savitar's radial field, and keep him in a state of perpetual stasis inside the Speedforce, we need by my calculations 3.86 terajoules of energy." Tracy breaks to them.

"I'm guessing that's more energy than a AAA battery can give us?" Joe asks.

"That's more energy than the sun." Cisco states.

"Where do we plan on finding something like that?" Iris wonders.


	66. Pick a side

Today was the day it's supposed to happen. The team has been working nonstop to save Iris and stop Savitar and find the power source for the bazooka and they were able to find one.

The three boys go to ARGUS advanced research group where they find Lyla.

"Gentlemen." Lyla greets them.

"It's a wee bit chilly." Cisco comments on the weather. "Can we head inside?" He asks.

"Every square inch of that building is bugged. Figured it was better if we talked out here." Lyla explains.

"Okay. I love the breeze." Cisco rephrased.

"I got your message, Peter. But I need you to explain exactly what it is that you need." Lyla tells him.

"Okay, there's a evil speedster on the loose who plans on making himself a god and we have built a device to stop him. Except to turn it on, we need something powerful enough to do so." Peter explains the recapped version.

"Okay." Lyla says, as she's following.

"So, I tasked our satellite to look for anything that might have our specific power requirements, and we found something that has exactly what we need. And it's in that building." Cisco explains to her.

"I really don't think you should be spying on me, Cisco." Lyla states.

"Is it spying if we're friends?" Cisco asks.

"Look, we know you have something, right?" Barry asks.

"It's a piece of Dominators' technology. We got it from the stashed ship in Central City. Except you can't have it." Lyla breaks to them.

"Lyla, we searched everywhere. This tech is the only think that we can use." Cisco tells her.

"I can't do it." Lyla explains.

"Is this because of baby Sara?" Barry wonders, remembering what he did in Flashpoint.

"I'll admit, it's been hard not to wonder to have a daughter instead of a son, but this is less about what happened than why it happened." Lyla explains.

"I made a mistake." Barry admits.

"Exactly my concern." Lyla replies. "This is the kind of tech that wars are fought over. If something happens and it gets into the wrong hands, millions could die." She says before she's called away.

"That's exactly what's going to happen if we don't stop the God of Speed." Peter tells her as she walks away.

"I'm sorry, Peter. I can't help you this time. You'll have to find another way." Lyla tells him and leaves.

-

The three return to Star labs and Barry comes with the idea to steal the device if Lyla won't let them just have it.

"We got a few problems." Peter says and pulls up the technology of the base.

"What's that?" HR asks.

"That is a metahuman power dampener. Speedsters aren't going to get in. Nobody with powers." Peter breaks to him.

"What about you? Can't your powers work?" Joe asks Peter.

"Yeah, me and Miles will be able to." Peter admits, not liking the idea of him stealing something. "Before anyone asks me to do something I don't wanna do, this place is more secure than the pentagon. I should know, I've visited both."

"Why did you go to the pentagon?" Miles asks him.

"That is a long story that involves a man with a skull mask and a sword." Peter explains.

"Okay, this is what we're dealing with; surveillance cameras. Eye scans. Palm prints. Heat sensors. Laser sensors. And that's just the first floor." Cisco lists down to them.

"Yeah, I won't be able to do this alone." Peter tells them right off the bat.

"So, you're saying this is the the most fortified structure in the history of fortified structures, only Peter and Miles will be the only ones able to go in, and we have less than 14 hours." Joe lists to them their problems.

"And we don't have any master thieves." May states.

"No, actually we do." Barry says and it takes Peter a minute to see what he's saying.

"No! Not him!" Peter states, knowing exactly who he's thinking about.

-

Barry was thinking exactly who Peter was thinking about as he ran back in time to the Legends first year and recruited Leonard Snart.

"Yeah, I'm not teaming up with this maniac." Peter informs Barry.

"I'll be down in the lab, getting everything ready. You all have a lot to discuss." Snart says and leaves them.

"The Flash has officially lost his mind. You want Spider-Man and Captain Cold to team up to break into ARGUS, a secret government branch, and steal an alien power source that we fought with my doppelgänger to stop a God of Speed. Sounds like the craziest Fan Fiction ever written." Peter states.

"Look, Peter, he's a master thief exactly what we need and is able to think of solutions just as fast as you. This could be the only way to get the power source." Barry explains to Peter.

"If this backfires on us, I will web you and Savitar to the wall." Peter warns him. "So what's the plan?"

-

"My guess is the power source is most likely here. Because it's the deepest part of the facility, and if it's as valuable as you say it is, then the deepest recesses of any facility are usually the most secure." Snart tells them looking over the blueprints of the building Cisco found.

"You have any idea what else might be waiting for us in there?" Barry asks Peter.

"Could be anything." Peter replies.

"It doesn't matter. There are only four rules you need to remember to every heist. Make the plan, execute the plan, expect the plan to go off the rails...throw away the plan." Snart lists off to Peter. "Follow my lead and you'll be fine."

"Stab me in the back, I'll stab you back." Peter warns him.

"Looks like Spidey's grown up. Okay, that's acceptable. The last I saw you, I did kidnap you and almost froze your hands off." Snart remembers.

"Just out of curiosity, you have a plan for getting in there, right?" Joe asks.

"I was able to get in contact with my doppelgänger from Earth-38, said he couldn't help because of some invasion. So, he gave me something that I'll be able to use." Peter promises them.

"Okay, Joe. I need you to take Iris some place far away from here. From me." Barry tells Joe. "If I know, Savitar will know."

"We'll keep her safe, don't worry." Joe promises and they leave.

Peter watches as Barry and Iris say goodbye and remembers he had what they have, and he wonders if he'll be able to get that back.

"I know that face." Snart says and Peter turns to face him. "The Spider-Man has a broken heart. Wanna talk about it?"

"No, not really." Peter says.

"If we're going into a heist, it's best to go in with a clear head. Especially for a job this big." Snart informs him.

"What do you do when the woman you love is on the opposite side of the war you're fighting?" Peter asks Snart.

"Oy vey, you heroes and your emotions." Snart complains and wishes he did keep it to himself. "Which is more important to you, the side you're on or the woman?"

"Both." Peter admits. "I love her, but I can't join her on the dark side."

"Then that's something you need to decide. Wether you love her enough to save her and pull her to your side, or you're willing to let her choose the dark path, and become someone you'll need to stop and can't love." Snart tells him and Peter decides to think of that information and is ready to head out.

"You ready?" Peter asks him, wanting to forget about his problems for now.

"Whenever you are, partner." Snart says and the two walk off as Peter sets his timer for four hours. "What's that?"

"It's how much time we have left before me and the Flash loose the women we love." Peter explains as they leave and he places his Velocity-Spider helmet on.

-

Snart and Lyla enter ARGUS with Snart in handcuffs and his cold gun.

"Director Michaels. I thought you were en route to San Francisco." One of the guards say.

"We received a unexpected gift from the Flash." Lyla says and he realizes who he is.

"Captain Cold?"

"Always nice to meet a fan." Snart replies.

"Taking him to lockup before I'm en route to San Francisco." Lyla explains.

"Of course, well just need your ID." He tells her.

Lyla gives it and it goes through perfectly.

"And your eye scan?"

Lyla does it and it matches up perfectly.

Peter needs to remember to thank his doppelgänger for this amazing holo-tech he gave him.

"You boys really dot the _I_'s And cross the _T_'s." Snart states to this overprotective security.

"And finally, Director Michaels; Elvis, banana." He says and Peter has no idea what that is.

"_It's word association._" HR tells them from the comms. "_You have to come up with the next correct words in the sequence._"

"_Peter, you're gonna have to stall._" Cisco tells him since they never heard of this.

"Oh, screw it." He says and quickly speeds and knocks him and his partner out before deactivating the hologram and revealing him in the Velocity-Spider.

"Getting rather violent for a peacekeeper in such a young age." Snart comments.

"Yeah, what were you doing at this moment?" Peter asks as Snart was able to get himself out of the handcuffs.

"Magic." Snart answers, jokingly.

"Okay, that was neat." Peter admits.

"Was a neat trick, yourself." Snart comments to his device.

"My doppelgänger from Earth-38 invented it. Uses it to create holograms of him to make himself look like others." Peter explains and hands him the cold gun and they follow Cisco's directions.

They make their way through the facility and come across their most secure criminals.

**Lizard**

**Mysterio**

**Grodd**

**Electro**

**Dr. Octopus **

**Carnage **

**Rhino**

**Kraven the Hunter**

**Vulture**

**Scorpion**

**Juggernaut**

**Mr. Negative**  


"Who's Grodd?" Snart asks.

"Telepathic gorilla. Hates me almost as much as dr. Octopus does. This must be where Lyla moved the Sinister Six and other villains after they escaped from Iron Heights once, probably didn't want to take the chance again." Peter guesses as they look and sees the power source and the comms aren't working near the vault. A 10,000 lock that takes three different people with three different passcodes to get in.

It took Snart almost half a minute to get through.

"37 seconds. I must be out of practice." Snart states to Peter.

"ARGUS should ask for their money back." Peter says as they're about to go in but Snart stops him.

"Make the plan, execute the plan." Snart reminds him.

"Expect the plan to go off the rails." Peter adds when his senses do in fact alert him something is here when King Shark slams into the window and they both hide on the side of the doors.

"Throw away the plan. Seen a lot of things, but a half-man, half shark takes the cake." Snart says.

"I can't believe this, ARGUS said they were going to help King Shark, not this." Peter states in anger and confusion.

"King Shark, that's adorable." Snart comments.

Peter thinks for a minute and thinks of something he once saw on tv. "Give me your gun." He asks Snart.

"So you can do what exactly?" Snart asks.

"Most sharks are cold blooded, but King Shark is a warm blooded great white. Meaning that if we freeze the room enough, he should fall asleep and we will be able to go in there and take the device. And with this suit, I should be able to stand the cold but my suit's special features won't work in the environment." Peter tells him the plan.

"I like it." Snart says and passes the gun to Peter who takes a piece of the gun apart and throws it into the room and they watch as it releases a cold atmosphere into the room.

It didn't take long for King Shark to go down and they look at the cold cloud covering the ground.

"By all means, you first, Sixth Sense." Snart tells Peter knowing he prefer the person who can sense the danger to go first.

"_I see dead people._" Peter whispers as a joke as they enter just for his senses go off as King Shark growls through the ice.

"Reminds me of _Jaws_. They didn't show the shark because they couldn't afford to make it look good." Snart tells Peter as they head towards the device when King Shark's tail fin sticks out from the ice.

The two stand perfectly still as the fin goes down and he goes unconscious.

"How long do you think that'll keep him occupied?" Snart asks Peter.

"Until the room temperature rises above 58.8 degrees." Peter answers and knows that won't take long with a warm blooded creature in here.

They find the device and it looks like something you'd find in the park of New York but a piece of it slides off as Peter grabs it.

As soon as he removes it, King Shark wakes up and the doors begin to close.

Peter works fast and grabs Snart before webbing the outside of the room and pulls them out when Peter drops the device.

Before it could be crushed, Snart grabs it at the last second as King Shark looses his arm. "Ouch. Been there." He comments on the arm and raises the device to Peter. "_Indiana Jones_ much?" He asks as he hands it back to him.

"This place will be crawling with ARGUS agents in two minutes." Snart warns Peter as they stand and watch King Shark regrow his missing limb.

"Okay, time to get out of here." Peter says when his senses go off yet again and he turns to see Lyla is here with guards raising their guns. "Hey, Lyla." He greets calmly.

-

Lyla brings the two to her office and handcuffs them both, which didn't exactly help against Peter.

"I told you I couldn't give you this." Lyla reminds him.

"You technically said you couldn't give it to Barry. I'm not Barry." Peter replies. "Besides, I'm trying to stop the deaths of hundreds of people and saving the woman I love. I'll die I needed to."

"I heard about what happened with Caitlin, Felicity told me." Lyla tells him and let's out a sign. "I knew even way back when we first met, I saw when you loved someone or even cared for anyone, you risk everything to save them. You're willing to die protecting the world and you don't let your emotions get in the way." She says and Peter sees what she's saying then places the device to Peter's hands, confusing him.

"You're just gonna let me have it?" Peter asks him.

"I can't leave Caitlin a cold, heartless criminal knowing that you were focused on this and not her like I know you want to be. And I know you'd do the same thing for me if it were John's life on the line. Or Oliver's. Or Felicity's. Or just about anyone we've come into contact with." Lyla explains to him. "Now go. And get him back from wherever he came from." She says referring to Snart.

"Took the words right out of my mouth," Snart states as he starts walking off.

"And Peter..." Lyla call's and Peter turns back to her, "nice suit."

"Thanks." Peter replies as he leaves by placing his mask back on and speeds Snart off to Star labs and sends a message to Barry they have it.

-

Barry speeds back to Star labs with the news after dropping Snart off onto the past.

"They have it. Peter is on his way with the device as we speak." Barry tells them.

"Yes, yes!" HR says, happy that they did it.

"Hey, where's Iris?" Barry wonders.

"Oh, she's on Earth-2 Star labs, safely stored away." Cisco assures him when Barry turns around and reveals its Savitar.

"Thanks." Savitar says before speeding off.

-

Miles, Wally, and Harry are ready, waiting to fight the God of Speed when he appears in the middle of the room.

Miles goes charging in and punches his head clean off, but it was able to reassemble and Savitar throws Miles into the wall and breaks Wally's leg and continues to Iris.

Joe and Harry do their best to keep him back when Miles swings in and states webbing every piece of Savitar until he was trapped in a cocoon of webbing.

"Ha!" Miles cheers when his senses warn him of something and they turn to see Savitar abandoned his suit.

"It's really true." Joe says, as he didn't believe at first Savitar was Barry. "Listen to me. You were my son once. Whatever I did to make you feel this way...I'm sorry." He apoligizes.

Miles takes this as an opportunity to sneak up behind Savitar and charges up his venom strike.

"That's not my name." Savitar tells Joe.

"Barry..."

"_THaT's NoT My NaME_!" Savitar tells him and Miles goes to punch Savitar in the back when Savitar speeds and throws Miles against the wall and starts vibrating his hand into Miles' rib cage. "You think I forgot about you, baby Spider-Man?"

Miles would have made some sort of quip but he was more focused on trying to breath and trying not have this guy crush his ribs.

"Please, stop, Okay!?" Iris begs of him. "I'll go with you, just please, do not kill them." She asks of Savitar.

"I'm not gonna kill them now." Savitar promises while chuckling. "They...need to watch you die first." He says before speeding off, taking his suit and Iris before vanishing.

"Where's Frost when you need her?" Miles wonders even when Harry explained she was still in New York cleaning up the last of one Symbiotes.

Barry speeds in and sees he was too late and Iris is going to die in less than an hour left before she dies.

-

Barry brings Wally and Miles back to their world and their both down for the count as Savitar did a number on the two of them meaning the original heroes are on their own.

"What now?" Joe asks them.

"We go to Infantino Street, we know exactly where Savitar's going to be and when he's going to be there." Barry tells them.

"Is the bazooka ready?" Cisco asks Tracy.

"It should be able to trap Savitar onto the Speedforce." Tracy answers.

"I can't be here to know the plan, and you know where I'll be." Barry says and leaves them to plan.

Cisco and Peter were walking down the halls, all packed and ready to go when Cisco gets a vibe.

He saw Killer Frost in the location where he saw the two of them fighting.

"Cisco, you okay?" Peter asks.

"I saw Killer Frost. I saw this coming. The two of us fighting in the forest." Cisco tells him.

Peter was about to tell Cisco to go to her when what his future self told him comes back to him. He said to choose Caitlin when the time came...this must be that time.

"Go help Barry, I'll go to her." Peter tells him the plan and leaves the base to get back to his suits.

-

Peter sped through Central City until he returned to the Spider Cave and heads to his other suit displays and comes across the one he needs.

The Future Foundation Spider-Man suit.

It was a almost completely white costume with a black spider emblem and two giant yellow eyes for him to see through.

Fox said that it was literally made from a foundation that not yet existed and it had the characteristics that will be able to keep him safe in space like temperature environments. He explains it was created for when he had to fight during the winter which is why it's all white.

Hopefully, it'll be what he needs to fight Caitlin.

-

Infantino Street, Barry speeds in and sees the news reports have mostly been changed.

From Flash stoping Plunder, it was Kid Flash and Spider-Man.

And instead of _Killer Frost still at large_, it was now _Good Samaritan metahuman still unidentified._ Referring to the fire that Killer Frost took out.

"Everyone, stay alert." Barry warns them.

Joe has taken HR's place on the rooftop and he's ready.

HR and Tracy were in the van and are hoping the basooka works.

-

In the forest, Peter is all dressed in his suit and is ready to fight Killer Frost and sees she got a head start freezing up everywhere.

"I know you're here, Caitlin!" Peter calls out. "Come out and face me."

"Not exactly who I was looking for." Frost says as Peter sees her step out of the woods.

"I know. That's why I came. You want to kill someone? Live up to your name?" Peter asks of her. "Then let's kill two birds with one stone. I'd die before I let you cross that line." He dares of her.

"Savitar thought this would happen. And said to join him as a god, I have to cure myself of Caitlin by killing the one person she loves more than anything." Frost tells him. "Nice wardrobe change by the way." She comments on the suit.

"You know I'd die for you, Caitlin." Peter reminds her.

"Good. That makes this easier." Frost says as she shoots ice at him and Peter dodges them all and the ones that actually hit him don't penetrate the suit.

"I'm sorry." Peter says as he starts shooting webs and flipping around to dodge her icicles.

-

Barry is waiting for Savitar as he finally shows up with Iris.

"**_Flash...this is it. Now the moment is upon us._**" Savitar tells him. "**_My ascension to become a god_**."

"Not tonight." Barry promises.

"_**Show me your the hero**_." Savitar dares. "**_Let's see what happens_**."

"I'm gonna stop you." Barry promises as he speeds off and back with the bazooka and starts shooting at Savitar as he speeds around the place until Barry finally catches him and it becomes like the ending of _Ghostbusters_ when they crossed the streams.

They think they've done it, they won when the bazooka fails and Savitar is free.

"Why didn't it work?" Barry asks as he drops the bazooka.

"**_I spent an eternity in a trap just like that. You think I didn't know how to prevent it from happening again?_**" Savitar asks as he holds the philosopher stone. "**_It's made of calcified Speedforce energy, and you have given it to me_**."

"No...guys!" Barry calls and they see they can't do anything.

"**_You stuck me with Speedforce for an eternity of hell. Now, welcome to yours_**." Savitar says as he holds iris up.

"Don't! Don't do this!" Barry begs of him.

**_Now, finally I am free of you_**." Savitar tells him.

"Barry...I love you." Iris tells him.

"No, don't say that. I'm begging you!" Barry says.

"**_You lose, Barry_**." Savitar says as he gets ready to kill her by pulling out his blade.

"No!" Barry says as he speeds up to Savitar to stop him.


	67. Our own paths

Barry speeds up to Savitar and tries to make it in time when a blast comes in and throws Savitar off and Barry speeds to grab Iris as she falls but is alive.

"What?" Barry asks as he turns to see both Frost of Earth-2 and Cisco with their arms stretched out.

"Looks like we arrived just in time." Frost-2 tells Cisco.

"Whoo! And not a minute too soon." Cisco agrees.

"_**NOOOOO!!**_!" Savitar cries out before speeding lad knowng if Iris dies now, it'll be too late. The timeline has changed.

"Sorry it took me so long." Cisco apologizes as Barry engulfed Iris into a hug. "I had to get to Earth-2, find Harry, get him to tell where Frost was. Get to there, fight a few Symbiotes and then fill her in on what's going on here and get here."

"You saved her, Cisco. That's all that matters." Barry says, happy they did it. "Wait, where's Peter?"

-

Peter and Killer Frost were still fighting in the forest as Peter wraps his legs around Caitlin's neck and tackles her to the ground.

"Who knew you'd be so straight forward in public." Frost flirts with him and she blasts him off of her and slams his head against a tree and drops to the ground. "Bye-bye, Spidey." She says and gets ready to kill him, but can't do it.

"Go on, Cait. Fulfill your destiny. Strike me down with all of your anger, and take your rightful place next to a god who's using you, and your journey to the dark side will be complete." Peter dares as he sees Caitlin isn't going to kill him.

Their moment gets ruined by Savitar speeding in with the bazooka.

"**_Keep him alive_**." Savitar tells her.

"What?! Why?" Frost asks him.

"**_Because I need him to build something for us_**." Savitar explains and speeds the two of them off. He now needs a new plan now that Iris is still alive.

-

Barry and the team return to Star labs and sees that they changed the future.

"So, we did it?" Joe asks.

"We did it!" Cisco cheers after he dropped Frost back on Earth-2 as she couldn't stay with the Symbiotes still around.

As they're celebrating, Fox comes in and sees them all happy.

"Lucius?" Barry questions. "Where were you?"

"I was working on something that's going to help Caitlin. I was kept up to date from Peter on what's happening, don't worry." Fox promises.

"Okay, I'm once again lost on this time travel stuff. What happens to Savitar now that Iris isn't dead?" Joe asks.

"Iris doesn't die, Barry doesn't become the same future version of himself he met. He never creates time remnants to fight him and Savitar is never born." Cisco explains to him.

"So once the timeline starts cementing, he will...vanish. It's gonna take some time for it to cement." Fox adds on.

"And as soon as it does, he's going to go full Marty McFly at the end of _Back to the Future_." May finishes.

"And how long will that take?" Joe wonders.

"Depending on how big the paradox is how long the timeline takes to cement." Fox tells him. "Adding to the _Back to the Future _reference, it took days for Marty to start vanishing, but in the sequel it was almost instantaneous how the past and future changed. My guess would be a couple of hours at best."

"He could do a lot of damage in a few hours." Joe states.

"And has anyone seen Peter?" May finally asks.

"Savitar must have had a backup plan for in case this didn't work. He stole the bazooka for something. He's been planning this for centuries. He wants to be a god, so he must need Caitlin for whatever he has planned." Barry takes a guess.

"Anyone have any good news?" Joe wonders.

"Well, I have this." Fox says as he pulls out a small vial.

"What...is that?" HR asks him as he flips his drumsticks around.

"This is a cure for Caitlin. Had to go talk to Caitlin's mother and did some research on her father, but this will rewrite Caitlin's meta-DNA. It will even them out so Caitlin can have control again." Fox explains as Wally speeds back.

"I searched the forest. Savitar and Caitlin were gone. No sign of Peter except for a bunch of dissolving webbing." Wally breaks to them.

"Savitar has them." Barry guesses.

-

Savitar stops and drops Peter, sending him toppling across their lair.

"Oh. You better have a plan C, because I don't think plan B is going to work at all." Peter tells him.

"Fix this." Savitar tells him, referring to the bazooka.

"You want me to fix the Speedforce bazooka?" Peter asks him. "I didn't make it, I just manufactured the parts. I had nothing to do with build it. I don't know how it works." He informs the Two Face looking friend of his.

"You know enough about it to alter what it does." Savitar knows.

"Oh, you don't want a prison maker. I have an idea. How about something that's gonna fix that burnt thin crust pizza of a face you have." Peter mocks him.

"An inter dimensional quantum splicer." Savitar informs him on what he wants.

"A splicer?" Peter asks, confused to what he's saying.

"I open a time portal, exposing the Speedforce, you shoot me with it, and I become fragmented throughout all of time. The past, present, and future. After that, the paradox can't kill me." Savitar explains to him.

"You want me to splice your soul throughout every moment in time. I'm pretty sure Voldemort had the same idea with the horcruxes, and we know how that ended for him." Peter quips.

"I will exist throughout every minute and rule the world from the Big Bang all the way up to the end of the world." Savitar finishes.

"That's why you didn't finish us off. You knew you needed this, and only we could create it." Peter finally realizes.

"Tracy Brand trapped me in the Speedforce in the future. All I had to do was get her to build it a little earlier and have my friend and all the adjustments." Savitar replies.

"I'm not your friend. I'm not building anything for you. And you know I don't break, so why don't I just sit here and wait to see how accurate _Back to the Future _was to how we're erased." Peter asks him and Savitar starts vibrating his hand and tries to threaten Peter and sees he's not going to break.

"Maybe you won't break. But she can." Savitar says and points to Killer Frost. "You know what I'm remembering? Fox has just returned to Star labs and he has a way of helping her. He can turn her back. You can have the woman you love back. You're so close. But you can't when she's dead. So either you put that brain of yours to work, or you loose her."

Peter looks and sees that he's stuck in a corner. If he works on it, then Savitar is going to rule the world all throughout time and space. If he doesn't, that means he looses Caitlin for good.

He then starts getting to work on it.

-

Barry is in a parking garage and is waiting for Savitar to come in.

Savitar does come and is across from Barry.

"I wasn't sure you'd come. Must be an off sensation, getting new memories. You having an uncertain future." Barry tells him.

"What do you want?" Savitar asks him. "I'm busy."

"Doing what? Getting erased from existence?"

"We will see which one of us gets erased."

"Are you still planning on becoming a god?"

"Peter and Caitlin are still alive. If that's what you're worrying about."

"I know. You need them for something. To pull off your grand ascension."

"Look, Barry, if I wanted to talk to myself, I could have done that, back at my lair. What...do you want?"

"I want to help you. You don't have much time, before the paradox reaches you. Come back to Star labs. Let Peter and Caitlin go, and let us figure out a way to save you."

"You really think I'd trust you?"

"You showed up. So you remember me coming here. Did I have any tricks up my sleeve? Was I planning on blindsiding you."

"I don't know. Maybe I get off on watching you grovel."

"No, I don't think that's it. I think you're hearing me. I'm still in there. Deep down, buried beneath the scars and the pain, that part of you that...it must feel so lonely. But it also knows what it's like to have a family, to have friends. You can have all that back. We can stop hurting each other. I remember when I was six, and I begged Mom and dad to let me go to the Science Expo in Midway. And we got a flat tire on that dirt road, so we were towed to that garage in a tiny, one street town. Of course, we were stuck there all day. Then we got ice cream and French fries at that little diner, and that night, we watched the local firework show, and...it turned out to be a great day. That's my favorite memory of Mom and dad. What was the name of that town?"

"Masonville." Savitar says with emotion.

"I'm still in there. Come home." Barry asks of him.

-

Peter was working on the Speedforce bazooka and can't help but keep looking over to Caitlin.

"You should be working on that, instead of looking at me." Frost tells him.

"You know that he's just using you, right?" Peter informs Caitlin.

"I'll take my chances." Frost assures him.

"Why are you taking chances with the enemy here?" Peter asks and drops his tools. "I'm willing to do anything for you, and you chose to follow the false-prophet who offers the exact same thing. I'd die because I love you."

"You love Caitlin." Frost reminds him.

Peter walks towards Frost as she looks away from him. "Caitlin, Killer Frost. You're both the same, I already told you that. Two sides of the coin who don't know how to face the other. So instead of facing, you both turn away and fight for dominance over the one body you both share." He states and turns her to face him slowly and takes her hand before placing it on his chest.

"The only reason I'm fighting is because this is beating, and it only beats for you, Caitlin. I trust you with my life. And you had the chance to kill me in the woods long before Savitar showed up. You didn't take the shot when you had it. You had multiple chances to kill me and you never tried to do it. Because I know deep down you still love me. Because I still love you. Caitlin is still in there, I know because when I look into your eyes, I don't see a cold blooded killer. I see someone who's begging someone to understand her, and I do. Instead of fighting each other, you should be working together."

Frost looks up to his eyes and the two just start to lean in close before they start to passionately kissing. The two stay like that for a second before separating from each other.

"In all honesty, I thought your lips were blue by design. You wear blueberry lipgloss?" Peter asks Frost and she actually chuckled at that.

Frost actually smiles, a genuine smile at this man who somehow is able to thaw her frozen heart and she realizes she couldn't hurt him if she wanted to. She does love him. The reason she joined Savitar was because he told her that he left team Spider-Flash and given up on her. But that seems to be just a lie.

She quickly separates from him when Savitar returns from blowing up Star labs using the philosopher stone.

"How'd it go?" Frost asks.

"As I expected." Savitar tells her. "I was a fool to think otherwise."

"What did you do?" Peter asks him.

"I got rid of a problem. A few of them." Savitar says and Peter knows he went to Star labs. "Is it ready?"

"Yeah, it's done." Peter says.

"Do it." Savitar tells Frost, meaning it's time to kill Peter.

Frost starts to become skeptical on the path she chooses as she gets ready to kill him.

Peter closes his eyes and knows it's coming. But he doesn't miss the battle he can see in Frost's eyes on wether or not we should kill the man she loves.

Yeah, Frost admits it. She loves Peter.

Before she could do anything else, Peter's senses go off and a breach opens before Cisco steps out.

"Cisco?" Peter asks before Cisco opens a portal and they get away.

"What was that?" Savitar asks Frost. "I told you to kill him."

"He got away, what do you want me to say?" Frost asks him.

"It doesn't matter anyway. It's time." Savitar states and grabs the Speedforce bazooka.

-

In Barry's loft, a breach opens and the two of them escape and see the rest of the team are waiting for them.

"Oh, I thought something happened to you guys." Peter says and runs to hug May and he grabs Fox and starts running his nuckles through his head. "You are getting a double raise, my friend! Harry, when'd you get here?"

"I'm here to help." Harry tells them.

"Good. Because I know what he's planning and where he's heading, but I might need you to do something." Peter tells him.

"What do you need me to do?" Harry wonders.

"How do you look in red?" Peter wonders and that confuses them.

-

Savitar and Frost head to a opening in the woods.

"**_We have to hurry. I must become immortal before the paradox reaches me. Today, I become a god._**" Savitar says as he starts opening a time portal and returns to Frost. "**_This is why I brought you here_**."

The Black Flash/Zoom Time Wraith exits the portal and Frost starts atttackig him until she shatters him like glass.

"See you later, Hunter." Frost says.

"**_The one thing Black Flash can't fight...cold_**." Savitar says and gets into position and Frost picks up the Speedforce bazooka and shoots Savitar.

They watch as he starts duplicating over and over before something happens and they close in on each other and a flash of red lightning exits the portal and punches Savitar.

"I've been waiting a long time to do that." Jay Garrick tells Savitar who's now confused.

"You didn't actually think I'd actually help you become a god, did you?" Peter asks as he and the entire team has showed up. "I changed the polarity of the climbing arc, and then I turned the Speedforce splicer into a speedster skeleton key."

"Let's end this." Barry says.

"Me, Miles and Cisco get Caitlin, everyone else get the god." Peter tells them the plan and they split up as the speedsters all race the god.

As they're running, something Savitar didn't see coming happens.

The Velocity-Spider comes speeding in and punches him.

"**_How are you here_**?" Savitar asks the Spider-Man imposter.

"He's not." The voice of Harry Wells leaves the suit.

"_**Wells**_." Savitar realizes.

"Spider-Man has a lot more than just one costume. And just about anyone can wear the mask." Barry says as the four of them start racing after the god.

Savitar cuts down some trees to block their path but it doesn't even phase them. Barry leaped over it, Wells went around the left side. Wally went underneath it, Jay went around the right side.

Savitar leaps into the air and throws a bolt of lightning at the four of them, sending them flying.

With the spiders and Cisco, they're dodging Caitlin's attacks while Cisco is using his powers to get them around faster than Caitlin can see.

Peter finally sees his opening as Cisco opens a breach for him and Peter leaps through score kicking Frost to the ground and aims his web shooters at her.

"Go ahead, do it." Frost tells him and Peter lowers his shooters.

"No. What I told you earlier was the truth, I know there's good in both sides of you. This is your power, making it your responsibility. But this will help." Peter states as he reaches into his pouch that comes with his suit and pulls out the cure. "You wanna find a balance insidead of constant fighting, this is your chance." He tells her before tossing it at her feet and walks away.

Miles' senses go off as the god of speed returns to them. "Look out!" He shouts as Savitar throws Miles and Cisco away and once again Peter is getting strangled by Savitar's suit.

"**_You'll pay for what you did_**!" Savitar promises and Caitlin watches as the man she loves is dying and he doesn't have help coming for him. "**_And you can die twice_**." He states, remembering when Weather Wizard killed him.

Before he could kill Peter, Savitar gets blasted by a giant mist of cold and Peter looks to see Frost saved him as she walks up to Peter and helps him stand back up.

"_**I knew you didn't have it in you, Caitlin**_." Savitar says as the speedsters return and Barry quickly changes Peter into the Velocity suit. "_**I only have a few minutes left. I can feel it. But before I go, I'm gonna kill Joe. And Wally. And Iris. If I am going to die, then everything the two of you love is going to die too.**_" He promises and turns to Cisco, Miles and Caitlin.

Peter speeds at him and with all of the power his suit could give him, he was able to go inside the Savitar armor and pushes Savitar out of his own armor.

Before anyone could realize what happened, Peter starts using his own super strength and webbing to destroy the suit from the inside and the suit explodes.

"No!" Savitar cries.

"How does it feel to come so close, just to end up on the ground!?" Peter asks of the false god. "You let the pain and the darkness determine who you became!"

"But we won't let the pain decide our destinies." Barry promises and the two of them then combine their speed and send two upper cut's to Savitar's chin, sending him flying before tumbling to the ground.

The two heroes watch as the unconscious monster starts to flake away and gets erased from existence.

Peter removes his mask and looks to Caitlin and smiles at the other before they run and Peter tosses his mask before he starts kissing Caitlin as they pull the other as close as they can possibly get to one another.

"I don't know if this is weirder or just uncomfortable." Cisco states looking at the two of them and they just ignore him as they stay there.

No cold entered Peter's face. No frost sucked the heat out of his body. There was just warmth, and the soft, familiar motion of Caitlin's lips against his own.

She was breathing heavily when she finally pulled back, her cheeks flushed pink. She smiled, rubbing a thumb over his lips. "I think I got some lipstick on you."

"I don't care." Peter breathed, leaning back down to kiss her again and wrapping her up in his arms as she holds onto him with all her strength as if she would loose him if she let go.

It had been _months_, but Caitlin Snow was finally back, and was finally home.

-

They had managed to loose Caitlin in the aftermath of Savitar's death.

Peter had to help Cisco dismantle the splicer, a sort of just-in-case precaution that Barry was all for taking. Caitlin had been right beside him, her hand resting on his arm, but when he looked up again she was gone.

No one had even seen her leave, and Peter felt a crushing disappointment that she wasn't staying.

Now it had been two days, and he still hadn't seen her. He was starting to get worried. He knew how self-destructive Caitlin could get when she was alone with her guilt and pain, something he was sure she had an awful lot of right now.

Outside the labs, Peter glanced away from him and was about to head in when his gaze caught a figure standing under a tree.

He, Barry, and Cisco walked down the grassy slope just as Caitlin came around the tree. She took off her sunglasses, smiling a little as the three of them approached her.

"Well, well, well," Cisco greeted. "At least you're not shopping at _Villains R Us_ anymore."

Caitlin didn't seem to register the joke.

"Why did you come here?" Barry wonders.

Caitlin stared at her feet. "I don't know."

Peter tilted his head, wanting to reach out and hold her but restraining himself. "Maybe you're ready to come home?"

"I don't have a home," Caitlin murmured, shaking her head sadly. She finally looked up, making eye contact with Peter, and reached into her pocket. She pressed a small, blue vial into his palm. The cure. "Tell Fox thank you," she said. "But I'm just not ready to use this."

Peter rolled the vial to his fingertips and passed it back to her. "Keep it," he said quietly. "Just in case you ever want to use it."

Caitlin bit her lip but nodded, tucking the vial back into her coat. "I...I guess I came back to say goodbye."

"Caitlin-"

"No, you don't understand," Caitlin shook her head, shutting her eyes for a moment. "I...I've done things...become someone that-that I don't understand. I need to figure that out, and I-I need to make sure that in doing so, no one else gets hurt. You all trust me, and I know you'll trust me forever, no matter what I do. But I just don't trust _myself_, and I need you to understand that. I have to leave."

Peter swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. This couldn't be how it all ended. But he couldn't say a word.

Caitlin started to turn, but Cisco caught at her arm. "Caitlin-" he started, but his voice faltered.

"I have to go," Caitlin said again, and his hand dropped.

Finally, Peter shook himself. "Wait!" he cried, covering the few steps that she had already taken and closing the distance between them. "Stop, Caitlin, please."

"It's okay, Peter. This isn't forever. I'll...I have to find my own journey back to you." Caitlin promises him and pecks him on the lips.

"I'll wait for you to finish that journey." Peter promises.

"I could be gone a long time." Caitlin warns him.

"You are worth waiting for. I waited two years to be with you, I can wait a little while longer to be with you forever." Peter promises as she leaves the two of them standing there.

"You doing okay, man?" Cisco asks Peter as Barry's the first to leave.

"Yeah. Hey, you mind if I...I need some time to think. And I need to do something, I don't think I can do that here." Peter explains to him.

"Yeah, I'll explain to the team." Cisco promises and Peter walks away from Star labs.

This isn't forever, but this could be a while before he comes back. Besides, there's someone who needs his help.

-

Peter gets to New York the next day and called to give his friend a heads up before knocking on her door.

The door opens and Jessica Jones is there.

"Come to finally pick up your kid?" Jessica asks him.

"Nice to see you too, Jessica." Peter says and she lets him in.

"Told her you'd be here to bring her back. You sure you gonna do this?" Jessica asks as she closes the door.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Peter says as Frankie comes into the room. "Hey, Frankie. Was Jessica kind to you?"

"She was nice, yeah." Frankie says and walks up to him nervously. "I didn't think you'd be back for me."

"I don't abandon anyone. Jess, mind if I had the room?" He asks Jessica and she leaves. "Frankie, I've been thinking about something that I want to know your opinion on. What do you say you come back to Central City and I look after you?"

Frankie waits for him to say something to reveal this as a joke, but it seems there isn't one. "You serious?"

"I know how it feels to have powers at your age, how it feels to have nobody understand what you're going through. I've been where you are, and Jessica says that you've been doing well on controlling them. What do you say? Want me to look after you?"

Frankie smiles with tears of joy and just pulls Peter into a hug as her answer that Peter happily returns.

-

**Five months later **

Peter picked a bad time to cut losses from the team, the night that he left for New York, Barry was taken into the Speedforce prison because it needs an occupant after what he did with Flashpoint.

Cisco was left in charge of team Spider-Flash as Kid Flash and Vibe help fight the crimes and even the Spiders. But Peter doesn't feel like he should be at Star labs without Caitlin.

And apparently, HR's books actually took off so he's been on nonstop book tours.

Everything in the city was at least peaceful as the team are working on a way to keep the city safe and bring Barry home. At least until Peter turned on the news at his home. That's what he calls it at least.

It doesn't feel like home without Caitlin...

But he and Frankie has been able to become a custom to living with each other, she even met May who adores her.

Whenever he's out Spider-Manning, he knows Frankie can take care of herself both against people and just being home alone. But when he knew he would be out for uncomfortable amount of hours, Fox or May would look after her and stay with her or she would stay with them.

Peter's also more careful when he's fighting crime knowing there was someone who now relies on him, but he keeps the city safe just like before.

"_The police found the entire warehouse of men were slaughtered this morning. Residents are advised to remain in their homes. The assailant appears to be armed, dangerous and wearing-_" the news was saying as Frankie and Peter were eating breakfast, but Peter knew what they were going to say.

"A red suit." Peter finishes as he knows exactly who the man is.

"You know who that is?" Frankie asks him.

Yeah, Peter knew exactly who it was. Only one person wears red and black while leaving a trail of dead bodies.

Deadpool.


	68. Merc with a mouth

Peter and Deadpool have a...complicated relationship to say nonetheless.

The first time Peter heard of Deadpool was a week before the particle accelerator explosion and it was from the news.

The first time he and the merc with a mouth came face to face was when he was in Star City and he was with Oliver. The guy took down an entire warehouse full of men all while shouting; _where's Francis?_

Oliver shot an arrow into the guy's shoulder and he didn't even seem to care. They watched as he was shot several times and he kept fighting the men off as if nothing happened.

After that, Peter had the man webbed up for a good minute and he explained that he was hunting down someone who did him wrong and tried to kill him and turned him into a mutant.

-

Now, Peter and Miles were on the roof of the Spider Cave and are waiting for Deadpool to show up after Peter sent him a message as May was watching Frankie for the night.

"I have given this guy every chance to join the hero side but he'd rather act like a child." Peter informs Miles. "A heavily armed child."

"And what did you say they call him?" Miles asks him.

"Some call him the _Man that never Dies_, others the _Merc with a Mouth_, but the most common name for him is..." Peter was saying when their senses go off, indicating he's here. "Deadpool." He says and turns to see Deadpool himself lying across a air conditioner on the roof.

The man was carrying two katana swords and probably had more guns on him than anyone wants to count or even look.

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Spidey." Wade informs him as he does a backflip and joins them and sees Miles. "And you are...?" He asks him.

"Ultimate Spider-Man." Miles greets him, coldly with his arms crossed.

"Nice. An original name. Not!" Wade comments on the name. "So, what are you like his sidekick or something?"

"No, a trainee Spider-Man." Peter corrects him.

"Let me guess. Your friends left you behind on shit detail?" Wade asks them.

"What does that make you?" Miles asks him.

'Prenetnding you're here, Ultimate Spider-Man." Wade comments as he walks around the roof.

"Can we end this?" Miles asks Peter, getting sick of this guy already.

"_Look, I'm a teenage Spider-Man. I'd rather be anywhere than here. I'm all about long sullen silences followed by a mean comment, followed by more silences. _So what's it gonna be, huh? Long sullen silences...or mean comment? Go on." Wade says, getting up into Miles' face.

Miles thinks for a minute and sees he actually can't say anything.

"You put me in a corner here." Miles admits.

"Ah-ha!!" Wade cheers and faces Peter.

"What are you doing in my city, Wade?" Peter asks him.

"Let's see, the wheezing bag of dick-tips that did this to me is still out there. And his last known contact is here. So I need to find him before he leaves." Wade explains to him.

"And what did this guy do to you?" Miles asks him.

"This shit." Wade says and removes his mask and the two see his completely burned and messed up face. "You like what you see?"

"No." Miles admits. "Please put the mask back on." He begs of him.

"If you're doing this, I'm gonna help you." Peter tells him.

"What, Spider-Man and Deadpool teaming up? Sounds like a team up people have been waiting for the writer to do forever." Wade says and turns to the reader.

"What is he talking about?" Miles asks Peter.

"His sanity is kinda loosey-goosey. He talks to himself or to thin air a lot." Peter explains to Miles.

"Okay, fine. We do this together. But if you get in my way, I will put a bullet in your head and use the hole-" Peter quickly puts his hand over Wade's mouth to stop him from continuing.

"Language. There's a child present." Peter informs the man.

"You're no fun." Wade states and pulls his phone out. "Okay, here's the gist. His name is Agent Smith. He's either selling or flipping mutants and metahumans."

"Wait, selling?" Miles clarifies.

"Yeah, anyone with powers." Wade confirms to him. "They give people powers just to sell them. They give them their powers, fit them with control collars and then auction them off to anyone and for any reason."

"Metahuman trafficking." Peter realizes and this could be bigger than he first thought.

"And I already have a lead. Does the name Amunett Black mean anything to you?" Wade asks them.

That name _does_ mean something to both of them for two different reasons.

"Of the underground black market?" Miles asks, remembering his father talks about her a lot.

"That woman constantly gets away whenever I'm close to getting her." Peter adds.

"Well, that's who Agent Smith is gonna be seeing about selling these mutants to." Wade explains and shows them a photo. "And this woman is in lead with her." He expains except she can't be...

"Caitlin?" Peter asks, seeing no one other than Caitlin Snow talking to Amunet in the photo. "When was that photo taken?"

"About yesterday." Wade tells him and now Peter knows where he's going.

-

Caitlin was in her apartment when a knock comes from her door and she opens it and sees the photo that Wade just showed Peter and Miles except it was printed out. Peter looked over her and sees she's at least no longer Killer Frost.

"Wanna explain this to me?" Peter asks her, keeping a professional look that he uses for his Parker Industries meetings.

"Where'd you get that?" Caitlin asks and snatches the photo from his hands. "Are you spying on me?"

"No, but the man who was would have killed you if I let him come here is." Peter informs her and Caitlin did see the news of the guy who took down the whole facility of armed men. "That's Amunet Black. And the man who took that photo knows you're working for her. A few months apart and you become a full time criminal?"

"It's not like that, Peter." Caitlin assures him. "You don't have to be concerned."

"She's selling metahumans and buying mutants. As a mutant, _I'm _concerned." Peter states.

"Look, Killer Frost was growing within me. The serum that Fox made did help, but I needed more. Amunett had the technology I needed that was stolen from Oscorp. But now I'm stuck as her muscle. Me and Frost have worked though some differences, and we now live together in peace in a way. When she is asleep, I'm in charge. When I'm asleep, she's in charge."

"I'm going to need to stop her, Caitlin. Don't try and warn Amunet, or anything like that or I will have to stop you." Peter warns her.

"You don't want to have to arrest me, huh?" Caitlin asks.

"No, I don't want Deadpool putting a bullet in your head." Peter expains to her. "Where do we find her?"

"A place downtown called _The Horseshoe_. She runs the place." Caitlin tells him. "But she's dangerous, Peter. She has deep pockets." She warns before turning and sees he's already gone.

"Please be careful." She begs to the open air.

-

Peter makes it back to the Spider Cave and sees Wade is still webbed to the wall.

"This is kinda kinky, don't you think?" Wade asks Peter.

"Let him go, Miles." Peter says and Miles uses the dissolver on the webbing. "I know where're to go. When is this Smith suppose to be there?" He asks.

"According to what I was able to find out, tomorrow." Wade tells him.

"Okay, that gives you two enough time to scope the place and see where to go and how to find him." Fox says from the computers.

"Partners?" Peter asks and holds his hand out to Deadpool.

"You bet we fucking are." Wade agrees and shakes his hand.

"Why is your hand sticky?" Peter asks him.

"You're not the only one who can shot webs." Wade explains and walks off.

"Fox, I need you to build me a replica of this suit, and burn this one." Peter tells Fox as he has a idea why it was sticky.

And he doesn't want to think about it.

-

The two enter the club without their costumes and Wade keeps a hood up so nobody sees his face since they would get a lot of looks from him and that's the last thing they need.

The club seems to have a nightlife party and bar on the side.

"How'd you know the woman in the photo?" Wade finally asks.

"She's an old girlfriend of mine." Peter tells him.

"You still love her, don't ya?" Wade can easily see. "That's why you didn't want me to go see her."

The one thing Peter knows about Deadpool is that the only reason he's doing this is because he wants to get the way he looked back before his mutation took affect. He wants to get back with his girlfriend, he's on a rampage throughout the world to find love again.

"Yeah, I love her more than anyone in my life." Peter admits as they search the bar for anything suspicious.

"What happened between the two of you?" Wade keeps asking him,

"She became an icy queen and tried her best to be cold and tried to kill me a few times." Peter tells him.

"So she's like us or metahuman?" Wade wonders.

"Like us. It's encoded into her DNA. We don't know how or why it's there. Nobody else in her family is like this." Peter explains as they look over the club.

"That guy over there, with the weird eye, you sense anything?" Wade calls out the guy across the room with a weird haircut and possibly a fake eye as his senses are alerting him of something.

"Yeah, he's dangerous." Peter agrees with him and senses aroun the door and hears voices. "There's another side of the warehouse. People are calling out numbers...they're bidding."

"We're in the right place then." Wade sees. "We have a plan?"

"One...seriously bad idea." Peter tells him.

"What does this plan need?" Wade asks.

"You're gonna love it, don't worry." Peter promises. "We need a mutant to sell. And we are two."

-

Wade has a helmet and cloth on to make him look like one of Ajax's men. Suddenly, Wade stops and enters the What If studio and slaps the writer.

"Excuse me, his name is Francis. Not Ajax!" Wade tells the author as he heads back and drags Peter who has a cloth covering his face to make him look like one of the auctioned metahumans.

"Oh, hello. Who are you?" Amunet asks as she walks up to Wade and Peter.

"This fucker put up a fight trying to escape, special present from the boss." Wade says and rips off the cloth and Peter had the idea to sell he was one of them, Wade gave him a beating and cut his cheek. He enjoyed doing it.

"Ooh, looks like he learned the hard way not to do that again." Amunett guesses. "What would he sell for?"

"He's got a shitload of powers; super strength, super healing, acrobatics, he can take a couple of hits more than most." Wade says.

"You will fetch a high price to me, I can promise that." Amunett says as one of the men drag him away.

Wade just leaves and gets himself ready for the next part of the plan. The reason they went with one of his men is because when Agent Smith shows up, he's not gonna have any idea who he is.

Peter was brought into one of their cells where he hears the whimpers and cries from the other metahumans and mutants. Some are old, some are children who just got their mutations. A number of ages and sexes.

By the time the doors opened, he was halfway healed.

"Leave us." Frost tells the guard and Peter looks up to face her. "Ouch." She comments on his condition.

"You should see the other guy." Peter quips.

"What are you doing here?" Frost asks him.

"Should ask the same to you." Peter replies. "I thought I made it clear nobody was going to leave here when I unleash the beast."

"What is your plan to get out?" Frost asks him.

"Classified information, Frost."

"You don't trust me?"

"I don't trust Amunet, who you work for."

"They're going to sell you just like all the others."

"So unless it's me, it's okay."

"You can't fight Amunet."

"I'm not going to. I have a mercenary on standby." Peter states when Amunet comes in.

"Caity. I see you met our newest seller. But...where he came from is another story." Amunett says looking to Peter.

"What do you mean?" Frost asks.

"We have someone who has no idea of who this man is." Amunett explains and then a few of her men drag Peter out and he meets Agent Smith.

"I've never seen this man before in my life." Smith tells Amunett.

"Which begs the question, what are you doing here?" Amunett asks.

"I have a friend that's been looking for you, Smith." Peter explains.

"And who would that be?" Smith asks.

Wade quickly whistles and the three of them turn to look up at the crates and see the one and only Deadpool.

"Nice to see you, Jared." Wade greets Smith. "I'll take the footlong...fully loaded." He says and Smith takes off and Wade throws a sword at Peter's handcuffs and they break off.

Peter gets up and punches Amunett and quickly tears his clothes off where his suit was hiding.

"I'll free the mutants and metas. You go get what you need." Peter tells Deadpool.

"See ya, Spidey." Wade says and runs around the place.

"Where's Francis?!" Wade asks as he starts shooting people while going down a staircase and kills them all.

Peter makes it to where they control the collars and doors then quickly destroys the systems.

Above, all of the doors start opening and the collars come off the powered individuals.

"Come on, don't you know a prison break when you see one?" Peter asks them.

-

"Where the fuck is Francis?!" Wade asks as he throws one of the people across the warehouse.

"No, please." The woman begs of him.

"Oh, god. I'm so sorry!" Wade apologizes when another woman comes up behind him and attacks him from behind.

"Oh, you little spider monkey!" Wade shouts as he throws her off of his back.

-

Peter was leading the powered people out when he runs into Amunett.

"Spider-Man." Amunet greets.

"Guys, we need a diversion." Peter says as Miles comes swinging in and kicks Amunet.

"Two Spider-Man's. I'll make a fortune off of both of you." Amunet promises as she calls a bunch of shards of metal to her and they create a gauntlet.

"A metahuman selling metahumans." Peter realizes and sees he needs to hold her back. "Get them out of here and come back."

"Follow me." Miles tells them and they start following him and Peter runs to Amunet and the two of the begin fighting.

-

"This is confusing." Wade says while gesturing to the two women. "Is it sexist to hit you? Is it _more_ sexist to not hit you? I mean, the line gets...blurry." He states as he pulls his gun out to shoot the two.

-

Peter gets attacked by the shards and he quickly avoids them but gets hit by them as they come back to her.

"Looks like I have something to sell." Amunet states as she walks toward Peter only to be attacked by a mist of ice.

"Sorry, Amunett. But I already own the Spider already." Frost tells her.

"Frost? You betrayed me?" Amunett asks.

"No...I betrayed him." Frost states and helps Peter up. "Get up. You're not dead yet."

"No, I'm not." Peter agrees and the two get ready to fight Amunet.

"And by the way, the names not Killer Frost." Frost states.

"Really?" Peter asks.

"Then who are you?" Amunet asks.

Frost knows she can't go by Killer if she isn't going to be killing anyone and wants to be like Peter for people to actually like instead of fear. "Call me Crystal Frost." She says and then shoots a blast of mist at her.

-

Smith was running away from the warehouse when Wade comes in and slams him into a parked car.

"41 confirmed kills. Now it's 89, about to be 90." Wade states, knowing he will understand what he's talking about.

"Mr. Wilson?" Smith asks.

"Ding-ding." Wade answers.

"You're looking very alive." Smith comments.

"Ha! Only on the outside." Wade informs him.

"This is not going to end well for me, is it?" Smith asks.

"This is not gonna end well for you, no." Wade assures him. "Where's your boss?"

"I can tell you exactly..."

"Da-da-da-da-da-da-da." Wade says, shushing him. "Oh, you'll tell me, but first...there are no words to describe the gory for words, so..." he tells the reader.

-

Peter and Frost were able to work together to get Amunett and the shards separate before webbing her up.

"Cops are on their way." Miles warns them as he comes back from helping the metas and mutants get to the police.

"Great, then let's get out of here." Peter says and looks to Crystal. "You trust me?" He asks and holds his hand out with a web exiting the building.

Crystal turns back into Caitlin and wraps her arms around his neck.

"I told you I'd find my journey back to you." Caitlin says and lifts his mask enough to kiss him as they escaped just in time for the police to come in and they see a note attached with everything else.

_From your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and Crystal Frost_

What they didn't notice was Amunet was able to escape at the last second.

-

Peter keeps swinging while kissing Caitlin until they land on a roof and Peter pulls his mask off completely.

"I've missed you so much these past few months." Peter admits, not breaking the kiss.

"Just shut up and keep kissing me." Caitlin tells him.

"Uuugh." The voice of Wade interrupts them and they break apart to see he's here. "You two look like two seals fighting over a grape."

"Didn't you get the information you needed?" Peter asks him.

"Yeah, I got what I needed." Wade tells him. "You thought I wasn't gonna say goodbye? That's hurtful."

"Get lost, dead brains." Peter quips.

"I was here first. Get your own roof to make out on." Wade states.

"You two know each other?" Caitlin asks.

"Sorry. Caitlin, this is Deadpool. Wade Wilson. Wade, this is..."

"I'm his girlfriend." Caitlin interrupts and shakes his hand.

"Well, I've gotta get going. I've got to go find Francis. You haven't seen the last of me, Spider. I can promise you that." Wade says as he walks and drops off the roof.

The two just stand there when they hear a crash and Wade screaming.

"Is he okay?" Caitlin asks.

"No. He has _never_ been okay." Peter assures her and she chuckles and the two start to kiss once again.

"Take me home, Spider-Man." Caitlin asks of him.

-

Peter somehow got both he and Caitlin back to his apartment without collapsing.

He was _exhausted_, emotionally and physically. He hadn't slept much the past few months, worried about Caitlin. And dealing with Wade, metahuman trafficking, and patching things up with Caitlin didn't help with the tiredness.

But now, they both collapsed onto the couch, curling into each other instinctively.

Caitlin let out a long sigh, her head slipping onto Peter's shoulder as she shut her eyes. "I missed this couch."

"Oh?" Peter huffed, mock-offended. "The couch all you missed?"

"No..." Caitlin murmured, grinning at him. "I missed the table, too. And your shoulder."

"Oh, I see how it is," Peter said teasingly. He shoved her lightly over and hovered himself over her, kissing her nose. "You didn't miss this face?"

"Mmm..." Caitlin scrunched up her face as if considering it. She was considering it for so long that Peter got bored and passionately kissed her.

"Yes, yes, okay," Caitlin laughed, breathless as he pulled away. "I missed you, too."

"Love you," Peter whispered, kissing her again. Then he said it three more times, just for good measure.

She was just starting to sit up so he wouldn't squish her when she looks and sees school supplies that belong to Frankie.

"Peter is there something that you forgot to tell me?" Caitlin asks gesturing to the items.

Peter looks and sees it's time she knows. "You remember Frankie?"

"Magenta? Yeah." Caitlin answers when she understands why he brought her up. "You adopted her, didn't you?"

"Yeah. You okay with that?" Peter asks and Caitlin smiles and kisses him.

"I can easily love that kid as much as you." Caitlin promises when there was a terrific crack outside and the lights flickered and Caitlin frowned. "What was that?"

Peter shook his head, unsure, and they got to their feet as the entire apartment began to shake and Peter grabbed Caitlin's hand on impulse.

They both turned as the window and they see...a flying samurai?

"Stay here, I'll be back." Peter promises and rips his clothes he just put back on to reveal his suit.


	69. Return of the Flash

Peter swung after...a samurai and is met by Cisco and Wally all suited up ready to go as well.

The samurai lands and does a Deadpool stance.

"It's a Samuri." Joe comments.

"Fox, do a quick scan on this guy." Peter whispers into his mask.

"Anybody speak Japanese?" Cisco asks and Wally does and he asks what the Samuri wants.

"The Flash." The Samuri responds.

"Yeah, you're looking at him, pal." Wally states.

"You're not the Flash. You're not the best. Bring me the Flash." Samuri tells them.

"I'm sensing an or else coming." Cisco adds.

"That's my thing." Peter jokes.

"Or else your city falls." The Samuri informs them.

"The Flash ain't coming." Peter informs him as his suit runs several scans on him.

"Furthermore, Mifune, we're gonna need you to sheath that sword before somebody gets hurt, somebody like you, because you're up against three bad hombres, and what do you think you're gonna do against us with a sword?" Cisco asks him.

Peter's senses go off as the samurai slams his sword into the round and sends everyone and everything flying.

Peter quickly catches himself onto a building wall but his entire system needs to reboot now because that was a EMP blast.

"You have one day, if the Flash does not face me, Central City dies." Samuri swears and pulls out a _Falcon_ like jetpack and takes off.

-

"_The Flash hasn't been seen in almost six months, leading us to speculate what can save us from this newest threat._" The news says as Caitlin and Peter return to the Spider Cave to see what Fox learned about the Samuri.

"Why do you think he only wants to fight Barry?" Caitlin wonders.

"Well, Barry is faster than Wally. He's been trained like me so he wants to fight the best maybe." Peter supposed.

"Except the Flash is stuck in the Speedforce." Fox reminds them.

"Then I'll wait for him to show back up and take him on myself." Peter supposes and looks to Fox. "What can you tell us?"

"First thing being...he's not a human. The suit is a robot." Fox tells them.

"Who would create something like that?" Caitlin wonders and walks up to the monitors to look over everything that Peter's suit was able to pick up.

"I don't know. But I'll head to Parker Industries and see if anyone of our rival companies have anything that can create this." Fox says as he gets up and leaves.

"Looks like I'm gonna have to learn the Way of the Samuri." Peter jokes.

"You have a suit that can do that?" Caitlin jokes and looks over the dozen of suits he has in display cases. "You think there's a way of getting Barry back?" She wonders.

"Maybe. But we're gonna have to leave that to the team at Star labs." Peter admits.

"So what do we do now?" Caitlin asks.

"Wanna train?" Peter offers.

-

Fox was doing the research on the Samurai robot at Parker Industries as Peter had to get Frankie to school before going to train himself for a fight with the robo-Samurai when he gets a knock and looks to see Cisco.

"Lucius, my man. It's been too long." Cisco says to him.

"What can I do for you, Cisco?" Fox asks, happy to see him.

"I'm guessing you saw the Samuri on the news?" Cisco asks.

"Yeah, wants to fight the Flash." Fox replies.

"I have a way of getting Barry free, but I need you and Peter's help." Cisco tells him.

"Leave me a list of what you need, I'll make sure he gets everything." Fox promises.

"Thank you." Cisco says and puts his hands into a prayer stance and leaves him a list before going.

Fox pulls out his phone and quickly calls Peter and tells him what they need.

-

The next day, Cisco brings Wally and Joe to the airstrip where they first tested Barry's speed and find a bunch of people working on the equipment surrounding the Star labs van.

"What are we doing here, Cisco, and who are all these people?" Wally asks Cisco as they walk though the small crowd.

"We are going to bring Barry back." Cisco explains to them

"Cisco, Iris said..." Joe was saying when Peter and Caitlin approach them.

"It's a good thing Iris isn't in charge." Peter interrupts him. "This is a Parker Industries operation. And if it was a Star labs operation, Cisco would have the final say anyway." He informs Joe. "All of these people have signed a agreement so they can talk about what's going on here. All they know is that the city is in danger and we are bringing the Flash home."

"Peter. Caitlin." Wally greets the two of them.

"You sure this will work?" Joe asks Peter.

"These people are the brightest men and women in Parker Industries...that I could get in short notice." Peter tells him.

"Joe, I know I can't make up for what I did to you and Cecile. I hope one day you can forgive me." Caitlin asks of him.

"Get over here, you two." Joe says and hugs the two of them. "Let's bring everybody home today, okay?"

"So how are we gonna being him back without ripping a hole in the world?" Wally asks.

"Well, my baby speedster friend, we have the thing that will save him. And both of them are the reason he's in this predicament to begin with." Peter says as they walk up to a few scientists who are working on the Speedforce bazooka.

"We re-tasked the Speedforce bazooka by tuning the quark sphere so it's filled with the Flash's genetic marker and is made to track his DNA by searching through the Speedforce for him." One of the scientists explain to them.

"Once he's located, we can pull him out and this sphere will make it seem as if he's still in there." Fox explains and hands the sphere to one of the scientists and they bring it to the center pylon that's far out from the gear.

"We're all ready, set to go, boss." One of them tell Peter.

"Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I know you were all forced to spend all night to do the impossible in less than 24 hours, but in my defense, it was the Samuri who chose the timeline. But we have a city to save, so let's bring back the Flash." Peter tells the scientists and they start the procedure. "Cisco, you man the cannon." He tells his friend who happily does.

"Quark matter scanning electrical current." Someone says as it activates and it starts searching through the Speedforce for Barry Allen.

"Triangulating quark matter on his location." Caitlin tells them as the screens bleep. "We've got a lock on something."

"It's him.." Cisco says, having a feeling. "It's him!" He shouts to the rest of them as they're all waiting for it to work.

"Now, Cisco!" Fox shouts as it's getting hard to hear anything from the wind forming from the portal.

Cisco activates the bazooka and the portal closes and absorbed the sphere.

The computers go offline and everyone looks to see it didn't work.

Peter looks in anger at himself as he thought it'd work when his senses go off.

"Wait...something's happening." Peter says and wonders what's wrong.

-

Somewhere in the city, a gigantic portal opens as a bus almost runs into it and a streak of red lightning leaves the portal and speeds all the way to Ivy City.

The speedster stops and reveals Barry Allen with a beard and mustache after the months of being trapped.

And he's naked.

-

"I can't believe you did this behind my back." Iris says as the seven of them returns to Star labs.

"You would have tried to stop us." Wally informs her.

"Because it was a waste of time." Iris states.

"I don't understand. This should've worked." Cisco says as Peter starts to use the computers to search for inner dimensional activity.

"It might've worked, but the portal opened somewhere else." Peter tells him, knowing the device was made to find a weak point in their reality to bring him back. Maybe the location they used wasn't that weak of a point.

"Or you could have killed us all." Iris reminds him.

"I think we were pretty close, Iris. The machines worked, did their jobs." Caitlin defends.

"I'm sorry, _we_?" Iris asks Caitlin. "Where have the two of you been these last few months?" She asks them.

"I'm sorry, we were just trying to figure out how to get your...brother...boyfriend...fiancé...we were trying to get Barry back from a inner dimensional prison. Sorry we didn't ask for your permission. Who left you in charge again?" Peter states and wonders, since Cisco was the one Barry left in charge.

Joe then gets a call from Cecile with news about Barry.

-

"State police picked him up on the 112 outside of Ivy City." Cecile tells them as they make it to the CCPD.

"That's 300 miles away." Joe says.

"Yeah, one of the cops is a Keystone vet. Recognized him." Cecile tells him.

"I knew it would work." Cisco says as they make it to the door where he's being held.

"You should prepare yourselves." Cecile warns them as she leads them inside and they see Barry and he's been writing some strange writing on the walls.

"Barry?" Iris calls out and Barry looks over everyone and smiles before looking to Iris.

"Nora shouldn't be here." Barry says which confused everyone.

"Barry, you're mom's not here, man." Peter tells him.

"Your honor, I'm innocent. I didn't do this. I didn't kill anyone." Barry promises. "Can you hear the stars singing? Rhyming, chiming, timing, every hour, every minute." He keeps mumbling and now they're seriously confused.

"You're the Devil of Hell's Kitchen?" Barry asks and Peter freezes as to hearing that. "Stars melting, like ice cream, dream, gleam. Nothing seems...Nora shouldn't be here." He keeps mumbling.

"I'm guessing this isn't just shock." Joe guesses to Caitlin.

"Shock results from a drop in blood pressure. This is neurological." Caitlin explains to him.

"I am...a work in progress. By the way, I'm loving the new suit." Barry says and Peter remembers that what he said when they first met before he screams and drops to the floor. "Stars so loud. Loud, cloud, proud. Dad and I are both okay. We're gonna be fine. I'm just not sure I'm like you, Oliver."

"We need to get him back to Star labs now." Caitlin says and injected him with a tranq that Peter has created for in case another evil speedster appeared or oe of theirs just went crazy and he grabs Barry before he drops to the ground.

-

Barry was still unconscious after Caitlin finished her checkup. She came into the side Cortex room, and Peter met her with a worried look. "What's the diagnosis?" he asked. "Does he have brain damage or something?"

"He's actually scary healthy," Caitlin reported, in full doctor mode. "His neural transmitters are functioning at _five times_ the normal speed."

"Then what's wrong?" Iris asked, frowning.

"I have two theories," Caitlin said, turning around to face her apt audience. "One is that he's suffering from a form of schizophrenia. That's where you assign the wrong definitions to words."

"So, from his perspective, all that nonsense he's saying makes sense." Peter translated to them.

"It's too bad we don't have a translator." Wally said.

"No," Cisco said, squinting thoughtfully. "But we can make one."

He led the team out of the room, already putting up pictures of all the symbols Barry had been drawing up onto the monitors. "If his brain's schizophrenic, all these symbols represent words, and he could be sending us a message. We just need the right algorithm to decrypt it."

Iris turned back to Caitlin. "You said you had two theories. What's the other one?"

Caitlin sighed. This was on the one she's not gonna like. "We know that the Speed Force exists beyond space and time," she said. "To us, Barry was only there for six months. But to him...it could have been ten thousand years. All that time in isolation...it could have caused dementia. That may be all of him that's left."

Iris looked down sadly and Caitlin bit her lip. This was one of the hardest things that she had ever been through.

"How do we find out which one it is?" Joe asked, breaking the silence.

Caitlin shrugged. "I could...decrease the sedative and wake him up?"

Cisco slowly turned around from his work and started to smile. "I think I've got the perfect song for that."

"Are you sure this is appropriate?" Peter asked skeptically as _Poker Face _by Lady Gaga began to blast through the STAR Labs speakers.

Caitlin and Cisco were hovered over Barry, and Caitlin was shining a light in his eyes to run a few more pupil checks before he fully woke up and wouldn't look at her.

"Yeah," Cisco said. "It's a good luck charm. It worked last time, remember, Caitlin?"

"He was in a coma. Not another dimension." Caitlin reminds him.

"Well, waking up to Gaga shouldn't seem too freaky, then." Cisco said with a grin.

"Hey, Barry..." Cisco said, grinning and waving his twizzler in front of Barry's face. "It's me. Cisco. AKA Vibe, AKA your BFF."

Barry sat up a little and slowly looked around the room.

"Welcome back, man" Peter greeted as Barry continues to look around the room.

"While you were gone, I made you a new suit," Cisco continued, still trying to act as normal as possible and make Barry feel comfortable and like himself. "You wanna take it out for a spin?"

"Stars are raining..." Barry whispered, and that isn't good.

Barry fell back against the pillows, rocking back and forth and clutching at his head. "Pain..." he mumbled. "Too soon... I think-they're here-no thank you-I'm not hungry."

Suddenly he turned to Joe. "He didn't do those things," he said in a heartbreaking voice. "He didn't hurt my mom-I was there that night. There was a man-plan-no plan-"

He clutched at his head again and fell forward, grabbing at the edge of the whiteboard. Then the pain seemed to fade and he let out a hysterical laugh. "We're gonna need more diapers."

Caitlin and Cisco exchanged looks, and the latter let out a strained laugh. "Diapers. Right."

Barry spun towards the white board and picked up at a white felt marker. His face turned serious, concentrated, and he began to neatly draw the symbols that had been all over the room in the CCPD.

"You keep drawing," Peter said supportively as he pats Barry on the back. "You keep drawing, buddy. We're gonna figure this out."

Barry rubbed the back of his wrists over his eyes, muttering under his breath.

Joe sent Caitlin a worried glance. "Caitlin?"

"I don't know." Caitlin admits since they have no idea what to do.

"Guys, can I get the room for a second?" Iris asks and they leave the two of them to talk.

The team then leave to the cortex and wait for a minute.

About a minute or two later, Barry came in and started to whiz around the Cortex, knocking both Peter and Wally to the ground.

"Barry, stop!" Joe shouts as he also gets knocked down.

"Breach him to the pipeline!" Iris called to Cisco, who had just run into the room.

"He's too fast!" Cisco protested, trying to get a good shot.

Caitlin had reached the entrance of her lab and allowed Crystal to help. She squinted, aimed, and shot a quick blast of ice onto Barry.

Barry crashed to the ground in on a pile ice shards, and Cisco and Iris both glanced up, alarmed.

Caitlin smirked, holding the ice-web shooters on her wrists. "Expecting someone else?"

Peter got to his feet, pointing at Barry. "We need to get him into a containment cell before he does that again."

Caitlin nodded in agreement, and she, Cisco and Peter all worked together to lift Barry off of the ground and bring him towards the pipeline.

Once they returned, the alerts went off indicating the Samuri is back.

"Samuri jackass is back." Cisco confirms. "Nope, that's a rough draft."

"It hasn't even been a full day yet, he said he'd level the city if we didn't bring in the Flash." Iris reminds them.

"Then let's give him what he asked for." Wally states and nobody is gonna like his idea.

-

His idea was in fact terrible.

Wally dressed in the Flash suit and vibrated his face and voice, but it was still easy to tell that he wasn't the real Flash.

The plan didn't work and Wally ended up back at STAR Labs with his leg injured and seeming very frustrated. Caitlin sighed and got to work fixing him back up. She honestly wasn't sure how Team Flash survived while she was gone.

"He sliced right through your fibula." Caitlin sighed, kneeling by Wally's chair and inspecting her wrapping work on his calf. "If you weren't a speedster, I'd be amputating your leg right now."

Wally swallowed audibly. "How long?"

"I'd give it...five hours until you're fully healed?"

Joe and Iris exchanged very obvious glances and Wally's face set. "You know what? I'm fine," he said, standing up before crying out in pain and collapsing back into the chair.

"Son, son," Joe cried, hurrying over. "You've done everything you can do. Just...relax."

Caitlin let out another sigh and got up, leaving the Wests and going to find Peter and Cisco. Cisco was sitting in his swivel chair in front of his computer, which was running scans on all of the symbols Barry had been drawing. Peter was looking over his tablet standing behind Cisco.

"Any luck?" Caitlin asked hopefully.

"Well, not yet." Peter answered her. "The computer keeps telling us it's random gibberish."

The corners of Caitlin's mouth slid down. "Maybe it is," she murmured, refusing to ignore any possibilities, no matter how much she wanted to.

"_No_, it's not." Cisco told her firmly. "Barry's trying to send us a message. I know it. I mean, he spent all this time in the Speed Force. Maybe now he knows the answers to life...the universe...and everything."

"So you think all this crazy writing is Barry's way of tellings us 42?" Caitlin questions.

"God, I love you more each passing day." Peter informs Caitlin who just smiles a that.

Cisco chuckled at the couple. "Yes, exactly." He paused for a moment, glancing up on her. "Have I mentioned how much I miss having you two around?"

Caitlin bit her lip and looked away. There was a semi-awkward silence before Cisco looked down, too. "I'm gonna keep working on this," he mumbled, gesturing to his computer. "You have any ideas?"

"Nope," Caitlins shrugged. "It's all Greek to me."

Cisco looked up, eyes going wide. "Great Caesar's Ghost..." he breathed. "This analysis is based on mono-alphabetic substitutions. But what if it's poly-alphabetic? Like _Greek_. Like, the symbols are a unique alphabet!"

Intrigued by this new possibility, Caitlin came around the side of Cisco's desk and watched as he changed the algorithm on his computer.

"Excelsior!" Cisco cried, adding another exclamation in Greek in the same voice and grinning madly.

"What does it say?" Peter asks him.

"Hold on hold on hold on..." Cisco muttered, snapping his fingers at his computer. "It's loading... come on..."

This could be the answer. This could be the solution to all of their problems.

Four words spread across the screen and Cisco sucked in a breath. "And it says..."

This house is bitchin'

"This house...is...bitchin'..." Peter sees it translated to.

His voice trailed off and Caitlin frowned. If this hadn't been so disappointing, it would have been funny. "That does _not_ sound like Barry."

"No, no it doesn't," Cisco said, disappointed. "That's 'cause it's not."

He shut down the algorithm and abruptly left the room.

"I'm gonna go get ready to fight this guy." Peter says to Caitlin and kisses her before he leaves.

-

The Samurai is surrounded by cops and is waiting for the Flash.

"I don't see the Flash." Samuri says when Peter comes in with his Mark 3 armor Spider-Man suit that should protect him from the Samurai according to Fox.

"I'm afraid you're gonna have to make do with me." Peter states to him as he gets his swords out.

"Let's see how long you can hold out." Samurai tells Peter.

Peter webs his swords to try and yank them from him only to learn he has a strong grip and the Samuri yanks Peter towards him and stabs through his armor.

Peter sucks in a gasp of air since Fox said this armor was the strongest suit he had and he cut through it like he was expecting it to happen.

"I expected more from the first vigilante." Samuri admits and pulls the sword from Peter's side and Peter quickly punches him in the face only for his hand to almost completely break on impact.

There are only a few metals that Peter is aware of that he can't break or is able to hurt him, whoever built this thing knew what he was doing.

-

"Guys, Peter isn't going to survive this." Wally states as they watch the fight has barley begun and Peter is already looking.

"What can we do?" Caitlin asks, not wanting to loose the man she just got back as Joe runs to the pipeline.

But Joe's eyes had fallen on the video monitor of Barry's cell in the Pipeline. His brow furrowed a moment before he held up his finger and rushed back out of the Cortex. He didn't pause to even catch the elevator, just sprinting down two flights of steps and raced to the Pipeline.

Barry's cell was already in front, ready for visitors.

"Barry!" Joe yelled. "Peter's in trouble and needs your help!"

Barry was ranting madly to himself, hands clutching his hair and gripping his now clean-shaven cheeks. There was writing all over the cell, and the white felt-tipped marker was still held in his grasp.

"Please, son," Joe murmured, hoping against all hope that this would work. "_Please_! I wanna help you. And after all of this I will. But now Peter needs our help, or he's gonna die!"

His voice caught and he gripped the edge of the cell, praying to everything holy that he could get Barry to listen to him.

Barry was still scribbling on the walls, and Joe slammed his fist against the glass. "Barry, did you hear what I said?! Peter is gonna die!"

Before Joe knew what was happening, the Pipeline cell had exploded as a flash of lightning went straight through the glass. Joe ran from the Pipeline up to Cisco's lab.

"Barry's gone." Joe reported.

Wally, Iris, Caitlin and Cisco were all staring at the empty body of the mannequin, the sheet that had just been draped over it crumpled on the floor.

"You know what else is gone?" Cisco asked, excitement rising in his voice. "The new suit."

They all hurried up to the Cortex while Iris supporting her brother. "What's happening?"

Cisco was positively beaming as he watched Barry's tracker blip across the screen.

"The Flash is_ back_!" He cheers

-

Peter was dodging and was webbing the Samuri to hold him back but he predicted every attack and stopped every web. It seemed all hope was lost for the scarlet spider when a flash of lightning comes in and phases into the Samuri and shatters him apart into pieces.

What Peter wasn't expecting was to see Barry Allen, the Flash back and in a new outfit matching the one he saw himself wearin in the future.

"_Flash...welcome home._" The Samuri's head says.

"Oh, thank god it's you, Red." Peter says and Barry walks over to Peter and helps him stand up.

"How many outfits do you have?" Barry wonders.

"When I count them, I'll let you know." Peter promises as he drops and Barry helps him stand.

"Let's get you back to the labs to get checked out." Barry says and speeds the two off.

-

Once they returned, Caitlin patched up Peter enough so that his powers would help him.

"Your pupils are normally dilated, and your vitals are _amazing._ You're in perfect health, even for you. I'd like a urine sample, just to confirm, but everything looks great." Caitlin tells Barry.

Cisco snorted softly. "Man, you love urine."

Caitlin glanced up from her tablet and looked over her shoulder, giving him a weird look.

"I mean, you love the _testing_ of the urine-the testing...you know what I meant." Cisco elaborated quickly, looking chagrined.

Peter sighed and shook his head in mock-disapproval. "Why do you have to ruin science for me?"

Barry looked up at her, smiling softly. "It's good to have you guys back, and I'm happy to see you're back together." He murmured to Peter and Caitlin.

They smiled back at him, lightly cupping his cheek with her hand for a moment. "Right back at ya."

"It's good to have _you_ back," Joe agreed, walking over to Barry and pulling him into a one-armed hug. "How do you feel?"

"I feel great," Barry said. "Yeah, I feel incredible. I don't know... it's like... I've been reborn."

"Well okay, Speedy-Jesus." Peter snarked, and Barry grinned.

"But seriously," Wally put in, holding up a hand. "I mean, it hurts me to admit it, but you may be the fastest speedster _ever_."

"I mean, you were in the Speedforce for six months, maybe you were soaking up it's energy?" Caitlin suggested, shrugging.

"Maybe?" Barry mirrored her shrug and changed the subject. "How was everything while I was gone?"

"Oh, yeah, it was really cool." Wally said tactlessly. "I mean, Team Kid Flash had everything under control, so..."

Barry raised his eyebrows, and the rest of the team that had been around all muttered different versions of "That's not our name."

"Still, we have some mysteries left to solve," Cisco said, changing the subject again. "Like our flying Samurai robot. Android Samurai. Samuroid. Oh-ho-ho!" He snapped his fingers triumphantly at the success of his name. "We back, baby!"

Joe chuckled, but Iris squinted at the metal head that was resting on the table. "Yeah, someone created this, and it must be for a reason."

"Does the phrase _This House is Bitchin' _mean anything to you?" Peter asked Barry thoughtfully.

Barry's face scrunched adorably. "No..." he said, looking around at the rest of the Team with a still somehow happy looking confused-face. "Should it?"

Cisco huffed a laugh. "No. Just know that while you were in your _Beautiful Mind_ phase you were talking straight up _nonsense_."

"I don't remember any of that." Barry said honestly. "Last thing I remember was going into the Speed Force with my mom and then saving Peter."

"So how'd you know Peter was in trouble?" Joe asked.

"I don't know," Barry responded with a shrug. "Well, thanks for bringing me home." He says to his friends who all quickly hugged him.

Cisco grinned and they hugged again. "You are very welcome."

Cisco then approached Caitlin as she was putting on her coat with Peter waiting for her in the corner. "I know we left some questions unanswered, but I have to know," he said seriously to her. "Are we gonna see you guys tomorrow?"

Caitlin straightened her leather jacket and tucked her hair behind her ears, sending him a smile before looking to Peter who nodded. "Yeah, you will."

Cisco nodded, looking pleased, and watched as Peter tucked her under his arm and they walked out together.

"We back, baby." Caitlin says as finally everything was just as it should be and Peter goes to get Frankie from May's place.


	70. Bad tech

Peter and Caitlin have agreed to keep Crystal Frost a secret from the team for now, but not to keep her hidden from anywhere.

They have agreed it's safe for her to be able to train with Peter in the Spider Cave and that's what they're doing as of now.

Peter has Crystal in a hold where he's holding her hands to her chest in a cross. "You can get out of this hold anytime you want. First put you hands like Houndini." He explains to her and she follows his instructions. "Turn your palms down, and all at once, throw your hands to the ground and your hips back."

She does so and gets out of his hold. "Nice work." Peter says as Frost quickly sends a blast of myst on the ground causing him to slip and Crystal tackled him while laughing.

"You done yet, Spider?" Crystal asks him and Peter chuckles.

"Okay, I'll give you that one." Peter surrenders and Crystal gets off of him and helps him stand up. "This is stranger than most of my love life with dating someone with split personalities. But, I barely had a love life, so I'm okay with it." He jokes to Crystal.

"You're lucky you're the only one who can thaw this frozen heart of mine." Crystal flirts before kissing him.

"Caitlin's okay with the three of us, right?" Peter asks without moving his lips off of her as Crystal changes into Caitlin and they don't break.

"I can get used to the idea of us, just like I did with Frankie." Caitlin assures him before they get a call into Star labs.

-

After Barry, Cisco and Joe got back from the disgusting elevator crime scene, they called a meeting a STAR Labs to explain details.

"The Cortex's quantum algorithm should decrypt this code in no time. Then we can ID our new hacker." Cisco said, plugging the USB into his computer and watching as it scanned through the code on it in flashes of Java script. "While we wait, I've got a little welcome back gift for you."

Barry quirked his head interestedly, eyes following Cisco as he spun around the desk and strode towards the display case in the front of the room. "Come come!" Cisco called. "Walk with your boy! Gather 'round, class!"

Smirking, Caitlin and Peter exchanged glances and followed Cisco as he dramatically whipped a grey sheet off of the Flash mannequin.

"Ka-blam!" Cisco yelled, wiggling his eyebrows.

"I mean, that was cool reveal and everything, but I've seen that suit," Barry said with a half-smile. "I've actually already...worn it. You know, to save Peter."

"We all know you gave Barry's suit a nice little fancy makeover." Wally grumbled from the corner, sounding a bit jealous.

"Yeah, but you don't know what you don't know," Cisco deflected. "And underneath all of this red beautiful I've built in self-repairing armor, nano-liquid circuitry, full spectrum scanning, and a whole bunch of other big words-chief among them..." He clicked a button on his tablet and yellow sliders came down over the eyes of the mask. "Your very own custom-made hood. This thing is loaded with maps, schematics, delivery menus- you know that Thai place you love so much?"

"Yeah!" Barry agreed excitedly, clapping Cisco's hand and half-hugging him. "Dude! This is awesome. What else does it do?"

He stepped forward, peering up at the suit, and Cisco grabbed a huge white binder from the chair next to him. "Well, lucky for you, I even wrote you an instruction manual."

Barry beamed down at it. "Yay!"

"C'mon," Cisco grinned. "We're not Cavemen."

"Really good work," Peter called, as he watched the whole exchange. "But isn't that all what my suits can do?" He wonders.

Cisco sauntered out of the Cortex. "I know. But if we're team Spider-Flash, why not level the playing field?"

"He has super speed. I'm the field-tech guy." Peter says as he's drinking his coffee seeing that's perfectly even there. Barry's the feet, Peter's the brains.

"I will look at this later!" Barry proclaimed, setting the manual back down on the chair and making for the exit. "I gotta head to the CCPD. And you can blame this on Cisco, but I'm thinking Thai tonight?"

Iris nodded her agreement, then paused. "Barry, we have a training session tonight, though," she said with a sigh. "I'm probably not going to be up for going out to eat after that."

Barry grinned and kissed her on the nose. "I cancelled that. Don't worry about that."

"You canceled it?" Iris asked with an anger smile on her face.

"Yeah, I mean, I don't think we need it, right?" Barry asked. "Besides, I'm back. So is Peter. So I'll make a reservation, Okay?" Barry promises and kissed her before he spun around, waved, and walked off.

"Must be so nice having Barry back." Caitlin says to Iris across the room as Peter is looking over the new suit.

"Yeah," Iris sighed. "Yes, it is. I mean, it's just gonna take some time for him to get used to the new dynamics around here."

"What new dynamics are those?" Peter asks her, not following.

"You know, like me as leader of the team." Iris explains and they're seriously confused by that news.

"When did that happen?" Peter asks and even Caitlin is confused by that. "When I left, Cisco was left in charge. Me and Barry even agreed to leave him to be third in line if we weren't around. And...I haven't seen you make any decisions that were _good_. Why would you be in charge?"

"Because...I'm Barry's soon to be wife." Iris informs him.

Peter just looks completely more confused and raises his brow to Caitlin who doesn't know what to say to that.

"Iris, we've been working together for four years. Working alongside each other, learning from one another. Making decisions together. What makes you think you can just walk in and say you are the leader?" Caitlin asks, agreeing with Peter.

Before Iris could respond to that, the alarms go off and Peter looks at the computers.

"Unauthorized breach incoming," Peter reported, looking up at Caitlin in alarm. "We gotta move."

Uninvited fear spiked through Caitlin and Peter looked worried as he sees Crystal Frost's presence starting to bubble up inside of her, and turned her eyes flashing blue.

"_Don't change don't change don't change_," Caitlin begged herself under her breath.

"Caitlin!" Iris yelled, already halfway out the exit, not knowing what's happening between the two of them. "Let's go!"

Caitlin blinked, got ahold of herself, and followed Iris and Peter out of the Cortex.

-

Caitlin and Peter stand in front of the breach as Wally speeds in and brought Miles with him, ready to help Peter.

"You ready?" Wally asks when Cisco runs in.

"Hey, Hey. Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Cisco calls out as he runs in front of them. "Hold your fire!" He asks as Gypsy steps out of the portal.

"Hey." Gypsy casually greets them and they're all relieved it wasn't a threat.

"Hey, you wanna give me a little more notice next time? You know, people who wanna kill us come though here, right?" Cisco asks her.

"My bad, guys." Gypsy apologizes.

"Cisco, that was heroic of you to jump in and protect Gypsy like that. It's very impressive." Wally comments on him.

"Dude, I'm protecting you from her. She would have vaporized you guys." Cisco informs them.

"Yeah, I believe that." Peter admits, remembering their last encounters with her.

"As you were." Cisco tells them and they all leave the two of them.

"You think we were kind of hard on Iris?" Caitlin asks Peter.

"What? God, no. I just assumed she was constantly around the labs because she was going to die last year, and we were the only ones who could protect her. Cisco said that Barry left him in charge, and that's what she needs to see. She's not the leader of team Spider-Flash." Peter states since it's literally in the name.

"Fair enough." Caitlin assumes when they get an alert.

They run into the cortex and see Iris isn't even here. Which isn't exactly unwelcome or matter.

"There's a car going 120 swerving between lanes." Caitlin tells him.

"Call Barry, I'm headed there now." Peter says and grabs his mask as he makes his way out and rips his clothes to reveal his red and black suit.

-

Barry sped up to to beside the car and sees that it's a runaway car as the driver is screaming out the closed window.

"Driver's trapped inside. I'm gonna change his trajectory ." Barry tells Peter as he runs across the rooftops to help the best he can.

"Good idea. Turn him left on the upcoming turnoff." Peter says as his mask does a quick search of the area.

"No, I'll push him right. That streets empty." Barry says and does exactly that.

"Barry, they started construction on that street!" Peter informs him and Barry just noitices it as he comes to a stop.

Peter quickly leaps in and crashes into the engine and connects two webs to buildings and starts to hold the car up as Miles comes swinging in and keeps the back tires from touching the road.

"Basic mechanics." Miles says as his suit scans the car for the tires and quickly breaks the tires off and they place the car on the ground and Barry is relieved they were able to stop the car.

-

"I know a guy almost died, but what happened to this sexy beast here today is the real tragedy." Cisco comments as Peter ripped the system out of the car for Cisco to look over it.

"That could've gone a lot worse." Barry admits. "This was all on me."

"Not your fault, man. You didn't know." Peter assures him. "So, what have you got for us, Cisco?"

"I'll start beginning an auto-topsy right now." Cisco says and plugs it into their computers.

"That is the same weird code from the elevator murder scene." Barry comments on it.

"So the hacker has a hit list. That's bad." Peter adds on.

"Can you crack this?" Miles asks him.

"Man, I've been trying to crack this code all day." Cisco informs the kid.

"It looks like a virus." Caitlin comments.

"Well, yeah, because...it's a computer virus." Cisco replies.

"No, no. Scooch." Caitlin tells him and pushes Cisco out of the way and starts messing with the computer.

"I feel violated." Cisco says.

"It looks like an organic virus." Caitlin shows them.

"With a digital sub-base." Peter adds. "He isn't just hacking machines, he's controlling them."

"So he's a metahuman?" Barry guesses.

"Anything that connects the two people he's attacked?" Miles asks Cisco.

"There's nothing online. But their names, Weaver, Kwon, they sound very familiar to me." Cisco replies to him. "I started collecting these tech magazines in high school. They were like-"

"Those were the magazines you collected in high school?" Wally asks him.

"Okay. That's-that's hurtful." Cisco says as Peter, Caitlin and Barry look sympathetic since they're all nerds. "I'm 90% sure that's where I read those names."

"Well, then let's start digging in." Peter says as they all start heading to Cisco's labs where he for some reason keeps his magazines.

-

"Hello, mamacita." Cisco says as he opens one of the magazines. "They don't make them like you anymore."

"What the hell?" Gypsy asks looking at a computer chip in the magazine.

"It's just the Motherboard of the Month, July of '07, Okay? Look at her." Cisco tells her.

"Kinda wish it was a girl." Gypsy replies to that knowledge.

"We are such nerds." Peter complains to himself.

"Baby, it's been hours. You guys made any progress yet?" Gypsy asks them.

"No mention of Kurt Weaver or Tim Kwon or any connection between the two of them." Caitlin tells her when Cisco finds something.

"Until now. Got him." Cisco says and they move over to his magazine. "Take notes, people, it's only hoarding if it doesn't pay off."

"Okay, that's Tim Kwon. That's Kurt Weaver. That's Sheila Agnani." Caitlin lists them and they see a forth guy.

"Who's the big dude?" Peter asks.

-

Miles was visiting his father at the CCPD to see if they have any leads when he sees one of the bomb robot's walking out with a grenade and they evacuate everyone.

As everyone runs out, Miles sneaks away from his father and quickly changed into his outfit just in time for it to walk into the office with Joe and Tim Kwon to shoot a impact web to wrap the grenade up and it explode inside the web.

"You guys okay?" Miles asks the two in the room.

"Yeah, thanks Spider-Man." Joe says as Miles makes his way out of the window to get away quickly before anyone questions why he's here.

Later the team came by and learn it's the same code and same metahuman who did it.

"The good news is I found a connection between our victims." Cisco says and hands Barry and Joe the magazine. "Four years ago, Kurt Weaver and Tim Kwon created an app in their garage with two other programmers. Some malware called Kilgore. And then they sold it off to a big tech company."

"So that's how they made their money." Peter adds on.

"I saw this guy. He was here." Joe tells them, referring to the last guy.

"Ramsey Deacon. Looks like we found our meta. And for some reason he's going after his old partners." Barry adds.

"It's like _Silicon Valleyif_ Richard went nuts and stared killing everyone at Pied Piper." Cisco says.

"Nah, I'm feeling more of a anarchist Gilfoyle type of vibe off him." Peter corrects.

"Erlich, maybe." Cisco compromises.

"What about Sheila Agnani? He hasn't gone after her yet." Caitlin asks them.

"Well, she's like a big deal tech guru now." Cisco tells him.

"Well, she's definitely on his hit list. We're gonna have to protect her." Peter adds. "I'll pick up Miles and swing by her place, literally."

"And I'll keep working on the coding." Cisco promises and they leave.

-

"This guy is a living computer virus." Caitlin comments on the Ramsey's powers as she, Cisco, and Fox are working on decrypting it. "That's a new one."

"Look at this code. From the elevator, to the car, to the bomb robot, this code keeps changing. But I can't figure out why." Cisco tells them.

"Well, it's not just a digital code, it's human and digital." Fox reminds him.

"And most viruses mutate to avoid being killed." Caitlin replies.

"So, if we managed to create digital antibodies, then we can shut this guy down." Cisco says as Gypsy comes in. "Hi."

"Hey." Gypsy greets him.

"I'm so glad you're here, 'cause I truly, deeply, from the bottom of my heart...I am sorry, but I'm gonna have to cancel our date." Cisco tells her. "If you're gonna vibe blast me, can I pick the spot?"

"It's fine, Cisco." Gypsy assures him. "I get it."

"You get it?"

"Yeah, what's not to get? You have to work, so...we will cancel our date. Good luck. I hope it works out." Gypsy says as she leaves them.

"What a cool chick." Cisco tells the two of the men in the room.

"You're in trouble." Fox breaks to him.

"Yeah. When a girl says she gets it, what she really means is she doesn't get it at all." Caitlin confirms.

"I'm confused." Cisco replies.

"Don't be, it's simple." Caitlin says and walks up to him. "You, my friend, are in so much trouble." She breaks to him and leaves.

"You just had to fall for the girl in head to toe black leather, didn't you?" Cisco asks himself and sees Fox nodding his head in agreement.

-

Peter and Miles are in the Star labs van outside Shiela Agnani's home as they send several Spider-Drones inside with listening devices and cameras so they can see what's happening.

"Let's see what we've got in store for us." Peter says as they activate the cameras to see Tim Kwon visiting.

"Tim, what the hell, man?" Shiela asks, seeing him, "you can't just come into my house."

"Because you wouldn't return my calls. I really need-"

"Is this about your weird crush? Let it go, Tim. We're not happening." Shiela tells him.

"Sheila, listen. Deacon's coming for us. He wants payback for what we did to him." Tim tells her.

"What did we do to him? Kurt scrubbed any connection between us from the net, so as far as the world's concerned, we're innocent." Shiela tells him.

"But were not. I should have never let you talk me into going along with this. And now Kurt's dead. Deacon killed him."

"He did not."

"Oh, yes. He did." Deacon says as he enters the house and the cameras start glitching out and they grab their masks to get out and make their way inside to see that she's in insulin shock.

"Okay, I have something for this." Peter says and pulls out a syringe of glucose and injects her with it.

"You just carry that around with you?" Miles asks him.

"No, I grabbed it from the truck. Knew she was a diabetic." Peter expains and they look around for Tim.

"Deacon took him." Sheila tells the heroes and they're gonna need help.

-

They return to Star labs and fill in the team on what happened and they spent the day searching for them.

"No sign of Deacon or Kwon on facial recognition, traffic cameras, nothing." Caitlin tells the team.

"We don't even know if Kwon is still alive." Wally states.

"No, he wants him alive for something from what he said in the house." Peter states as Miles went home for the night. "Cisco, how are we with the bio-digital Antibodies?"

"I'm nowhere. Actually, no. You know what? I am somewhere. I'm in the doghouse. Apparently, the pan-dimensional doghouse." Cisco says as he starts walking around the cortex. "I don't know if this doghouse has a door or a window, but if it did, I'd be jumping out of it!" He says as he leaves the room.

"What was that about?" Barry asks.

"It's nothing, I'll go talk to him." Caitlin promises and leaves the room.

-

"I'm gonna take a guess and say that the reason you can't focus on the science is because you're so worried about what's going on with Gypsy." Caitlin guesses with Cisco.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear anything you said. But I think I figured it out." Cisco tells her. "I think I can't focus on anything 'cause of this whole Gypsy situation. I think I'm just gonna have to talk to her."

"That's a great idea." Caitlin says, knowing he just said what she said, but like he said he isn't focused as he opens a breach and Gypsy appears.

"What's up, Cisco?" Gypsy asks.

"You're mad me. Rule number one, when a girl says it's fine, it's not fine." Cisco tells her.

"Amen!" Caitlin says and feels like a third wheel suddenly. "I'm gonna go." She says and leaves the two of them.

"Cisco okay?" Peter asks her as they run into each other.

"He's having girl problems." Caitlin explains to him.

"I would make a joke about that, if I wasn't shocked Cisco is having girl problems." Peter replies when Cisco comes back in with an idea.

"Guys, I have an idea." Cisco says when a video comes up from the internet about Tim.

-

"_I have something to confess. Kurt Weaver, Sheila Agnani, and I we stole the Kilgore malware program from Ramsey Deacon. We sold it for billions. But it was all his idea. We got rich, and he got nothing._" Tim confesses.

"Well, looks like Deacon did need Tim for something." Wally sees.

"Can we track his livestream signal?" Caitlin asks cisco.

"I'm already on it." Cisco says. "Papa loves having his own satellite."

"What do we do when we find him?" Joe asks them.

"We hit him with this." Caitlin says and holds up a serum.

"Deacon's powers are derived from the binary code in his DNA. So, we created a compound encoded with a numerical string pattern of ones and zeroes to invert the order of the code." Cisco tells them.

"Ones becomes zeroes, and vice versa." Caitlin finishes.

"All right, we're on it. Send us the location once you have it." Barry says as the three heroes get ready to head out.

-

When they made it to the warehouse, they see Tim's arms are about to be dislocated and Peter shoots a taser web to shut it down as the speedsters free him.

"He and the others destroyed my life!" Deacon informs them.

"Listen, I know you feel wronged, betrayed, but that doesn't give you a right to take his life." Barry states but Deacon seems to be focusing on them.

"I smell technology in your suits." Deacon tells them. "What you got in there?"

Suddenly, Peter's web shooters start frying themselves and Peter drops the serum as his mask starts going black.

"I can't move." Barry tells them.

"Weapon system online." Cisco's voice tells Barry as his suit takes over and aims his hands at his friends.

"Run!" Barry warns when his suit shoots blasts at the two and Peter dodges it as Wally gets hit.

"Call me Kilgore." Deacon tells the two of them.

"Remote access complete." Cisco tells him.

-

"You put your voice in Barry's suit?" Joe asks Cisco.

"Well, it had to be somebody and my voice is very soothing." Cisco states.

"How much tech did you put in this new suit?" Caitlin asks.

"So much." Cisco admits.

"Peter, can you shoot a taser web?" Caitlin asks into the comm.

"_No, he fried my web shooters. I'm grounded and blind_." Peter tells her since his mask has gone dark. Luckily, he took some lessons from a blind friend how to use his powers to see without his eyes.

-

"I've actually been a huge fan of you guys for years." Deacon confesses to them. "But this is like having a Flash action figure." He says and makes Barry hit himself in the face.

"Someone listening in? We can't have that." Deacon says and shuts down his comms, not knowing Peter has a spare not tech based. "You have a defibrillator. How about I stop your heart?" He asks when Tim starts getting up and Deacon was distracted enough for Barry to get the two of them away from him.

"Okay, we need a plan." Barry tells Peter.

"Yeah, I'm all for that." Peter says as he gets up. "Can you take the suit off?"

Barry tries to and sees its stuck on.

"_That would The the deadlock function._" Cisco tells them. "_I built it in case he ever got knocked out so a bad guy wouldn't reveal his identity. It seemed like a smart idea at the time._"

"Flotation mode activitied." His suit says and Barry inflates.

"What does he need to turn into a raft for, Cisco?" Peter asks.

"_He runs on water. He might lose his speed out there._" Cisco explains.

"_A oxygen tank would've worked better_." Caitlin informs him.

"_That's a valid point_." Cisco admits as Barry's suit deflated.

"How is this thing still intact?" Barry asks while feeling his suit.

"Babel protocol activated."

"What's Babel protocol?" Peter asks as they hear the suit ticking.

"_It's the self destruction sequence._" Cisco tells them and they hear everyone freaking out. "_I'm sorry, have we not faced an evil Barry before? My mistake!_"

"How can we stop it?" Barry asks and Peter hears a sparking fusion box.

"I've got the best worst idea." Peter tells him and activates his spare web shooters that can only shoot normal webs, and none of his other gadgets and have no technology on them.

Peter then webs Barry's chest and webs looks to Barry. "I'm gonna short circuit the suit by allowing the electricity to flow through my webbing and into your suit."

"Do it." Barry agrees.

Peter shoots a web at the fusion box and upon impact, the electricity flows through him and onto the second webbing attached to Barry and they both feel their suits starting to short circuit as Peter holds on a song as he can before dropping the webbing and they feel the suits are shut down enough for them to run and Barry speeds to Kilgore and gives him the virus that shuts him down.

-

Returning to the labs, Cisco and Gypsy finally got to their date and they got Kilgore arrested and sent to Iron Heights.

Peter and Caitlin fixed up the suit and learned that Deacon didn't get his powers from the particle accelerator three years ago. Cisco promised that he would remove the tech from Barry's suit.

But what they don't know is that all they did was do their part in a plan of Clifford DeVoe.

And this was only the beginning.


	71. Parker luck

The blue tinted fog surrounded Cisco vision.

"Barry! Where are you?!" Cisco asks in fear.

"I don't know!" Barry rounded the corner, gripping his gun. "I lost Peter. There's too many of them, man."

"No!" Cisco cried. "You can take them, just listen to me. You just need to do one thing. Run, Barry. Run!"

Resolve strengthening, Barry shot to his feet and charged out of his hiding spot.

About three guns started rapid-firing, and his battle cry turned into a groan as his laser-tag chest-plate powered down. "C'mon," Barry huffed, glaring at Fox, Frankie and Caitlin who had shot him down. "They got me," he called over his shoulder to Cisco, who shook his head.

"You have failed this city!" Cisco groaned, before running out into the open himself. Before he could even fire his gun, his own chest-plate powered down.

Barry sighed, and pointed above where they see May was hiding out.

"For real, May?" Cisco asked, shaking his head. May smirked and blew invisible smoke from the barrel of his gun. "In the back?"

"Snooze, you loose." May sassed.

Barry and Cisco both gave extremely affronted expressions. Peter jogged up behind them, still holding her gun. "Wait, did you guys die already?" He asked, sounding unimpressed.

"May-" Cisco started.

Barry pouted. "She just told us that-ugh, never mind. Come on. Come on."

"I don't know what's wrong with kids these days." May says smiling at herself. "Childish."

Shaking her head in disappointment at Peter, though she didn't even know what he had said, Caitlin raised her gun and fired a few shots at her boyfriend before walking off after her best friends.

-

They returned their laser-guns and chest-plates at the front desk before joining Iris outside at a picnic table. As they sat waiting for Cecil and Joe to arrive with food.

"I can't believe you're that good at that, May." Cisco admits to her.

"Who do you think taught him how to play?" May asks looking to Peter.

"When you only have one friend and one family member, she basically does everything with you." Peter tells him as Frankie is between to him and Caitlin.

"That is both sad and sweet." Cisco replies to that news.

"That sums up my life in just two words." Peter admits.

Joe took the opportunity to arrive. "Pretzel for Caitlin," he said, placing the food down in front of her. "Corndog for Iris. Double cheeseburger for May. Two fries for Cisco. A double cheeseburger for Frankie. And three burgers, five churros, and six funnel cakes for Barry. Two hotdogs, a chimichanga, and a burger for Peter."

"Thank you, Wade." Peter says as it was him who got him into chimichangas.

Caitlin laughed outright as Peter's stomach growled and he rubbed his hands together, grinning like a small child, even more childish than his actual kid.

"Look at all of this junk!" Cecile said, shaking her head. "Guys, I'm really sorry. If the pipes in the house weren't making this weird, annoying sound, I would have had you all over for dinner."

"Squeaky pipes at the West house, what a surprise," Barry deadpanned, exchanging knowing looks with Iris, who nodded her agreement.

"Really?" Cecile seemed intrigued. "You're familiar with this sound?"

"Oh, yeah," Iris nodded. "You mean the..." She started squeaking horribly, making Barry and Joe laugh.

"It's been doin' that for..." Barry's eyebrows scrunched, thinking hard. "18 years?"

"Hey," Joe cut in before Iris could start imitating more parts of the house. "Every house has a personality. Ours just likes to be heard."

Iris' phone suddenly buzzed on the table next to her food as she glanced down at it, then grabbed it, eyes going wide. "Oh my gosh, they broke up! The Westler-Walkerlegs broke up! Yes!" She high-fived Barry before looking a little more subdued.

Peter let out a strained laugh. "Who are the Westler-walker-whatevers and why are we happy that their love is dead?" He wonders.

"They were the couple that was getting married at the Peezio the weekend of the second," Iris explained to the blank faces. "Which means now the venue is open!"

"That's amazing!" Caitlin commented, nodding. "What good luck!"

"Yeah," Barry grinned.

"So now we just need to put a deposit down." Iris said, grabbing for Barry's phone.

"I'll run it over," he offered.

"Nope!" she turned the phone screen to him. "Already got it covered, babe."

Suddenly, everyone's phones, save for Cecile, buzzed. "Oh, breach alert guys," Caitlin reported, getting to her phone first. "We gotta go."

Cisco grabbed on of his two orders of fries, and Barry stuffed another funnel cake in his mouth before grabbing a churro for the road. Then the whole Team ran off to Star Labs as May stayed with Frankie to finish eating.

-

Once they got there, they see Wally was there waiting for Jesse only for them to see Harry coming in instead.

"Hey, harry, is Jesse not coming?" Wally asks.

Harry looks sad and walks up to him and pulls out a box. "Okay...Just.." he hands Wally the box and turns it on.

"_Hey, Wally, it's me_." Jessy greets him.

"Good to see you all." Harry greets the team.

"_So, I've...I've been doing some thinking. And-you know, we've b-Th been so busy...you and earth- - - - — -_" the hologram glitched and Harry takes it back.

"Stupid hologram. You know, it's that darn atlantean plastic. It's really shoddy workmanship." Harry says as he tries getting the hologram back up.

"What is this thing?" Wally asks Harry.

"Break...break up cube." Harry explains to him, nervously. "You don't have these on your earth? Oh, that's not good. Okay. A breakup cube is...kind of what it sounds like. You know, you record a message for the person you want to...the person, and you pick a music setting, and then there's a tissue that pops out if you need that. You know, a breakup cube." He does his best to explain.

"Jesse's breaking up with me with a cube?" Wally asks.

"Seems like a really convenient way to break somebody's heart." Caitlin states and Harry agrees.

"What did she say in the message?" Wally asks as his voice starts cracking up.

"You know, you heard. You're a great guy...I don't remember." Harry says, trying to get out of this uncomfortable situation.

"Don't you have total recall?" Wally asks.

"Yeah, no, no. Don't...I did." Harry says. "I did, but I don't. Don't make me. She-you heard. She said you're a great, great guy and she was busy on our Earth, and you're busy here filling in for Allen on this Earth. She just felt you guys were a little out of sync. You know, and that she needs some time, you know, to work on her stuff. It's not you, it's me. Her, me. Her, not me. And she said, you know. I'll never forget you, because you're amazing and you were her...first."

At hearing that, the whole team got as nervous as Harry at that uncomfortable news.

"And a bunch of other stuff. Not import. So, he's touch, you don't need that. You're a tough guy, right, West?" Harry says.

"Yeah, um..." Wally just starts strolling out of the room sad.

"He doesn't want the cube. I don't blame him." Harry says as the alerts go off.

"Oh, thank god." Miles says and they all look at their phones.

"211s at First National And O'Sullivan Bank." Peter tells them.

"Could be a spree." Caitlin guesses.

"Central City's bank's on that avenue, too. We'll check it out." Barry says and grabs Peter before speeding off and Caitlin turns to Harry.

"We're not done." She warns him.

"What?" Harry asks, not seeing what he did wrong here.

-

Peter and Barry make their way to the bank and see some blonde carrying sacks of cash.

"I've got eyes on her." Peter says and gets ready to shoot a web at the Prius she was getting away in when suddenly a flock of birds come in and knock him off the pole he was on, causing him to fall.

"Last I checked, the Flash was faster than a Prius." Barry says as he speeds in only for someone to drop a barrel filled with marbles and Barry goes flying as Peter joins him as he also crashes.

Barry and Peter get up and look what just happened to them.

"What the hell?" Barry asks as he sees he tripped on marbles.

-

They went back to Star labs and went over the security footage and see that the camera was getting repaired so it was swinging around at the time of the robbery.

"That's the least secure security footage I've ever seen." Cisco comments.

"Yeah, that's not even the strangest thing she made happen. A flock of birds came in and knocked me off balance." Peter informs them. "My web shooters malfunctioned and didn't fire and my mask glitched while my senses didn't alert me about the not dangerous flock."

"And I slipped on a barrel of marbles. Like in a cartoon." Barry adds on.

"That's some seriously bad luck." Caitlin comments.

"There's no such thing as luck." Harry tells them.

"Yeah? Tell that to my cousin Hector. He got jinxed by an ex. Hasn't been able to find a mall parking spot for three years." Cisco states.

"Eh, I'm used to good/bad luck." Peter states. "Or as me and May call it; Parker luck."

That gets everyone confused and they look to him. "What's Parker luck?" Barry asks.

"It's basically what my whole life has been, a good and bad thing happen simultaneously. Parker luck." Peter explains.

"Give me a scenario to prove that." Cisco dares him.

"I lost my parents and go to live with my uncle which caused me to get bit by a spider giving me powers. I get these powers, only to loose my uncle because of them. I lost my uncle only to be moved out to my aunt where I become Spider-Man." Peter gives him several scenarios. "I get a good, and a bad. Or a bad, and a good." He sums up _Parker luck_ as Joe comes in.

"So we ran the sketches you guys made up for us through the database, and we have a match." Joe tells them and pulls up the file.

"Names Becky Sharpe. 24 years old, no priors." Peter reads.

"No priors? Then why is she in the database?" Barry asks.

"Because the last three years she's lived in Central City, she's been rear ended four times, identity stolen twice, even a cat burglar literally burgled her cat." Joe lists out.

"I know someone like that." Peter says, thinking of the Black Cat. Glad to have gotten rid of her.

"Okay, you see, Harry? That is bad juju." Cisco informs him.

"Ramon, what you call juju, I call quantum entanglement. Discrete quantum particles are connected, and when triggered, they simulate a synchronicity that, to the untrained eye, to the common eye, would seem like luck." Harry tells him.

"So, if Becky can affect the particles around her in a positive way, then their connected particles start spinning negatively." Barry puts together.

"So when good things happen to her, bad things happen all around her." Caitlin adds.

"Great. So she has a good luck field." Cisco states.

"Meaning she's a meta." Peter finishes.

"Except, she can't be." Cisco bursts their bubble. "She's only been in Central City for three years."

"So there was no way she was affected by the particle accelerator explosion." Caitlin agrees.

"But neither was Killgore." Peter reminds them.

"Not to sound like a broken record, but where are all these new ones coming from?" May asks after she and Frankie returned.

"Well, they're not mutants. Those guys have a different genetic mutation." Peter mutters to Caitlin since they're the only ones who know about mutants after the whole Amunett Black incident. Unless you talk about Juggernaut, Electro, or Lizard since they are mutants and everyone knows they exist. Then again, there is Morbius, but he's classified as a vampire.

"Maybe there's something in the suit that picked something up." Cisco says.

"You said you took out all the tech." Barry reminds him.

"Well, I left something in." Cisco states. "Sue me."

"Cecile needs me at the house. Let me know what you find out; all right?" Joe asks of them as he leaves.

"There." Harry says seeing something before Cisco.

"Yeah, I see it, okay?" Cisco states to him. "Yeah, the suit definitely registered traces amount of dark matter on Becky." He tells them.

"So if there was another dark matter incident..." May starts, hoping someone finishes.

"We need to figure out how and where it happened, ASAP." Barry finishes for her.

"I'll recalibrate your satellite to scan for the same dark matter found in the suit." Harry says and leaves.

"No, you won't." Cisco tells him.

"Yes, I will." Harry says.

"Don't touch the satellite!" Cisco tells him and runs off.

"I'll be touching it." Harry promises as he keeps walks.

"Don't!" Cisco tells him and everyone just smiles at their stupidity.

"Oh! Something just arrived for me at the loft. I gotta go." Iris says as she rushes off.

"What?" Barry asks and he leaves and Caitlin's phone goes off.

"And the bad news keeps going." Caitlin states looking at her phone.

"What's up?" Peter asks, looking to her.

"It's nothing. I'm just falling behind on some payments for my place." Caitlin tells him and puts her phone away.

"Oh, I remember those days. Working for the newspapers as a photographer for Spider-Man." Peter replies, remembering his old job and how in ten years he went from that to an owner of a company. "You need a loan? I have a lot I can spare."

"No, I'll be okay. I'll just...find out more about Becky that I can and worry about it later." Caitlin says and walks off.

May and even Frankie saw straight through the fine printing of that statement and looks to Peter. "You're in trouble."

"What'd I do?" Peter asks, missing his fault in this.

"Your girlfriend wants to move in with you." May tells him.

"What?" Peter asks, surprised by the news.

"Come on, Peter. She just happened to bring up that she's falling behind on payments when she gets paid enough to keep her place, especially with you. She is going to try and do it _I'll figure it out myself _is usually code for you have a suggestion. One of those being _I want to move in with my boyfriend._" May explains to him.

"Why wouldn't she just tell me?" Peter asks her.

"Because you know her history. You know she doesn't want to just ask." May reminds him and Peter can't argue with that when the others return as he thinks about it and the others have news on the metas.

-

"We did it? We brought dark matter into Central City?" Joe asks them.

"When you guys pulled me out of the Speedforce, yeah." Barry confirms.

"All the people on that bus, we turned them onto metas." Caitlin adds.

"Every time we do something right, we get something bad in return." Wally states.

"Parker luck." Peter tells him.

"You gotta stop with the Parker luck thing." Cisco begs of him.

"Maybe we should burn some sage." Iris suggests.

"Guys, were not cursed." Barry assures them.

"You're not cursed. You should be cursed at." Harry states.

"Okay, why should we be cursed at?" Cisco asks.

"You should be cursed at because you opened the Speedforce without consulting me." Harry explains.

"I did consult you, and your ethe one who gave me and Peter the calculations in the first place." Cisco reminds him.

"Don't drag me into this." Peter begs of him, not wanting to be yelled at by Harry. Besides, it was all Cisco's idea.

"I told you not to use them without consulting me. I said, _Ramon, don't use the calculations without consulting me._" Harry says and they start going back and forth on each other.

"If you don't need me here, I'll go back to my earth." Harry says and leaves.

"You're going back to your earth? I'll breach you there right now." Cisco promises.

"_I'll breach you there right now._" Harry says in a high pitch voice as he leaves the room.

"That's not what I sound like." Cisco states as he leaves.

"That was really high." Caitlin comments. "Listen, Cisco, I know Harry can stand to work on his bedside manner, but..."

"You know what, we don't need him. What we need is to focus on catching this meta." Cisco tells her.

"Yeah, you're right. But Becky's not like our standard villains. If we can track her down, maybe we can talk to her." Peter says when Joe gets a call and looks to Barry.

"I need you to run me to the house." Joe asks of Barry.

"You said you never wanted-"

"I need you to run me to the house." Joe repeats and Barry does that.

"I'm gonna go find Becky, Frankie, stay with Caitlin please." Peter says and gets into his suit to patrol until they find her as Peter needs to clear his head in thinking about him and Caitlin moving in. I mean, it makes sense since they've been dating for over a year, unless you discount the six months they were technically not seeing each other and he was moving Frankie in.

-

He found Becky at Jitters, sitting and scratching away at one of the cards with the numbers underneath. Apparently she won, because she grinned excitedly and tapped her card against the table.

"Becky?" Peter asked softly, tilting his head. "Mind if I sit here?"

Becky looked up at him, her face scrunching. "Today's my lucky day, but you're really not my type," she said with a shrug.

"Can I sit?" Peter repeated, not waiting for a response and taking the seat across from her. "Um, Becky. Well, you're probably wondering how I know your name."

Becky shrugged. "It's written on my cup."

Peter, consequently diverted from his perfect entrance into his point, fumbled for a second. "Right, but, um, no. That's not how I know your name. You see, I investigate very...special people."

Becky looked excited. "Celebrities?"

"No, not celebrities," Peter said awkwardly. "Metahumans. Which is what I think you are."

Becky looked confused. She let out a nervous laugh and reached for her coffee.

"See, I think you were exposed to Dark Matter on a city bus three weeks ago." Peter continued.

"I think I would know if I was exposed to _Dark Matter_." Becky deflected. "That's weird."

Peter was undaunted. "Becky, I know you've been having a lot of luck lately, and that you took some money from the Central City Bank that didn't belong to you."

Becky looked a little alarmed. "How do you know all that?"

"I just do. Look, getting powers...it's overwhelming. I'm sure you don't know how they work, or what you should do with them..."

"I have some idea." She states.

Peter reached forward, but Becky gave him a look. "Ah ah ah. Do you really wanna...test your luck? Bad things happen to people who get in my way."

Peter's senses called out and he looked slowly around Jitters. The pressure on a coffee machine was rising to dangerous levels. A waitress on the second floor lost her hold on the trey of coffees and they almost went spilling over the banister. Someone working on the Jitters sign turned his staple gun towards his face as it stopped working.

"Listen, Buddy," Becky continued, turning Peter's attention back to her. "My entire life has been one piece of crummy luck after the next."

"Well, we all have ups and downs in life-"

"No, not Becky Sharp," Becky sighed. "I have only ever been dealt bad hands. But I knew one day the universe would see it made a mistake! And then I'd have the run of the table. I got on that bus, and Lady Luck smiled on me."

Peter shook his head. "Becky, this isn't some higher power fixing a universal miscalculation. You have powers, and they're affecting everyone around you, making them feel as awful as you once felt."

Becky glanced at her hands, letting out a small sigh. "I'm sorry about that," she admitted. "But maybe it's just their turn. Maybe for once everyone else can feel for a second how bad I've felt my entire life. Anyway. There is _nothing_ you can do to stop me."

She got out of her chair and started to walk backwards.

Peter was about to go after her when he saw a drop of the coffee from the struggling waitresses mugs drip down toward the floor. It headed towards the dangerously-pressured coffee machine, which was about to explode, steam pouring from it. A mother and her baby walked through the doors as the worker pointed his staple gun at them and then his face again, still trying to figure out what was wrong.

"Tootles," Becky said, heading for the back exit.

Unable to follow her, Peter was forced to watch her leave through the back.

-

"So what are we going to do?" Miles asks as Peter returns with what happened.

"I don't know. I mean, I'm not sure yet." Barry tells him. "None of us can get close to her without getting hit by back luck."

"Seriously, this girl's a hazard." Cisco tells them and realizes he has her name. "Hazard. That's the one. Maybe that means the jinx is gone."

"I would've gone with Lady Luck." Frankie comments and Peter agrees with her.

"Her powers only work in her immediate vicinity. She didn't jinx us." Barry assures him.

"And the house is still falling to pieces." Joe tells him.

"It's been falling apart for years, just...really slowly." Barry tells him.

"Plus, Jesse dumped me." Wally adds.

"I know, dude. And that sucks." Barry says.

"And I might be having communication problems with Caitlin." Peter adds since Caitlin's not in the room.

"You guys will work it out. You always do." Barry assures him.

"And we're up against a meta we can't touch. And we're the ones who made her in the first place." Cisco adds on.

"Guys, do you have any idea how ridiculous you all sound?" Barry asks. "We have not been jinxed, or cursed, all right? We make our own luck, right? So what do you saw we focus and we figure this out?"

Just then Barry's phone rings and it's Iris and he has to leave.

-

Cisco and Harry had a talk about what's happening back on his earth when the alarms start blaring and everyone returns to the cortex.

"Guys, there are low probably events happening all over the city." Caitlin warns them.

"Becky's quantum field is expanding." Peter explains as they see what's happening from the monitors.

"Okay, that's not possible." Harry states seeing the same results.

"Yeah, we poses are localized." Barry states.

"Not anymore apparently." Harry replies as they watch the field expanding.

"It's getting bigger and worse." Caitlin says when they get a alert signal from an airplane that got hit by a bird.

"Why is she suddenly this powerful?" May asks them.

"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction," Harry explains to her.

"Which means the more good luck Becky is receiving, the more bad luck others are getting." Peter explains.

"She must be experiencing a extreme amount of luck for her quantum field to be expanding like this." Caitlin says.

"Where is she now?" Barry asks.

"She seems to have gone back to work." Cisco tells them and that's bad. She's at a casino.

"If Becky keeps winning, the bad luck will keep spreading." Barry states starting to panic. "This could destroy the city."

"Okay, keep calm. Nothings going wrong here." Cisco assures him when Peter's senses go off.

"You jinxed it." Peter says as the alarms start blaring and Peter looks to see the particle accelerator's turning on. "Why didn't we unplug that?" He wonders as Harry and Cisco run off to turn it off.

"We've got four minutes until the particle accelerator activates." Caitlin warns them as the heroes have made their way to stop Hazard.

"_The generators turned themselves on. We've got to shut them down._" Cisco tells her and they get to work.

-

The heroes arrive at the casino and see Becky is at the 10 million jackpot.

"That much good luck, it's the end of the city." Peter says and Barry takes a step only to slip on coins and accidentally handcuffed himself.

"Okay, hows that even possible?" Barry asks. "And how come nothings happen to you?"

"I don't know." Peter admits as he now can't do anything with Barry had the only pair of handcuffs.

"_Guys, what's happening?_" Caitlin asks.

"Well, Hazard is at the ten million dollars slots and Flash handcuffed himself." Peter informs them on the events that transpired in the last half minute.

"We need to get these cuffs off." Barry says.

"We can't...time for some Parker luck." Peter says as he comes up with a bad plan.

"What do you mean?" Barry asks as Peter shoots a taser web to the nearest lights on the ceiling and starts short circuiting the entire casino and setting the alarm off, getting everyone to evacuate.

Except the only slot machine still working was Becky's and to top it all off, a sign fell and hit Peter on the head.

"You've got to be kidding me." Barry complains as now they're in serious trouble.

Harry and Cisco allowed the accelerator to turn on and a wave of energy consumes the city and Becky losses the slot.

"_What just happened_?" Caitlin asks.

"_The hydrogen electron collision released a charge that temporarily negated Hazard's quantum field_." Cisco explains to her which means she doesn't have powers for a minute.

Peter takes this time to wake up and lift the sign off of them and was able to deactivate the cuffs with ease and Barry cuffs Becky.

"Okay. Hi." Becky greets Barry as Peter rubs his head in pain. "Is there, like, any chance that you're not gonna arrest me?" Becky asks.

"Sorry, not your lucky day." Peter quips as he approaches them.

"Yeah, I understand." Becky says as Barry leads her out for the cops.

-

Caitlin did a quick check-up on Peter's head, and the two of them sat and waited while the rest of the Team filled into the room.

"Becky is locked up in the meta wing at Iron Heights." Joe tells them.

"Something tells me our bad luck streak has come to an end." Barry assures the team.

"Good. We can't afford to blow this place up a third time." Cisco says.

"So, look at these heat scans taken from the satellite. This is three weeks ago." Harry says and pulls up the bus.

"Isn't that the Central City bus?" Frankie asks.

"Each of these heat scans indicate a human body." Caitlin explains to her.

"Twelve markers, twelves metas." Cisco says as he was halfway through putting Becky's picture on the whiteboard, which held spaces for all the possible bus-metas. "Now we know how many there are, we won't have to wait for them to come to us. We can go to them."

It was about then that Wally West joined them, as Wally took a quiet seat in the corner and simply watched.

"Two down," Peter said, nodding.

"We got this." Cisco agreed, grinning.

"Yeah," Wally said, speaking up finally. "You do."

The rest of them frowned at each other, unsure of what to make of this comment. "Wally...what's wrong?" Joe asked, confused.

Wally stood up, his shoulders slumped. "You guys tell me. The city was about to blow up...no one realized I wasn't here."

How had they have not noticed that one of the members of their team was just...gone? Miles, yes, he left for the night and was having his own form of bad luck at home with his folks.

"Where did you go, Wal?" Iris asked, eyebrows scrunching.

"I went to Earth-2 to see Jesse," Wally said, glancing around the room. "I needed to hear it from her," Wally continued. "She told me she needs to focus on herself, and I get it. And I think I have to do the same."

Joe and Iris both frowned, confused, but Barry nodded. He understood how it felt when you needed time to figure yourself out.

"So..." Wally let out a sigh. "I'm leaving Central City."

"W-where are you going?" Joe asked, his voice soft.

Wally's spine straightened. "I'm going to go stay with a friend in Blue Valley."

"Every hero has their own journey," Barry spoke up, nodding at him. "Yours is taking you on a new path. You owe it to yourself to go."

Wally nodded back, looking relieved that at least one person supported his decision. He strode forward and wrapped Barry in a hug, which Barry returned with a small half smile.

Caitlin took her cue as he pulled back and hugged Wally herself. "Good luck," she whispered to him, and he nodded into her shoulder. She stepped back, standing next to Barry and taking his hand.

Wally said goodbye to the rest of the team, but soon he was walking out the door, shoulders straight and looking more at peace then he had in a long time.

"West leaves..." Harry muttered thoughtfully. "Allen returns, West leaves, move and counter move."

Peter frowned at the oddly chess statement. "What's your point?"

"Simply that..mysterious stranger comes down, seeks out the Flash..."

"Causes us to open the Speed Force," Caitlin added, tilting her head in consideration.

Cisco nodded, catching on. "Which caused the creation of a dozen new metas."

"Wait," Joe spoke up. "You think...the guy being the Samurai Robot-"

"Samuroid," Cisco corrected.

"You think he wanted us to create a busload of metas?" Joe asks.

Harry shrugged. "I think it's all connected."

"Why would anyone want to create metas?" May questions, not seeing the point.

"I don't know." Barry shook his head. "But whoever they are, they've got a seriously warped way of thinking."

Little did they know that someone was watching them, even in that moment, peering through the empty plastic eyes of the Samurai head Cisco had put on display.

Someone who had been watching them the whole time.

-

The team called it a night and Caitlin just gets into Peter's apartment and sees him thinking.

"What are you thinking about?" Caitlin asks him.

"Nothing." Peter says and gets up and walks over to her with something in his hand. "Just...May and I had a talk earlier today about after your whole apartment situation and she helped me decipher what it was you were saying, and..." he holds out a spare key to his home and places it in her hand. "I realized that I never actually had a spare to the place, considering all the times I sneak in through the window constantly. So, if you want to, me and Frankie can move some things around and make room for you to be added."

Caitlin doesn't say anything and just wraps her arms around his neck and starts kissing him and he returns the kiss, happy that he understood what she was trying to tell him.


	72. The elastic waistband

Peter and Caitlin spent the next couple of days packing up and moving everything out of her apartment and into Peter's place.

Which was a pain, especially when you're the only person in the relationship with super strength.

"My back is killing me." Peter complains as the two of them made it to Star labs after they've dropped Frankie off at school together.

"Sorry you had to do most of the heavy lifting." Caitlin apologizes feeling guilty for the injured hero.

"Why does Crystal have so many heavy things?" Peter asks as he completely forgot about Crystal being part of the deal moving in with each other.

"She's a complicated woman." Caitlin says.

"You know we have to tell the team about her sooner or later, right?" Peter reminds her. "I'm okay with keeping her a secret as long as you need, but they need to know."

"I know..." Caitlin assures him as the doors open and they get off just to see Cisco and some big scary guy walking into the elevator.

The two of them look completely confused and they walk to the cortex to see exactly what they found out.

"Why is the scariest person I've ever seen roaming our halls?" she asked, walking into the Cortex with her eyebrows raised.

"Cisco," Barry and Joe replied as one.

Nodding in understanding, Caitlin an Peter turned their attention to Harry, who had started speaking. "I've got the coroner's report here for the death of the bus driver, but it doesn't seem like there's any signs of foul play."

"Aside from him being the only one who could have told us who was on that bus," Joe commented.

"Now for his personal effects;" Harry frowned in concentration. "Credit cards, cash, receipts..."

"Wait, go back," Barry said, his eyes catching something on the screen they hadn't.

Harry scrolled back to the previous display, which was a card that read _Ralph Dipney, Private Investigator_ with a fingerprint in the center. Next to that was written: _I owe you 5 for the ride. 10/10/17._

"Ralph Dipney," Barry muttered.

"I'll be darned," Joe agreed.

"Who is Ralph Dipney?" Peter asked.

"He used to be a cop." Joe responded.

"Dirty cop," Barry added. "He got kicked off the force."

"Why'd he get kicked out?" May asked.

"It's a long story." Joe murmured.

Harry quickly pulled up a profile and Barry turned to the screen, his lips scrunching. "That's him."

"The IOU is dated the same day that I came out of the Speed Force," he noted.

"You think Dipney was on the bus that day?" Caitlin asked. "Maybe he's a metahuman now?"

Barry's lips pinched again unhappily. "Let's pay him a visit."

-

Ralph Dipney had very much been on the bus that was hit by Dark Matter. He now had the disgusting, weird, but _very_ scientifically interesting ability to stretch.

The ability, unfortunately, was one that he had absolutely no control over. After being dangled off the building by a few guys that didn't like him all that much, Ralph's legs had stretched so long that he landed on his back in an alleyway, five stories lower. That was where Joe and Barry had found him, his legs a pile of stretch around him and decidedly in shock.

Those aforementioned legs were still just as long as they had been in the alleyway, and were now stretched almost halfway to the Star Labs elevator, where they led to the Cortex and the medical bed.

Barry and managed to round up Ralph and bring him back to Star Labs, where Peter and Caitlin were now trying desperately to calm him down.

"_What happened to me?!_" Ralph demanded, completely flipping out.

"Breath," Peter commanded as he and Caitlin made matching inhale-exhale motions with their hands.

"I am breathing," Ralph wheezed, eyes still locked on his ridiculously long legs.

"Clearly this guy is a meta," May muttered looking over the information she received from her scans and hands it to Harry who is shocked.

"This is interesting," Harry commented, seeming the only one calm with the whole thing. "It seems the Dark Matter has polymerized Dipney's cells."

"What the _heck_ is Dark Matter and why is it my cells?!" Ralph cried out in fear and shock.

"You're saying the walls of every cell in his body have elasticized?" Caitlin asked, her face now looking intrigued.

"I'm saying they've formed an unbreakable bond at the atomic level. Now you can stretch these cells and stretch these cells and stretch these cells." Harry says with a chuckle at the end.

"Like silly putty!" Caitlin proclaimed, eyes wide with amazement.

Ralph gave her a horrified look. "I'm silly putty?"

"No," Peter and Caitlin assured him together.

Harry, however, shrugged. "Kinda."

"_I'm silly putty?!_" Ralph grit out.

"Ralph!" Joe interjected before things could escalate more. "Who were the guys on the roof?"

"Is that _really_ the issue right now?" Ralph asked, gesticulating widely at his legs that stretch all the way to the elevator. "LOOK AT ME!" He reached up, grabbed Barry's coat collar, and yanked him down. "Allen, you and your Star Labs nerds better put me back together-"

"We're trying to help you!" Barry yelled, obviously infuriated at being grabbed like that.

"Yeah ri-"

"Would you shut up-"

"Okay!" Caitlin yelled, pulled Barry away from Ralph before a fight could break out and she stood in between them. "We can do this later; I just need a sample of blo-AH!"

She had grasped Ralph's arm, prepared to pull it until she could stick a needle into it, maybe a little less gently then she should have. Instead of making him lean over in bed, his entire arm stretched until it was a limp string in her hands.

Sick with disgust, Caitlin abruptly dropped his arm, then accidentally stepped on it. When Ralph yelled in pain she stumbled back, put her hand on a depressor for a gas spray, and fell into Peter's arms.

The spray hit Ralph and his entire face twisted...Then he sneezed.

Ralph's face became liquid goo, oozing into his hands. "OOH..." Ralph groaned, voice coming out weird and muffled, but his lips, which were lying in his hand, somehow still moving. "Is that my face?!"

Joe turned around and vomited. "Four years seeing this stuff, I finally puked."

"Almost fifteen years after seeing this and I'm able to say I'm disgusted." Peter agrees with him.

"You gotta fix him, Caitlin, May, anyone," Joe pleaded as they all stood around the Cortex, talking about Ralph's...situation. "My stomach can't take much more."

"I think I could stabilize his cells if I had a sample of his DNA from prior to when he was exposed to the Dark Matter on the bus," Caitlin told them.

Barry turned around from where he had been putting up Ralph's picture on the white board. He frowned. "Why? So he can go out and start hurting people like our other friends here? I think we should lock him up in the Pipeline."

"He hasn't done anything." Caitlin defends

"Yet," Barry said. "Trust me. I know this guy. He's a bad guy."

"Barry..." Caitlin responded, her voice trailing off awkwardly. "Me and May took an oath to help people. We're doctors. We can't just leave him in there like spaghetti."

Barry didn't seem to be listening. He had turned and picked up a marker, and, in bold black letters, wrote _VILLAINS_ at the top of the white board.

"Villains?" Peter asks, not exactly happy with that.

"Yeah," Barry said. "Every person that was on that bus is now a thousand times more dangerous than they were before. Dipney included."

"What if he's changed?" Caitlin protested.

"People don't change," Barry said, rolling his eyes.

Caitlin shook her head. "I did," she said bluntly. "When I became Killer Frost, you guys still believed in me. When Frankie became Magenta, we believed in her."

"You're both good people." Barry told her softly. "He's...not."

Caitlin let out a long sigh, and Iris took her cue. "Barry, how about you and I go to Ralph's office and look for some DNA for Caitlin, alright?"

Telling from her tone that she wouldn't take no for an answer, Barry rolled his eyes and huffed like a petulant child, and the two of them left the others in the Cortex alone as Joe left to see what he can find on Ralph about who those guys were.

-

Iris and Barry had been ambushed when they went back to get the DNA from Ralph's office. Iris came back and told Caitlin the whole story, ending with, "And that's what it feels like to vibrate through solid matter."

Caitlin whistled softly. "I'm just glad you two weren't hurt."

"No thanks to your little buddy in there," Barry said grumpily.

"He's not my buddy, he's my patient," Caitlin shot back, patience beginning to wear thin.

"Caitlin, I just don't understand why you're defending him."

She spun around, her eyes blazing and the truth finally spilling out. "Because I know what it's like to suddenly find yourself with _extraordinary _powers and be totally freaked out by it! And so do you, for that matter. And so does Peter, but that was different circumstances. You and I _both_ woke up in this lab once knowing our lives would never be the same. So how about you give the guy a little sympathy?"

Barry's head dropped, and Caitlin knew she had finally gotten him to listen to her side of the argument.

It was about then that Joe walked in, with the information that Ralph.

"I pulled the records on Ralph's phone. There were fifteen phone calls between him and the Mayor's office." Joe tells them.

"What is Mayor Bellows doing talking to a private detective?" May wonders as Barry goes to talk to him and Peter follows.

"Oh, look, it's my good buddy Barry Allen." Ralph says as they see his legs and arms stretched out like that one scene in _Fan4stic_ with mr. Fantastic.

"Someone just blew up your office." Barry tells him.

"Sweet. Insurance claim." Ralph says as happy as can be.

"My fiancée and I almost died." Barry informs him.

"You landed West's daughter? Wow. Everything's coming up Allen." Ralph tells him, sounding a little out of it.

"Yeah, Caitlin and May have him on a few painkillers so he's a bit loopy." Peter explains to Barry who understands.

"Who's trying to kill you, Dibny?" Barry asks him.

"Do you know how many people I have pissed off in the last five years?" Ralph asks him. "Angry husbands. Angry wives. Not exactly dealing with high society taking photos of cheating spouses."

"Then why are you talking to the Mayor?" Peter asks the man.

"Who says I am?" Ralph asks back.

"Your phone records." Barry and Peter say at once.

"Did-did you get a warrant for that?" Ralph asks Barry. "'Cause I know you're all by the book."

"What's your business with Mayor Bellows?" Barry asks him.

"Nothing. Just calling to tell him what a swell job I think he's doing." Ralph tells him.

"You did that fifteen times?" Peter questions him.

"Twelve of those were butt dials." Ralph obviously lies.

"Whatever. Maybe we'll go talk to the Mayor ourselves. He's a huge fan of Joe's." Barry tells him.

"Yeah, you go do that. I'm gonna stay here and stretch my legs." Ralph says as Barry leaves and Caitlin returns.

"I farted. I'm not sure everything's still where it's supposed to be down there." Ralph confesses to them.

"Drink this." Caitlin says holding out a vial out to him.

"What is it?" Ralph asks her. "I don't just drink stuff. My body is a temple."

"Clearly." Caitlin mocks as Peter chuckles under his breath. "Drink it."

"I wanna know what it is." Ralph tells her.

"It's 17% alcohol." Caitlin tries.

"You should have lead with that, sister." Ralph says as he takes it with his only good limb and drinks it. "Ugh! What was that?"

"It's a seeum of sulfur, zinc oxide, and steric acid to cross-link your polymerized cells." Caitlin explains to him.

"In English." Ralph responds.

"It's a drink to make you less like silly puddy." Peter tries helping him and his limbs quickly return to normal length as he knocks a few things over.

"You did it. I'm cured." Ralph cheers.

"Well, not cured. All we did was introduce a stabilizing enzyme to reset your body to default shape through vulcanization." Caitlin explains and he's at a lost.

"You still stretch, except you will be able to return to normal instead of becoming silly puddy again." Peter translates to him.

"Why couldn't you just lead with that?" Ralph asks as he stands up.

"So now you just think the shape you want to be and just be it." Caitlin says and they watch as Ralph thins himself out.

"I'm back. I look like a Hemsworth." Ralph says happy about himself.

"You're vitals are fantastic," Caitlin reported to Ralph.

Ralph smiled coyly at her, looking pleased. It was about then that Joe and Barry came in.

"Blackmailing the mayor?" Barry said, shaking his head in disapproval.

"Classic Barry Allen; enters the room and accuses wildly," Ralph shot back.

"We know about the photos, Ralph. Bellows told us everything," Joe said, face drawn.

"Hey. I'm not the one who told him to step out on his wife," Ralph said with a shrug.

"That's your defense?!" Barry demanded. "It's his fault that you're extorting him."

"Isn't that a little easy for you to say?" Ralph responded, undoing the armband Caitlin had given him to check his blood pressure and all but throwing it at her. "Your fancy lab, your good job, and your hot girlfriend? People like me are just trying to get from one bill to the next. And I wouldn't have to be living like that if you hadn't cost me my job!"

"You got yourself fired!" Barry shouted angrily. "You tampered with evidence! You framed that guy."

"Because he was guilty!" Ralph roared. "And he was gonna get away with killing his wife and then you let him go. I was a good cop. I was a good detective! I lost everything." His voice suddenly lowered in pitch, down to a low tone. "The mayor's got plenty of money. He can spare a little. Consider it the pension youcost me."

Barry shook his head. "Good people don't destroy lives and call it noble," he said, his voice even. "You were dirty then. You're dirty now. Live with that."

Ralph's jaw tightened and he started to stride around Barry, towards the exit. Barry grabbed his upper arm. "You're not going anywhere."

"Get off me," Ralph growled, swinging around and trying to punch Barry in the face.

Barry ducked, popped back up, and punched Ralph in the nose.

Ralph's entire face bent and formed around Barry's fist, so for a second his hand was stuck inside the mass of skin.

Peter winced, stomach turning in disgust as did Caitlin's and Joe closes his eyes, not wanting to throw up again.

Finally, Barry wrenched his hand out, looking furious.

Ralph shook his head, returning it back to it's correct shape, and gave Barry a hurt look. "Thanks for ruining my life _twice_, Allen." He says before strolling out.

-

Peter and Caitlin were the only ones who were left in the labs as Barry, Joe and Iris left as Cisco is running around as Gypsy's father is still hunting him and they just returned home for the night and started to unpack as Frankie is in he room with homework.

"Should we be concerned about Cisco or Ralph?" Caitlin finally asks him as she goes through a box of her things.

"I wouldn't be too concerned." Peter assures her when he gets a call from Barry and hears that the Mayor's men just tried to kill him and Joe. "On second thought, be very concerned."

-

Ralph decided that he was done blackmailing the Mayor, but instead of appreciating the offer, the Mayor shot him.

Of course, Bellows didn't know about Ralph's new stretchy ability. Ralph's face stretch back, the bullet not penetrating him at all, and he shot it out of one nostril into his hand.

"Bullet booger," Ralph winced. "Super gross."

Before Bellows could shoot again, the Flash and Spider-Man arrived. Barry sped towards the Mayor and grabbed the gun out of his hand, moving Ralph at the same time.

"Mr. Mayor," Barry said, vibrating his voice and swinging the gun around one finger. "It's over."

It was about at that moment that a breach opened and Breacher leaped out. He nailed Barry and Ralph with two breaches, one from either hand, and they tumbled backward.

"Die, Plastiod!" Breacher bellowed. "Die! You will not infest this world as you did mine, Plastiod!"

He stalked toward Barry and Ralph, who were struggling to get up off the ground.

"Plastoid? What?" Ralph blinked in confusion. "Is he talking to me?"

"Breacher," Peter said calmly walking towards him. "Stop-"

Breacher didn't listen, just blasted them with another vibe. "He dies!"

The Mayor took that opportunity to grab the gun and take off running towards the door. He ran into Joe, and shoved him in. "Get moving, Joe!"

"FLASH!" Joe yelled, getting Barry's attention as he was hustled off and gunpoint.

Concentration lost, Barry was easily knocked back by another vibe-blast. Ralph eyed Breacher nervously. "Look," he babbled. "You don't have to do this!"

"_Yes I do_," Breacher growled, and lifted his hands. Just as Ralph thought it was all over, Cisco appeared in front of him in his Vibe outfit.

"Leave him alone," he commanded, in full Vibe regalia. "This guy didn't invade your planet, he didn't do anything wrong! He's like this 'cause of me and my Team. So if you've got a problem with him and his powers, then you deal with me."

Even though he was shaking with nerves, Cisco held his ground until, slowly, Breacher lowered his arms.

The sound of a helicopter made them all look up. Barry lurched to his feet, hurrying over to Cisco and staring upward. "The Mayor took Joe," he muttered, horror evident in his voice. "I can't run fast enough right now. I'll never have enough speed to just off. Can you breach me up there?"

Cisco shook his head. "No way. The event horizon would tear that helicopter apart."

"I've got an idea." Peter says as he shoots several webs and holds onto the underbelly of the helicopter and holds on as long as he can. "I can't hold this for long, so figure out a plan." He warns them.

"Okay," Barry breathed. Suddenly, he turned to Ralph. "You can get me up there."

Ralph blinked. "Me? How?"

"You can stretch, Ralph!" Barry cried, loosing patience.

"Are you crazy? I can't do that!" Ralph protested.

"I'm loosing balance here, guys!" Peter warns them as he goes flying and uses his strength to hold himself onto the side of the building to keep the helicopter where it is.

"Yes you can. Alright? I know that you have it inside of you to help someone other than yourself. I know you, Ralph."

Ralph squinted. "How could you possibly know me?"

Sighing in resignation, Barry pulled off his cowl.

"Dude, are you kidding me?" Ralph scoffed. "You're the Flash?! Everyone else gets struck by lightning and dies, and you get superpowers?!"

"Your assistants a speedster?" Breacher asks Cisco and Peter is confused by what he's talking about.

"I liked the Flash. Now I have to hate the Flash." Ralph states.

"Ralph!" Barry interrupted, grabbing his shoulder. "Focus. I need you to do this. Joe needs you to do this, please. Show me I was wrong about you. You said you were a good cop? Be one. Right now."

Face darkening in consideration for a painful few seconds, Ralph finally turned around and flung his arm skyward in the same direction as the webs that are holding the helicopter as his arm is big enough for Barry to climb and isn't sticky like Peter's webs.

It stretched, and kept stretching until it had grasped onto the bottom off the helicopter. "Hold on, Ralph!" Barry encouraged, before pulling on his cowl and racing up Ralph's elongated arm.

He found himself in the helicopter, in firm possession of the Mayor's gun, seated next to Joe.

Joe turned to him.

"Cecil's pregnant." He says and that makes Barry's eyes go wide.


	73. Ladies night

Peter, Frankie, Caitlin, and Crystal put together their apartment the way the four of them agreed upon in time for the bachelor parties for the West-Allen wedding.

And believe Peter, when you date someone with a split personality who's a Snow Queen, it's a difficult task to find a compromise when the two sides disagree.

Barry offered Ralph a place on the team so that he can learn about his powers, and then Ralph said he was told to be on that bus from some guy named DeVoe sent him there and they remember Abra Kadabra mentioned he would be one of their greatest threats.

Cisco, Harry and Barry were working on it as Peter comes into the speed labs and runs into Felicity.

"Hey, guys, look who I found." Peter says as they see Felicity is here.

"Yo, Felicity!" Cisco greets her as Barry hugs her.

"How'd you get in here?" He wonders.

"I literally walked in here. You have no security, no alarms, you have nothing on your door. You guys might wanna consider something, anything at all." Felicity tells them and they see the bachelorette party supplies she brought with her.

"Yeah, well, from Team Arrow to Team Bride, very excited for that bachelorette party." Felicity tells him.

"Yep, getting inebriated with same gender to celebrate an archaic institution?" Harry says.

"Priceless." Cisco replies to that.

"So, where's Caitlin?" Felicity asks Peter.

"She's upstairs in her labs. We just got our apartment together, she wanted to get something done here." Peter tells her.

"You guys moved in together?" Cisco asks.

"You were being hunted at the time." Peter explains why he didn't learn that as Felicity leaves to find the others.

-

Caitlin was in fact in her labs just working on somethings like Peter said when Felicity and Iris approach.

"Well here you are!" Caitlin spun around to find Felicity and Iris walking towards her. "Are you ready for the Lady's Night to end all Ladies Nights?" Felicity asked excitedly. She was holding a large gift bag with balloons floating above it.

"And by that she means a quiet, lowkey dinner at a classy restaurant," Iris corrected.

"Yeah!" Felicity grinned. "That's what I mean. Super lowkey, super quiet." She held up two puffy feather boas. "Do you want a pink, or a blue feather boa?"

"I'll take the blue boa, thank you!" Caitlin tells Felicity, happy to have some time away from the labs as she still needs to tell the team about Crystal, like Peter said they can't keep her a secret forever.

-

Later on, the boys got together at Joe's house, sadly Fox didn't join them and he's offered to watch over Frankie for Peter to have the night with them.

"Bachelor Party!" Cisco crowed, leading the way through the door and Joe greeted them with grins. "Ladies, get out."

Cecil and Joanie, who were sitting together on the couch, stood up. "Well, that's our cue," Cecil said with a laugh, and the two of them headed toward the door.

"Hey, Barry, congrats on getting hitched," Joanie told Barry with a grin.

"Thank you! I didn't realize you were in town," Barry replied, walking into the living room to give her a hug hello.

"I just stopped by for the weekend," Joanie said.

Joe leaned down and gave Cecil a kiss. "Have a great time," he told her. "Don't get too crazy. No drinking."

Cecil shook her head. "No way. Iris promised me a totally chill night that even my pregnant old booty can handle." She turned to Joanie. "You should come with us, sweetie. I'm sure Iris wouldn't mind at all."

"Eh, no, that's okay." Joanie gave her a smile. "I actually have plans. But I will drop you off."

The two ladies left, and the men got settled. "Okay!" Cisco proclaimed, shutting off the lights and pulling a projector screen into the middle of the room. "Barry Allen. Are you ready to have your mind blown?"

Barry nodded eagerly, and Cisco started the video. It showed a picture of an adorable, tiny baby who was laughing and waving it's fists. "Meet Barry Allen before he met Iris West. Before he became an inter-dimensional time-traveling speedster, he was an adorable baby boy with Ewok level chub."

Barry grinned and Joe chuckled, nudging him in the shoulder. The video continued to show a Barry that was about five. Joe shook his head. "Oh, those cheeks."

"Cisco, this is great, but where did you get these videos?" Peter asked his friend.

"Man, I'm a ninja. Watch this part." Cisco says and they see a play coming up of young Barry and Iris.

"Ah, I forgot you two got married." Joe says seeing the video and everyone laughs. "You two were so young. Damn. I was so young."

Then Peter's senses went off when the door opens. "Gentlemen, I have arrived!" a voice called.

"Ralph," Cisco muttered.

"Dibny," Harry sighed.

"Ralph Dibny." Peter complains while dropping his head.

"I wasn't...expecting you..." Cisco said awkwardly.

Ralph frowned. "You said see you later. I assumed this was a superhero hang out and this was a test for my highly attuned detective capabilities. Which, for the record, nailed it!"

"Or..." Harry started.

"You weren't invited," Cisco muttered.

"Wow...this house is..." Ralph started.

Peter raised his eyebrows. "Bitchin'?" he suggested, quoting the phrase that Barry's symbols language had translated to back when he had just come out of the Speedforce, still wondering what that means.

"No. Small. It looks a lot bigger from the street. What's all this crap?" Ralph wonders looking around.

Barry glanced at the screen, which was playing footage of him. "This is my Bachelor Party," he told Ralph.

"Oh dear God you're serious," Ralph cringed. "This lameo-fest is your Bachelor Party?"

"This 'Lameo-Fest' is about to indulge in some very fine cigars," Cisco snapped. "And a very nice steak dinner at the Oak."

"Okay. Stop," Ralph shook his head, looking disgusted. "You're gonna pay 50 dollars for some lame steak dinner? I know a place where they have all you can eat steak and chicken for 4.99 and they even throw in napkins."

Barry frowned, confused by this. Where exactly did anyone have to pay for napkins?

"Come on, ladies," Ralph invited and nobody moved.

"I don't wanna..." Peter whispers, knowing this was gonna end badly.

"No, really, Ralph," Barry said, shaking his head, wanting to stay and watch the rest of the video Cisco had put together. "We're gonna stay here and were going to-"

"Slim Jim!" Ralph interrupted. "I insist! You can thank me later."

"That was meant to be enjoyed." Cisco says as Harry slurps down a drink.

"I enjoyed it." Harry replies and gets up.

And that was the end of arguing.

-

Caitlin, Cecile, May, Iris and Felicity all sat together around the square, wood table at the restaurant that Iris had picked out for her Bachelorette Party.

A waiter came by and filled their glasses with champagne. "Ooh, so fancy," Cecile commented as all the girls clinked their glasses together.

"A toast!" Felicity proclaimed. "To the future Mrs. Allen!"

"West-Allen," Iris corrected.

Felicity smiled. "Your life with Barry may be fast paced, but I hope you guys still take the time to enjoy the special moments."

Iris smiled back at her, relaxing just a little bit. "Thank you guys for coming. It really means a lot."

"Cheers!" May agreed, and they clinked glasses again.

Iris, Felicity and Caitlin all tipped back their champaign, but Cecile set hers on the table. "Alright," she sighed. "Well, who wants my champaign? Craziest thing I'm gonna do tonight is order two desserts."

"I'll take it," May offered, already bringing it up to her mouth.

"Yeah, Iris told me you're pregnant!" Felicity beamed. "How's that going?"

"It's good!" Cecile replied happily. "It wasn't exactly part of my plan, but I just could not be happier."

Felicity smiled. "I know exactly what you mean."

Iris raised her eyebrows, intrigued. "Oh yeah, how is everything with Oliver and William?"

That was about the point that Caitlin stopped listening, because across the restaurant she could see none other than Norvock, Amunet's number 1 crony, walking towards their table.

Her breath stuttered and her heart froze. She doesn't know what he's doing here since the last time they saw each other, Deadpool tried to put a bullet through his head. He half accomplished his task by taking his eye, but it was already his fake eye.

Norvock reached the table and stood, staring at them. Felicity looked up and raised her eyebrows. Caitlin couldn't breathe.

"Did you girls order a striper?" Iris asked.

"No!" Cecile protested, laughing a little.

Her laughter, and Felicity's babbling, abruptly died off as Norvock leaned forward and glared Caitlin down. "Amunet wants you." he said in a low voice directly at Caitlin.

Caitlin opened her mouth, but no words came out.

May gave her a look. "Uh, Caitlin? Do you know him?" She wonders, not understanding what's happening.

"You need to come with me," Norvock continued.

"I'm not going anywhere with you." Caitlin disagreed, resisting the urge to grab Iris or Felicity's glasses of liquor to give her some liquid courage, also trying to hold back to not bring out Crystal.

Yet.

Cecile leaned forward. "Please tell me this is just another part of his act." she muttered.

"If it is," Felicity murmured back. "It's taking too long. Take it off!" she called up to Norvock, snapping her fingers.

Instead of stripping, Norvock leaned forward and his eye plopped into Felicity's champaign glass as Felicity squeaked with disgust. "Gross! I meant take off your pants, not your eye!"

Without warning, a pinkish-red serpent began to grow out of Norvock's eye. All the girls, besides Caitlin, screamed and shoved back their chairs, trying to get away from the disgusting sight.

Finally getting ahold of herself, Caitlin jerked to her feet and heaved the entire table over. Plates and glasses slid off of it and shattered, and Cecile, May, Felicity and Iris all leapt up and crowded behind it. Norvock stumbled back. Behind him, everyone else in the restaurant was streaming towards the exit, leaving the girls alone.

"Stand back, baby mama," Felicity said. "We got this." She raced toward Norvock, picked up a chair, and slammed it into his back.

He stumbled and turned angrily around, but Iris was there was the serving trey that had brought their glasses of champaign. She smashed it across his face one way and then the other, but Norvock's eye soon shot out and shoved her backward.

Iris fell into Felicity, and both of them crashed to the floor, Cecile crouched behind them.

May tries using one of the chairs, but that went as another failure.

"Please don't do this." Caitlin begged, her hands trembling giving him a chance to leave before allowing Crystal to fight him off.

Norvock turn toward her. "It didn't have to be this way," he growled.

Caitlin then took that as his final answer and allowed Crystal to take control. Now she's thankful for Peter training her in secret.

Under the amazed eyes of her friends, her eyes and lips turned blue, frost shot from her fingertips, and her hair became white.

Norvock smirked. "I was hoping to see you again," he breathed.

Crystal Frost stepped forward, throwing the boa off of her shoulders and stepping forward. "Really? So I could give you another scar?"

Norvock lunged, but Crystal was faster. With one carefully aimed blast, Norvock was thrown backward by a stream of frost. He smashed through the window and disappeared, leaving the restaurant in a shocked silence.

Frost sighed in satisfaction and then looked down at herself. She winced. "Ugh, I _hate_ pink."

Then she picked up the champaign and took a large gulp, straight from the bottle and some frost left her lips as she breathed.

-

Ralph has brought taken the team to a club known as the _Golden Booty_.

"Doesn't it just take your breath away?" Ralph asks them as they enter the club. "Gentlemen, I welcome you to the _Golden Booty_."

"There ain't nothing golden about any of this." Joe states.

"Nope." Harry agrees.

"Amen to that." Peter also agrees.

"Came through for you, man." Ralph tells Barry. "What do you think?"

"I think I should have brought some hand sanitizer." Cisco states and Harry gives him some.

"Always come prepared." Harry states as Peter takes some as well. Even though his powers stop him from getting sick, drunk and everything this place has to offer, he's not taking chances.

"Ralph, this isn't really my speed." Barry admits.

"Speed jokes? You're better than that, Allen." Ralph replies when one of the strippers greet Ralph as he passes.

"Disney, you're a regular in this joint?" Harry guesses as they see he has his own photo up.

"So much more than that." Ralph says and they see he's their #1 customer. "The girls may be bottomless, but for yours truly, the French fries always are."

"_Golden Booty_ policy." One of the guys tell them with a box. "Out of respect for the ladies, no touching, no pictures, no video, and no cell phones." He says and everyone hands in their phones.

"Now I wish I could get drunk, just so I can erase this from my mind." Peter states and Barry agrees.

"We have incredible gifts, but we get incredible curses along with it." Barry replies.

"Bro's, do you really think I'd let you guys down like that?" Cisco asks and pulls out the concoction that allows them to get drunk. "Guaranteed to give you that gentle, pleasant buzz all night long."

"What if we need the Flash or Spider-Man tonight?" Peter asks.

"I volunteer to be designated superhero. Besides, I called Miles and asked him to take tonight's shift as Spider-Man, weekend." Cisco tells them and they're okay with that.

"To Barry and Iris." They all say and they take the drinks.

That's when Peter's senses went off, but he couldn't tell if it was his senses or the tingle of the alcohol.

But it was in fact his phone that was going off from May.

-

The girls retreated to Star labs being lead by Crystal.

"They're not picking up." May reported anxiously as Crystal led the way into the Cortex.

"What the heck just happened?!" Cecile demanded, still shaken up by the encounter in the restaurant. "Who was that...Medusa man?"

"You know that's not a Cisco-approved name." Felicity states as they make into Caitlin's med lab where she and Peter keep not only the spare Spider-Man suits, but her own suit.

"Don't worry about who that was." Crystal replied, deflecting the question. She glanced down at her clothes and grimaced again. "Caitlin's taste in clothes is matched only in her taste in friends. Both terrible."

"Wait, how are you _you_?" Iris asked, confused. "I thought Caitlin was cured."

Crystal rolled her eyes, pulling a suitcase from underneath a table and opening it to reveal her suit that Peter kept here for when Crystal wanted to start helping the team. "Caitlin shouldn't be keeping secrets from her friend." Crystal paused. "You are friends, right?"

Crystal chooses to raise her eyebrows and stare Iris down as the reporter hurriedly replied, "Yeah, of course we are."

Yeah, obviously not.

"Where are you going?" Cecile asked, frowning in confusion as Crystal picked out her outfit and unclasped the pink blouse she was wearing.

"To find Norvock's boss," Crystal told her. "And to kill her."

Felicity frowned. "And you need a change of clothes of that because...WHOA!"

Crystal had abruptly yanked her pink blouse over her head. All four girls spun around to give her some form of privacy. "Okay," May huffed. "Apparently somebody doesn't have any form of boundary issues."

Iris led the girls outside, wishing to talk to them, and Crystal rolled her eyes. She pulled out a pair of black leggings and a blue jacket, an outfit that looked and felt good for her and Peter designed as her super suit. (Yes, he did the whole _Incredibles-super suit _moment with Fox when he revealed it).

Smirking at her mental memory, Crystal fluffed up her hair, and started getting change.

"Can we take it back for a minute?" Cecile asks outside. "Since when did her superpowers make her a super villain?"

"She's not a villain, okay?" May corrects her. "Peter was able to break through to her."

"Weren't you kidnaped by her last year?" Cecile asks.

"What?" Felicity asks confused, never hearing that before.

"Because she was manipulated by a psycho Barry from the future and in the end, saved us. If it weren't for her, we wouldn't have been able to stop Savitar." May states. "Besides, there is no way that Peter or Frankie doesn't know about this, and if she was still evil, they wouldn't be together."

"Okay, I get it, Peter's not the guy that goes looking for bad girls and that technically, Caitlin is underneath all of that somewhere, but she is still dangerous." Cecile says.

Crystal then leaves to join them and sees them talking. "What're you all talking about?" She asks them.

All them spun around. Felicity's eyes went wide. "Ooh, nothing, just talking about how cool it is to kill people, and such. No pun intended."

Crystal didn't crack a smile. This blond was as irritating as Peter with the quips. "It's been real, ladies," she said, and strolls out of the room. "And FYI, I'm no Killer." She states as she leaves them.

-

"You gotta stop doing that." Joe tells Ralph who has his arm stretched out.

"I'm just getting change for a five." Ralph says. "Did you think I was stealing?"

"It's not about your sticky fingers, Ralph, it's about your stretchy arm outwardly displaced." Cisco states.

"Oh, so I should be like the Discreet Duo over there." Ralph replies as he pulls his arm back and they look to see Peter is doing sit-ups on the ceiling with people cheering him on and Barry at the bar cheering; _I'm the Flash._

"I may have slightly miscalculated their bachelor elixirs." Cisco confesses since they both have different type of metabolisms.

"I got Barry. Cisco, you get Peter off the ceiling." Joe says and they split up.

"Hey, Buddy. How you feeling?" Joe asks Barry as he puts his arm around him.

"I feel good." Barry admits as he's completely drunk.

"You're gonna need to walk this off." Joe states chuckling.

"Or run it off. Because I'm the Flash." Barry says and several men laugh.

With Peter, several people are cheering around him when Cisco approaches him.

"Hey, Petey. Whatch'ya doing here?" Cisco asks him.

Peter then just stops and looks to Cisco. "I should be asking you that, Cisco." He states and Cisco's confused. "We're not suppose to use our powers in public. Why are you hanging from the ceiling?" He whispery asks him.

"Peter, you're the one hanging from the ceiling." Cisco informs him as the people broke apart.

"Prove it." Peter dares and Cisco lightly pushes Peter, causing him to loose balance and his feet unstick from the ceiling and he drops to the ground.

"Cisco?"

"Yeah, man?"

"The world is upside down and I can't feel my legs." Peter says and Cisco helps him back to the table and he looks to the stage. "Hey, she looks like Cecile's daughter."

Cisco looks for himself and sees he's not seeing things as that is in fact Joanie on the stage.

"You're not seeing things." Cisco assures his friend.

-

Crystal returns to the _Lucky Horseshoe_ where a month ago, she, Deadpool and Spider-Man trashed the place and hears the blasting music as she enters.

One man got a bit handsy and she grabs his hand in return and starts lightly freezing it. "I'm sorry. I thought touching without permission is what you wanted." She tells him and makes her way through the bar where everyone seems to be drinking something glowing.

"I'd let me pass. Unless you wanna know what it feels like when the liquid in your eyeballs crystallizes." Crystal warns the guard that's hiding Amunett.

"Darling, you're here!" Amunett cheers seeing her. "Let her in, let her in."

Crystal then walks past him and sees Amunett and Norvock are waiting for her. "Amunett. Next time you wanna talk, come yourself. Don't send your eye-hole to attack me."

"Did you start a fight?" Amunett asks him. "Honestly, Norvock. That's why you're my third favorite henchman. I mean, what do I always say?"

"Never start a fight you can't finish." Crystal reminds him.

"And that, my dear, is why you are my favorite. You listen." Amunett tells her.

"Well, apparently, you don't. I'm out, Amunett." Crystal states.

"Out of what? Options? Your mind? Out of the closet? There are just so many outs for the lady in blue." Amunett tells her.

"Are you asking me to dance? I'll have you know, I'm in a relationship." Crystal warns her, sarcastically.

"You should know by now I don't ask for anything." Amunett reminds her. "I tell, and I take. Now, come along. I want to show you something that can make us both very rich." She promises and Crystal decides to hear her out and hopefully just walk away with her death so she doesn't bother her again.

At the entrance, Iris and the gang have just arrived after tracking Crystal here.

"All right, do you think they're gonna be able to tell that we don't exactly fit in here?" Felicity asks them.

"It was your idea to wear the boas, so no." Iris states as they go inside.

"Have we heard from the guys yet?" Cecile asks.

"No, and I'm getting a bit worried but we're on our own." May tells her when somebody comes up selling something in a canister.

"How about a little love?" He asks them.

"No! No, no, no, no, no." Felicity tells him. "No love."

With that, Cecile look and see everyone is drinking it. "Is it just me, or does it seem like everybody here already bought what that guy is selling?" She asks and they spot the man from the restaurant.

"Let's try and find Caitlin, okay?" May says and Iris follows Norvock.

Amunett brings Crystal to the back where she sees that she has someone tied and chained up. "You got a pet. Congratulations." She says sarcastically.

"I call him the Weeper. I love naming metas." Amunett tells her.

"I know someone like that." Crystal admits.

"Three weeks ago, this young man became a metahuman and I acquired my new favorite product to sell in my network." Amunett explains and Crystal knows that means he's one of the metahumans thwyre looking for. "Did you notice? Love...is quite literally in the air. Do you know why?" She gives the Wheeper a kick and he cries in pain before he starts crying and his tears are glowing.

Amunett takes the year and sniffs it in. "Pure."

"His tears are a drug?" Crystal clarifies.

"His tears, my dear...are a gold mine. One taste and Central City will be hooked." Amunett tells her.

"And why do you need me?" Crystal asks.

"Well, if I'm going to be selling something quite valuable, I'm going to need protection."

"That's why you have Snake Eyes for." Crystal says looking at Norvock. She's been hanging around Peter too much.

"A deal like this requires a woman's touch. And in your case, strength, and I'll cut you in for 10%." Amunett promises and Crystal just gives her a _I don't give one_ look. "15%, And I throw in not killing you right now for your misguided rebellion and collapsing my meta trafficking ring and for siding with that spider. And that is only because I've got forgiveness in my kidneys, right?"

"I think you mean heart." Crystal corrects her.

"No, there's no beat beat in this chest, sister." Amunett confesses and Crystal realizes that she could be telling the truth. Peter even said he met a guy who was a vampire and had no heart...think he said his name was MoreBS or something like that.

"As much fun as it is to play _I'm the Bigger Badass_, I'm bored. And like I said...I'm done." Crystal tells her. "And if you've got a problem with that, maybe I'll call the merc that can't die to finish you off." She dares.

"Do you know what everyone's mistake in business is? Not realizing who has the power in the room." Amunett says and gets ready to call all the metal shards to her hand and Crystal gets ready to fight her off with Peter's training when Iris comes running in.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Iris yells as she comes in. "Hey, ladies, lets put the meta-abilities down."

"I'm sorry, who is this chick?" Amunett asks Crystal.

"Her? She's a nobody. Forget her." Crystal tells Amunett.

"This chick is trying to stop a meta-fight from destroying your very enchanting club." Iris tells Amunett.

"Yeah, like she cares about messing it up. A month ago, I nearly tore it apart with backup." Crystal informs Iris, ready to end this.

"Frost, lets go." Iris tells her and Crystal wonders who she thinks she is to comand someone like her? But she also knows that the last time she fought Amunett alone, she and Peter almost died so she's going to need him and decides against fighting her. Besides, if it goes wrong, she could learn about Frankie and use her against her and she doesn't want that, so she leaves.

-

"You're lucky she didn't kill you, West." Crystal tells Iris as the team returns to Star labs.

"Who was that?" Iris asks her.

"That was Amunett Black." Crystal answers.

"Of the underground market?" Cecile asks.

"I'm guessing she has a criminal record?" May says.

"She's been linked to metahuman trafficking, black market, selling stolen technology, but we've never been able to nail her down." Cecile replies.

"How exactly do you know Amunett?" Felicity asked.

"Caitlin," Crystal responded simply, before deciding it was worth elaborating on. "Six months ago, Caitlin thought she had everything under control. Then she felt me becoming much stronger. She found out that Amunet had some tech that would let her stay in charge. She got desperate, so she decided to use it. But it came with a price tag."

"Which was...?" Felicity prompted.

"Being her muscle." Crystal explains.

Cecile looked at her, horrified. "Did you kill anyone?"

She had been waiting for that question. Smirking, Crystal glanced over her shoulder. "Some people lost their fingers and their toes, but...no. No one died. Then five months later, Spider-Man appears into her metahuman trafficking with a friend. The merc with a mouth that they call Deadpool, he was looking for someone named Francis and Peter tagged along to free the metahumans and mutants they were selling and I decided to help him out and even changed my name."

"You're not Killer Frost?" Cecile asks her.

"I never killed anyone, so the name was kinda redundant." Crystal replies.

"Who are you now?" May asks.

"Crystal Frost." She tells them. "I liked my last name. Ever since last year, I was developing...feelings for the Spectacular Spider-Man myself. The same feelings as Caitlin. So we basically agreed to both date him since it's not exactly cheating when it's the same person."

"So, Peter does know about you and didn't tell anyone?" Iris asks her.

"Caitlin didn't want anyone to know about me, and Peter being the kind boyfriend he is, respected her wishes. But he taught me how powerful I was and was teaching me how to defend myself using my powers and _not_ kill anyone." Crystal explains.

"How are you here now?" Iris asked, getting back to the point.

"While Caitlin sleeps, I am awake." Crystal answers.

"Oh my gosh, you're like the Incredible Hulk!" Felicity gushed. "That's-" She broke off as Crystal turned around, raising her eyebrow. "I said that with too much exuberance. Dialing it back."

Iris shook her head. "Look. What are Amunet's plans for the Weeper?"

"Not my problem." Crystal shrugged.

Iris bit back a groan. "Look, he was on that bus! We helped create him, we need to save him!"

"No," Crystal argued. "I need to get in touch with either Peter or Deadpool to put an end to her." It was truly impossible to get anywhere with this woman. "Listen. There's a reason the CCPD has not caught her, and you idiots just realized that there's a major crime lord living under your noses for the past three years. She's too powerful. We can't stop her, at least alone." She says and goes to try and contact Peter or Wade but she needed to make sure Frankie was okay before anything so she gets her phone out to call Fox.

"Guys, we have a responsibility to the Weeper and to the city." Iris tells the other women in the room.

"What do you suggest we do?" May asks, not seeing what they can do with their superheroes offline and the one they do have isn't going in without backup.

"We need to rescue him before Amunett does whatever she's planning, okay? Cecile, you need to gather information on Amunett, and Felicity, you need to pull up the blueprints to the club. May, be on standby for of the Weeper needs medical attention. We got this. We're strong women." Iris tells them.

"Yeah. #Feminism." Cecile says.

"#Feminism." Iris repeats and the others the same as May knows this is a stupid idea, but she needs to help them if she can. Or stop them from doing something stupid.

-

Back at the _Golden Booty_, Joe and Joanie are talking about what happened while the heroes are still wasted.

"This isn't what you think, Joe." Joanie tells him.

"Good, 'Cause I thought I saw you dancing on that stage in a gold sequin bikini." Joe replies to her.

"No, I'm writing a book on the female experience." Joanie expains to him.

"I'd buy that book." Ralph says, eavesdropping in on the conversation.

"Why does your female experience include you dancing at the _Golden Booty_?" Joe asks her, ignoring Ralph.

"Because we live in a society that's dictated by the male gaze." Joanie tries explaining. "I wanna control he narragive of feminism, okay? I wanna show the world that a powerful, strong woman, she can wear anything, be it a bikini or a pantsuit."

"Or nothing. Feminism." Ralph says, interjecting.

"That's not how feminism works." Cisco tells him. "Will you cut it out? Joanie's practically his daughter." He says when he sees Barry is sad. "Hey, sad Flash, why the face?"

"Nothing, I just...I love chicken wings so much." Barry states while his voice breaks.

Ralph looks and sees Peter is staring off into space. "What are you thinking about?"

"An octopus has eight arms." Peter answers.

"Yes...That is correct." Cisco says seeing his friend's mind's still spaced out.

"Dr. Octopus has six arms and two legs." Peter continues on slowly.

"Yeah...?" Cisco says, waiting for the point.

"Doesn't that mean that he's really a Doctor Lesser Octopus with two legs? And who gives an octopus a doctorate?" Peter asks and Cisco sees he should never let Peter get drunk again. Or at least record it next time, knowing Caitlin would love to see this.

"There's a strong, powerful woman that we both love and fear and her name is your mother." Joe tells Joanie. "Does she know you work here?"

"Of course not. She would just jump to all the same conclusions that you are."

"Joanie, your mother and I just want you to be happy. But I think you need to ask yourself why you're keeping this a secret from her."

"Joe?" Barry's sad voice calls out and gets his attention. "Why didn't...why didn't Rose make room for Jack on the boat on the door?" He wonders, referring to the ending of the _Titanic_ movie. "There was plenty of room for both of them."

Peter just looks over to Barry and gets confused to who he is. "Hey, Matt, why do you look so sad? What happened to your shades?" He asks, confusing Barry with his other friend.

"Cisco, when do these gifts of yours stop giving?" Joe asks him getting tired of these heroes acting like paranoid children.

"Man, I don't know. I thought we'd be watching home movies right now." Cisco tells him.

"Again, you're welcome." Ralph interjects again.

"You steal 20 from me, Ralphy?" One of the strippers ask him.

"When? I mean...no." Ralph says when someone walks up with his photo.

"Yeah, you did. I saw it. I've been waiting a long time for this, Dibs." He says and breaks his photo.

Peter, who was falling asleep, smacks back to attention hearing the glass shatter and Ralph's screaming.

"You moster!" Ralph says and starts a fist fight with the man that escalated into the whole club fighting.

"Everybody, stop! I'm a cop!" Joe tells him before he gets tackled.

"I'm the Flash!" Barry screams without a care in the world while Peter is watching the fight next to a plant.

"Hey, I'm dating Elsa." Peter informs the plant, referring to Caitlin while his mind is half gone. "You're looking a little green there, man."

-

Iris found Crystal in the medical lab. "Where are you going?" she asked, coming slowly into the room.

"Going out to either find Peter, or wait for him at the apartment before Amunett puts a tail on me."

"And that's..._Killer_ Frost," Iris confirmed. "Right?"

"Don't be cute, West," Crystal glared. "I told you, that's not my name."

"I wasn't planning on it," Iris shrugged. "Look, I know you could kill me, just like I know you could have killed Amunet tonight or Peter last year. But you didn't," she continued. "There's a part of you that is good and decent, and you just don't know how to accept it."

Crystal spun around. "You think you know me now? Last I checked, you spent all last year trying to get rid of me."

"No!" Iris said quickly. "But I do know what Caitlin looks like when she's scared, and you have that very look in your eyes right now. You're just as afraid of being Caitlin as Caitlin is of being Killer Frost. I know you won't leave, Frost. Because deep down, even if it's only Caitlin who knows it, there is a life here for you. People here that love you. A man who loves you. You don't want to lose all that."

"Sorry to break it to you, but we're not bestie's. Peter's the only one who believed in me and you just want to use me to help you take on Amunett which is a suicide mission. So if you still want to have a hand for Barry to put a ring on, I suggest you move it." Crystal warns her, and left the room to go find her partner or his daughter to make sure she's safe.

-

Iris had made the dumb move of trying to capture Amunet with just her, May, Cecile and Felicity. Now she and Felicity (thankfully Cecile and May were safe) were being held at gunpoint by Amunet's men.

That wasn't going to work. Caitlin knew that. Crystal knew that. They also knew that hanging back, just because she was afraid of what might happen if they got hurt with Peter not there to watch her back would happen.

And neither Crystal _nor _Caitlin are a coward.

"Hey, Amunet!" Caitlin called, stepping forward, toward the half-circle of cronies with guns and the big boss herself. "This is between you, and me. Let them go, and I'll come back and work for you."

Amunet shook her head. "It's too late for that, Caity," she said, tutting softly. "Do you know why no one has ever testified against me over the years? Hmm? Well, it's because they're not alive to. Sorry."

Not looking terribly apologetic, Amunet spun around and walked back to her henchmen. "Take care of them," she ordered.

The men raised their guns.

Caitlin just opened her mouth and screamed as loud, allowing ice to shoot from her lips and hit the men, throwing them backwards. A frosty smoke filled the air, and when it cleared, Crystal Frost was back.

"Well hello, chilly," Amunet murmured. Felicity and Iris ran to stand behind her, and Crystal raised her arms. Amunet reached down and her hand was once again covered by her metal gauntlet. "And here I thought I wasn't going to be able to kill anyone today." She muttered, preparing herself for the fight.

She sent a dozen shards of ice toward the three women, but Crystal acted first. She created a large dome off ice around them, keeping them safe, at least for the time being.

"Kill them!" Amunet bellowed, filled with rage. Her men stepped forward and began rapid-firing bullets toward the icy dome.

"I don't think this is gonna hold much longer," Crystal warns them.

"Okay, think," Felicity muttered. "This is a steel factory, and you move steel plates with-"

"Magnets," Iris finished. "Really, _really_ big magnets."

"Cecile, May, turn the crane on!" Crystal commanded.

"_What_?" Cecile asked through Iris and Felicity's coms. "_How_?"

"It should be in the schematics, just highlight it and turn it on!" Felicity instructed.

As Cecile got to work, Crystal took a deep breath and smashed her own ice structure into pieces. The henchmen were blown back to the ground and Amunet stared at them in fury, breathing heavily.

"You and I could have been gods," Amunett hissed, stalking forward.

Crystal shrugged. "I used to work with a god," she deadpanned. "Over it."

Amunet raised her metal-encrusted hand, and Iris yelled: "Cecile, now!"

There was a whirring sound, before all of the small metal pieces on Amunet's fist wizzed off and stuck to the magnet. She stared at it in shock, and then back down at her now powerless hand.

A dagger formed in Crystal's hand. She grinned widely, ready to get the revenge she deserved. Amunet had tried to hurt her, well Caitlin's, friends and tried selling the man she loved, and that wasn't going to be forgiven easily. "Not so scary without your bling, now are you?" She asked, walking slowly forward as Amunet continued to try and tug her metal back to her.

"Caitlin, stop," May asked as she joins them. "If you do this you will always be a killer. No matter what you call yourself, people will see you as a killer." She warns her, knowing she doesn't want to be seen as one.

Her arm dropped. The icicle shattered on the ground and she sent Amunet a glare. "Get out of here...before I become an antihero." She warns Amunett and she didn't need to be told twice as she leaves.

Iris helped the Weeper free, but he just ran off on them.

-

The police got involved and the boys were brought into holding after everything that happened at the club.

"Jerry, Buddy, we gonna get that phone call or what?" Ralph asks him. "Hey! Come on, man. I know you can hear me."

"You just know everybody, don't you?" Cisco asks while Peter was sleeping the alcohol off on his shoulder.

"I've been in here a few times." Ralph admits. "You know, I could wiggle through these bars and get us out of here. Maybe make my finger into a key, that'd be pretty sweet. A lot of pressure put on the index finger, though. Iron versus flesh. What do you think?"

"I think you should stop talking immediately." Cisco says as Barry is throwing up in the stall toilet with Joe.

After some time, Fox came in as it seems he got Peter's message as Harry couldn't come in since his face is tied to a killer. So Fox has him with Frankie in the car.

"I'll take those five." Fox tells the guard and gets the boys free.

-

The women were exhausted. It was around 3 in the morning, and none of them had slept all night.

The boys have just got out of jail and joined Harry and Frankie in the car and they made their way to Star labs.

"I'm never drinking again. Not ever." Peter promises as the headache he has is worse than anything, and he's including the time he was mind controlled by Dominators.

"Worth it." Ralph says.

"Agree to never speak about what happened tonight?" Cisco asks and everyone agreed as they exit the elevator and meet Iris.

"Hey, I saw you called seventeen times. Everything okay?" Barry asks as May sees how Peter's doing.

"You doing okay, Peter?" May asks him.

"If I ever say, _I'm going out drinking_, I want you to taser me. And tell Caitlin the same." Peter states.

"Yeah, speaking of Caitlin..." May starts off and they enter the cortex.

"I'm pretty sure nothing could make tonight any worse." Cisco said, but his voice abruptly died off as he saw Crystal standing in the middle of the room. He let out a long sigh. "I'm so tired. I'm _so_ tired; can we please do this tomorrow?"

Ralph, Barry and Iris filed into the room beside him. Barry's eyes went wide when he saw Frost. Ralph's jaw dropped a little. "Ohhh...chicks with white hair: _hot_."

"Why is Crystal here?" Peter asked, his voice confused but gentle as he's trying to figure out if she's really there or it's his imagination again.

Crystal noticed that her boyfriend's hair looked a mess and he had stains on his white shirt. She wondered exactly what had happened during the Bachelor Party that could have led to such a disheveled appearance.

Slowly, the icy exterior of Crystal Frost faded away and Caitlin was left standing in the Cortex. There was blood clotted on her left eyebrow, and her bottom lip and cheekbone were bruised and puffy. Her eyes were large, a little scared, and red-rimmed, and there was no way of knowing what other injuries lay under her blue-and-black outfit.

"Aw..." Ralph sighed, disappointed. "It's just Caitlin."

Peter sent him a glare so dark it actually shut him up.

"We can explain everything," Caitlin started referring to her and Peter.

After explaining everything, they all started splitting up for the night after everything went down.

She blinked tiredly up at him, and Peter smiled gently. "Should we head home?"

"Yes," Caitlin breathed. Peter wrapped his arm around her and picked up Frankie who fell asleep in a chair. "How was your evening?" She asks on their way out.

Peter grimaced. "There was...a lot of crying. Puking. More crying. More puking. More hallucinations than Mysterio could conduct."

"Oh, honey," Caitlin murmured, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright. It sounds like your night kinda sucked, too," Peter said with a shrug. "We can let Frankie tell our kids about it when they're in their teen years."

Caitlin let out a half-laugh-half-sob, that's when she realized that he just brought up kids and she actually wasn't afraid of what the future would bring. Because after everything they've gone through, they can face just about anything together.

Together, the three went home.


	74. Thinking ahead

The next evening, Harry, Cisco, Peter and Caitlin got down to business.

They spent the _entire_ night looking for DeVoe.

Eventually even Barry gave up trying to get them to go home, but the next morning he was extremely sympathetic.

Caitlin was hugging her coffee mug, staring off into space.

Cisco was half-asleep in his chair.

Peter in fact was asleep with his arms spread across the monitors.

Harry was still searching incessantly for DeVoe.

"Ouch," Barry winced. "All-nighter, huh?" He asks, which caused Peter to wake up.

"I haven't been this tired since Killer Frost decided to go to Burning Man," Caitlin groaned, rubbing her eyes.

"Yeah?" Peter raised his eyebrows, looking forward to hearing that particular story at a different time.

Well, how is our search for the mysterious DeVoe coming?" Barry asks Harry.

"Allen," Harry snapped. "We're searching for an evil mastermind and the only clue we have to go on is his name but there's literally thousands, so how's the search going?!" He picked up something from the desk and chucked it at Barry, who ducked. Cisco lazily followed the object with his eyes, before looking back at Harry, who finished with a harsh: "_Fantastic_."

Cisco giggled deliriously. "I missed that."

"I feel like I should know who this is." Peter admits while he's trying to think where he's heard the name DeVoe before. "I feel like it's on the tip of my tongue but it doesn't want to come off."

"If we're gonna find DeVoe," Harry continued, ignoring Cisco. "We're gonna need more brainpower."

"Well, why didn't you say so?" Ralph Dibny strode into the Cortex. "One master detective, ready to detect." He picked up Harry's coffee mug, but the genius grabbed it back from him.

"I said morebrain power." Harry says as Ralph rolled his eyes and put his hand down on the keyboard.

Almost immediately, a robotic voice started to speak. "_Initiating emergency oxygen purge_."

"Remind me, why do you even have that?" Peter asked Caitlin and Cisco blearily as Ralph began to freak out and try to turn the countdown off.

Cisco and Caitlin shrugged, smirking as Harry pushed him out of the way and calmly stopped the imminent oxygen purge with one press of a button. "Like I said. We need more help. Maybe I should call my friends."

Cisco's head lifted, and Barry frowned. "Your what?"

"My friends," Harry repeated.

Confused, Peter spun around and exchanged glances with Caitlin. "Did he say friends?"

"I think he's being sarcastic," Caitlin told him.

"No, this is delirium," Cisco countered, looking alarmed as he sits up from his chair. "He's cracked from being awake all night. Hey, Harry, your friend are in this room!"

Caitlin waved at him.

"I have other friends!" Harry protested. "You asked me to make new friends, I made new friends. It was a task. I complete tasks."

Caitlin beamed. "That's so great!" she said happily. "I can't wait to meet them."

Cisco wheezed out another giggle. "Harry you listened to meeee...I'm so proud of you!"

"There's no pride-" Harry started. Cisco and Caitlin exchanged touched glances, and Caitlin put her hand over her heart. This was too _cute_! "My friends are smart," Harry continued. "They'll help us; I'll call them."

He gave Ralph a look and backed out of the room.

"Alright," Barry said, grinning a little and shaking his head. "Well, in the meantime, we gotta find the rest of these bus metas. Somehow they're connected to DeVoe's plan." His gaze turned to Ralph. "You were on the bus. Can you remember anybody else who was?"

"Weeell..." Ralph frowned in consideration. "I was in between drunk and hungover at the time." His gaze landed on Lady Luck and he lost track of his thoughts. "She is cute! What's her deal?"

"She's in jail," Caitlin told him.

Ralph grinned, undaunted. "What are her visiting hours?"

"Well, what about vibing the rest of the bus metas?" Peter suggested looking to Cisco.

"I-I tried," Cisco stuttered, rearranging himself in his chair. "But, you know, the Dark Matter we released was such a massive Space-Time event that my energy just reflected back and I ended up Vibing myself." He snorted, his exhaustion making him even goofier than usual. "I'm pretty sure I relived my own birth. Or was it my death?"

"You know," Caitlin said, quickly inserting herself before things could get off topic. "There are non-traumatizing ways of bringing Ralph's memory back. Like hypnosis."

"Is that really a thing?" Peter asked skeptically.

"I mean, not like the whole cartoon, pocket watch version, but yeah. Real hypnosis can be used to recover memories."

"Alright," Barry shrugged. "Do you know any hypnotists?"

There were murmurs of "no" and "not me" from different areas in the room. "Alright," Cisco mumbled. "Who's gonna hypnotize Ralph?"

"Is there much in there to hypnotize?" Peter wonders

-

Apparently, Barry and Iris started having problems they had decided to try couples counseling and see if they could work things out. That hadn't worked very well, but they convinced the rest of the team that Dr. Sharon was the perfect person to hypnotize Ralph. And, shockingly, she did.

They didn't discover much either way.

Ralph only remembered the symbol of a bison on some woman's shirt, and a man who was in the seat in front of him, crying. He did, however, remember that there were at least two women on the bus, though whether one of them was Lady Luck, there was no way to be sure.

-

Cisco and Harry are in the basement/speed lab talking to the Counsel of Wells that happen to be three different versions of Harry.

Barry and Joe were called into a crime-scene early the next morning. It turned out that the biggest suspect for the case was a giant stone wildcat, which Barry brought Caitlin a sample of to study.

"So, this stone sample shows absolutely no unique attributes of any kind," she told the Team, finishing up her research and walking into the Cortex to talk with them. "It's a totally normal granite statue. Except! It's filled with traces of Dark Matter on a molecular level. It's as if it's been flooded with it."

"So, another bus meta." Miles sighed.

"One that somehow brings inanimate objects to life and uses them to kill." Peter pulled a face. "How can this possibly be...normal?"

"Says the guy who fought a giant lizard, a guy with robot limbs, evil speedsters, and more." Barry states and Peter can't disagree with that.

"My best guess for this to be possible," Caitlin offered. "is that this meta has the ability to leave a psychic imprint on objects; a sort of telekinetic puppeteering through a subconscious link."

"That's really smart," Ralph said, then suddenly rattled off: "34, 25, 34."

Caitlin stared at him in shock. Ralph had just accurately guess the measurements of the...curved parts of her, so to speak. She blinked at Peter. "Did he just give my...?"

Peter, however, was glaring Ralph down. "You watch where your eyes are going," he growled threateningly. "Or you might not even _have_ eyes to see that kind of stuff."

Caitlin shifted uncomfortably and Peter took her hand. "Too much?" he whispered down to her, looking a bit chagrined.

"It was very sweet of you," Caitlin murmured back, shaking her head fondly.

Joe striding into the room. "The victim's name is Jim Fox. He was an auctioneer at Weatherbys. He was transporting a Native American artifact when he was attacked. We just don't know which one."

"Wait, maybe we do," Peter said slowly as he clicked on one of the pictures and it got bigger on the screen. "Bison necklace. Ralph, you said you saw a bison on the bus, right? I mean, nothing in our world is a coincidence. Trust me."

Ralph smirked, pleased. "Vindicated," he muttered to Barry.

"No one said you were lying." Barry protested.

"I could see it in your eyes." Ralph replies.

"According to this auction report, the necklace was separated into three pieces. The first was in the briefcase, the second unknown, but the third is in the hands of a private collector," Caitlin read.

"Christoph Banks," Barry finished.

Joe nodded. "I'll go to CCPD, get his address. He might be in danger."

"And we better pay him a visit," Barry said to Ralph. "You ready to suit up?" He asks since Miles and Peter are gonna stay back for this one to give him a chance.

"Oh yeah!" Ralph said, and started to leave the room. Then he paused. "Uh..where's my suit?"

-

The fight had not gone well, and Barry was annoyed beyond belief. Ralph, if possible, was even _more_ annoyed.

"How could you let her get away?!" Ralph groaned to Barry as they flashed into Star Labs, defeated.

"Maybe because I was saving someone's life?!" Barry snapped back, handing Caitlin a metal helmet that seemed to have come from a suit of armor. "Could you take a look at this."

"Of course," she said, carrying it into her lab.

It didn't take too long to come back with results. "I'm getting the same traces of Dark Matter from this that was in the tiger statue."

"Looks like our meta isn't restricted to animating just stone," Peter said, looking over her shoulder.

"No, but she does have some limitations," Barry added. "Out of all the artifacts in the office, she could only control the knight."

Caitlin considered for a moment. "So then maybe her psychic imprint abilities are just restricted to effigies?"

Ralph snorted with laughter and Barry turned around to glare at him. "It just means statues."

"Yeeeah, I don't know," Ralph shrugged. "It sounds kind dirty to me."

Peter and Caitlin shook their head in disgust, and Joe changed the subject. "So statues that look like people. Or animals. She can bring them to life." Barry nodded and Joe sighed. "There's only thousands of those in this city."

Something on the computer beeped and Miles looks first. "We got a hit on facial recognition." A picture of a young woman, the same that Barry and Ralph had seen when they went to talk to Christoph Banks, popped onto the big screen.

"Mina Chaytan, Professor of Cultural Anthropology," Barry read. "She's a teacher?"

"Was," Peter corrected looking at the computer, "she became an activist and she lost her job six months ago after being arrested."

"Breaking and entering, trespassing, burglary," Caitlin read off. "Quite an activist. The charges were dropped but the University still let her go."

"She was trying to reclaim several suit art pieces from the museum," Joe continued, reading over Caitlin's shoulder. "Chaytan was at this even before she was a madwoman."

"Yeah, except now she's upped her game to homicide," Barry murmured. "She wants the third piece of that necklace? Then let's find it before she does."

"Okay," Peter said as Joe started to head out of the room.

"We've got the third piece of the necklace," Peter reported as they strode into the room, Barry and Ralph close behind. "Joe figured out that it was on display at Central City Museum, but when they figured out it was a target it got moved. It's be transferred via armored car to a secure storage facility in Brookfield Heights. I logged onto the truck's GPS."

"Alright," Barry nodded. "Ralph? Let's go."

"I'll get my ugly suit." Ralph replies.

-

They arrived at the scene to see the driver of the van unconscious in the road, and a giant statue of a viking or caveman standing motionless in front of the truck.

Mina was holding a small white box protectively in one hand.

Barry gave her a look. "Hello," he greeted. "Ready to go to jail?"

"This doesn't belong in an auction house." Mina said firmly, placing her hand over the box. "It doesn't belong in someone's collection. It belongs to the Sioux people. My people."

"Mina," Barry said, stepping forward. "I know you've been through a lot, but this is not the way to do it."

"I don't need to listen to men like you anymore, Flash," Mina interrupted. "A few weeks ago, something inside me changed. It changed for the better. For the more powerful. And now there's just the Black Bison."

Behind Barry, the Viking man's head tilted upward. He grabbed Barry's shoulder and shoved him onto the pavement.

As Barry began to fight him, Mina ran for her car.

"Oh no you don't," Ralph muttered, racing for her. He managed to stretch one arm and catch the bottom of her car, pulling it to a stop.

Mina accelerated, her car skidding wildly as she tried to pull forward while still being attached to Ralph. He held on as tight as he could, desperate to not let her escape.

Meanwhile, the Viking slammed Barry in the ribs with his club. Barry flew backward and hit a telephone pole, and the entire thing started tilting over. Wires broke and hit the ground, spraying sparks at a young family frozen on the sidewalk. Barry struggled to get up, but pain shot through his mid-section, forcing him back to the ground again.

"Ralph!" Barry yelled as the wires continued to thrash. If something wasn't done quick they would start a fire. "Get the people clear!"

"I'm going to catch the meta!" Ralph cried back, teeth gritted against the strain.

The telephone pole started to fall, sparks flying everywhere. The people in the street scattered, but one girl tripped and landed hard on the pavement, the pole headed straight for her.

Ralph finally let go off the car, and Mina skidded off, smashing into another car as hers shuddered to a stop. "Told you I'd get her!" Ralph cried triumphantly.

Half way down the street, however, a young girl was almost hit by a telephone pole when the ultimate Spider-Man flew in and caught it, saving her life.

Barry heaved himself to his feet, ribs on fire, and ran over to help Miles move the pole and they saw the child is okay. "The EMTs are almost here," he assured her, hearing sirens in the distance. "She's going to be okay."

Ralph looked absolutely horrified, but that didn't change Barry's mind. This wasn't working.

They needed to talk.

-

"Joe just called," Caitlin informed Barry and Ralph as they strode into the Cortex. "Mina just escaped from the CCPD."

"Apparently she made a tactical dummy go full _Terminator_ at the station." Peter continued. "Wish I was there to see that."

"Well, we know where she's going," Barry said.

"The two pieces of the necklace she stole have been reunited with the third at the museum," Caitlin nodded.

Barry turned to Ralph. "She has killed for these before," he reminded him. "She will kill anyone who gets in her way to reclaim them. It's up to us. Are you ready?"

"Well, I- I was until you said that!" Ralph stuttered. "Jeez Louis, man, what kind of rousing Braveheart speech was that?!"

Barry looked quite close to ripping his own hair out. Or maybe Ralph's. "Just put your thing on," he managed. "Hurry up!"

He flashed into his suit, then stopped in the doorway, waiting for Ralph as Peter was going in to help.

Caitlin hurried up to him, feeling a little awkward. "Um, hey...so, do you guys...need any help? I know Crystal's kinda wants to...you know. Get back in the field and all of that. After what happened last week, it might be a good opportunity for you to teach her the ropes of teamwork."

Peter's mouth slid sideways. "I don't know, Caitlin..." he murmured. "We have enough to focus on making sure Ralph knows what he's doing. With Crystal, too? And what if you got hurt? Mina is _dangerous_."

"So is Crystal," Caitlin argued. "And she's actually quite capable to take care of herself."

Peter took a deep breath. "Okay, yes, that's fair. If we need your help, Cisco can vibe you two to the museum."

"Really?" Caitlin looked pleasantly surprised. "Oh! Thank you!" She leaned up and pecked his cheek. "Now, you should go find them. Good luck."

"Thank you," Peter replied, shaking his head fondly and then walked off to find his partners.

-

They arrived at the museum as Mina was placing the reunited pieces of the necklace over her head. "Hello, Mina," Barry said as he and Ralph strode forward.

"That belongs in a museum." Ralph told her seriously.

Peter frowned under his mask. "This _is_ a museum," he murmured.

"Realized that after I said it." Ralph replies.

"Yes," Mina said. "You keep it here as apart of American history. But we're not history. We're still here. Still sacred. As is this necklace. It's going back to the Sioux. Get out of my way!"

Ralph shook his head, both of them standing their ground. "Not after the people you've hurt, Mina. And you're not gonna hurt anyone else."

Mina quirked an eyebrow. "Says who?"

She shut her eyes, murmuring under her breath. A second later, Peter's senses go off at the sound of giant, crashing footsteps filled the museum. Ralph, Peter and Barry slowly turned around, and were horrified to see the skeleton of a giant t-rex stomping through the building, animated by Mina's powers.

"Don't...move..." Ralph muttered to Barry. "Their vision...is based...on movement."

"It's not a real T-Rex." Peter informs him as the t-rex lunged toward them and roared, and Barry broke into a run, flashing away. He flashed in quick circles around the skeleton's feet, and leapt up for a punch that should destroy the whole thing.

Instead, the t-rex caught him with it's tail, sending him flying across the room. Barry smashed into the empty display case that had held the necklace, glass breaking under him.

Peter leapt up and climbed up the walls and swings to kick Rexy in the face.

Hearing the noises, the museum guard strode into the room, holding his flashlight. "What's going on in here?!" he yelled as Mina raced past him, headed for the stairs.

"Stop!" Ralph commanded, stepping in front of her. "I got you."

Down on the first floor, the t-rex roared at the guard, who's mouth fell open in shock. Ralph's gaze slipped down to him, then back to Mina. She smirked. "What're you going to do, Superhero?"

She pushed past him and Ralph lunged, stretching all the way down the stairs to push the guard out of the way.

The t-rex's teeth clamped down on him, attempting to eat him. Ralph shoved himself out of the skeleton's mouth and stretched around and around it, clamping the jaw shut.

Meanwhile, Mina was racing through the museum, trying to get to an exit. Peter came in swinging and starts to wrap up his legs.

Barry shoved himself up from the broke display case and ran, coming to a stop right in front of her.

"You're really never gonna stop chasing me, are you?" Mina asked, skidding to a stop herself and shaking her head at him.

"No," Barry replied, walking forward. He was annoyed, and pretty sure that one of those pieces of glass had scratched up his new suit. "I'm really not."

"Do you have any idea how many things I could bring to life in this place?" Mina threatened. "The gargoyles on the roof. The reliefs carved into the walls and support pillars. I could bring this whole place down in a matter of seconds."

"But you won't," Barry said. He had noticed a plaque on the side of a display case that read _Sioux Offering Bowl_, and the pieces had clicked. "Because there's one thing you care about more than vengeance, isn't there?"

Barry reached out and grabbed the offering bowl, tossing it into the air. Mina's eyes went wide with horror and her arm's shot out, trying to catch the bowl.

In a matter of milliseconds, Barry had moved forward, cuffed Mina, and grabbed the precious artifact before it shattered. "I kinda can't believe you fell for that," he admitted, placing the bowl back on it's stand and turning back to Mina. "Come on."

Looking half-shocked and half-annoyed, Mina followed him out of the room.

Ralph and Peter waited and the skeleton finally stopped and they dropped down.

"Never spend a night at the museum." Peter says and Ralph laughs at that reference.

-

"Hey, what's going on?" Barry called. He was holding a cup of coffee and was followed by Joe, who had also received the text saying '_Come quick there's been a breakthrough_' from Cisco.

Caitlin turned around. She was wearing an incredibly flattering flowy sweater top with the shoulder's cut out and even more flattering black leggings. "We know who he is."

"According to Harry's friends, the name we're looking for is Clifford DeVoe," Cisco said.

"No other profile comes close," Harry agreed.

Barry looked at them in shock. They had figured it out? Just from one last name...they had figured it out.

"The guy keeps a low profile," Cisco informed him. "No social media, no criminal record..."

"I feel like I know him." Peter whispers, trying to figure out where he knows that name...why doesn't he know?

"But we know where he's hiding," Harry said. "43 Hibbard Lane."

"Well, if he's as dangerous as you said, I can call Singh and get a squad over there," Joe offered, glancing over at Barry.

But Barry shook his head. "No," he said. "Let's go get him. Guys. Thawn...Zoom...Savitar...for once, we actually have a chance here to get ahead of our enemy. Let's go get DeVoe."

-

Is this the place?" Joe asked in a low voice as they approached a beautiful stone entryway.

"It's this," Barry confirmed. "Is everyone ready?"

"Eye in the sky is a go!" Peter reported.

"I have eyes on the front door," Harry said.

"Snow and Frost, standing by," Caitlin told him, resisting an excited grin.

"Just give us the word and we'll breach in," Cisco agreed, putting on his vibing-glasses.

Joe and Barry stepped up to the front door. Joe glanced down and raised his eyebrow. "What kind of criminal mastermind has a welcome mat?"

Barry didn't have an answer, so he just shrugged and reached down to pressed the doorbell. They could hear it ring inside the house, and a couple seconds later, the door swung open.

A woman with long dark hair and a blue flowered dress was standing in the entry hall. She looked vaguely confused to see them there, but gave them both a friendly smile. "Hi! How can I help you?"

"Hi, yes ma'am," Joe said, recovering before Barry. "I'm detective Joe West, CCPD. This is Barry Allen, my associate."

The woman glanced over both of them, looking concerned. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes," Barry told her quickly. "Uh, yeah, yes. We were just hoping to talk with Clifford DeVoe...is he here?"

The woman nodded nervously. "Yes, he is...may I ask what this is about, officers?"

"We just need to ask him some questions." Joe replied calmly.

"Is something wrong? Is my husband in trouble?" the woman asked, her voice sounding more urgent.

_Husband_?

The word rang inside Barry's head. How could a evil mastermind be married? He himself was getting married in just a couple of weeks. It struck something inside of him...something a bit like doubt. Had his team been wrong?

"Your husband?" he echoed stupidly.

"No, ma'am," Joe muttered, seeming just as shocked but still able to answer the woman's question.

"Clifford!" the woman called over her shoulder, speaking into the house behind her.

That's when Clifford DeVoe rolled into view.

Yes.

Rolled.

Because the newest "_worst enemy_" Barry Allen and Team Spider-Flash had to face was in a wheelchair.

-

The meeting with Clifford DeVoe had been one of the oddest experiences of Barry's life. Clifford or his wife, Marlize hadn't seemed evil in the slightest. They had seemed defensive, maybe, especially Marlize, a little bit confused by the seemingly pointless interrogation, but otherwise like a normal couple.

Then Barry saw the samurai on the wall.

He had had his doubts, stepping into DeVoe's house and noticing the well-worn furniture and pictures on the walls. But not only did he trust his friends, but the samurai coincidence was just too much.

His team, on the other hand, was pretty convinced that DeVoe was _not_ who they were looking for.

Except for Peter who's listening to his senses who are trying to tell him he should know Clifford.

"I don't know, Baer," Joe sighed once they all regrouped in STAR Labs. "This shy college professor who likes mac'n'cheese doesn't exactly seem like a criminal mastermind to me."

"C'mon," Barry shook his head. "I mean, it's not like this is the first time someone has acted nice and turned out to be our bad guy. The Council of Wells gave us his name for a reason."

Cisco looked dubious. "They gave us one name out of-"

"1,100," Barry finished.

"1,122 to be precise," Harry corrected.

"I'm just saying, there's something weird about this guy," Barry said. "He likes samurai!"

Harry and Cisco both gave him incredulous looks. "Who doesn't?" Cisco asked. "Have you seen Zatuichi, the-"

"_Blind Swordsmen_," Harry finished. They exchanged glances and immediately began to mutter praise for the franchise.

"Okay," Barry interrupted before things could get too off-track. "But think about this. If the Council's right, that means that DeVoe arranged for me to to come out of the Speed Force exactly where he wanted." He looked to Cisco. "Even you couldn't do that."

Peter was the quiet one and Caitlin looks over to him. "What are you thinking about?"

"I know Clifford from somewhere, and not in a good way. I just can't remember where." Peter confesses.

-

Barry snuck into one of DeVoe's lectures, after which he continued to question him and stole his coffee cup. DeVoe was putting on a good act- he seemed naturally uncomfortable by Barry's interrogation, but more in a "why are you doing this to me" way than a "oh no you're going to figure out my secret" way. But the DNA on this coffee cup would prove Barry's theory. He was a metahuman- Barry just knew it.

Unfortunately...he was wrong.

"This is a sample of meta DNA," Caitlin explained, showing him a diagram on her tablet. "This is the DNA you brought me from DeVoe. It's... completely normal. Do you see all the differences? Clifford DeVoe is not a meta."

Barry stood behind her, rubbing the bottom half of his face. How could that be possible?

"Did you two find anything?" Peter asked, trying to break the long silence that had fallen.

Cisco and Harry exchanged looks and then stood together for their presentation on their findings. "Well...he's never been arrested, he pays all his taxes _and_ his mortgage, he has a reasonable 41K plan..." Cisco started, not looking at Barry.

"Donates to the Sierra Club," Harry continued. "Volunteers at an orphanage...is a big brother..."

"Dad didn't find anything, either," Iris put in. "He says he an outstanding member of the community."

"Yeah, and I talked to a couple people at CCU...they said DeVoe is a little absentminded, but everybody likes him." Caitlin says,

Even with all of that, Barry still shook his head. "Guys, I'm telling you. Clifford DeVoe...he's not what he seems."

"Could just be the wheelchair," Cisco pointed out. "I mean, we do kinda have a bad history..." he jabbed a finger in Harry's direction.

"That wasn't me," Harry muttered.

"No, come on. He's-he's just _too perfect_," Barry said. "Okay? I just...I have a _strong_ feeling that he's hiding something."

Peter was on the other side of the room, knocking his head against the wall.

"What's wrong with him?" Cisco asks.

"He's trying to remember where he heard DeVoe's name before." Caitlin explains.

"Cisco, vibe me." Peter asks of him. "Vibe me and focus on the name."

Cisco decided to go with it and they look to see they're back at the particle accelerator opening.

-

They look around and see they're back at the night of the particle accelerator explosion as Peter enters the alleyway and begins to change out of his original Spider-Man suit into some normal clothes to meet up with everyone.

_"So you've foreseen every possible outcome?" _The same woman asks Wells.

"**Yes, I have, Miss..?**"

"_Mrs. Marlize DeVoe." _

**"DeVoe. I expect that would make the gentleman to your right you husband? Clifford DeVoe.**" Harrison says and that shocks the two viber's follow the past Peter as he goes past DeVoe and Marlize to meet up with Ronnie.

"Wells is lying. He knows the accelerator won't succeed." Marlize tells Clifford.

"He'd risk an explosion?" Clifford asks his wife as Cisco and Peter follow them like ghosts.

"No, I think he wants one only the fallout from dark matter being released into the atmosphere will produce variants we cannot predict it. We need to delay our plan."

"No, this is even better. We'll have all the power we need."

"No! It's too risky."

"I'm willing to take the chance. The blast is the only thing that can power the cap."

"We should wait. Try to find another way."

"This is the only way." That's when the vibe stops and they exit.

-

"Oh my, god." Cisco whispers. "He's our man."

"He was saying something about a thinking cap. Clifford's work has been all about enhancing the mind...he made a literal thinking cap." Peter realizes. "He created..." he quickly strolls out of the room and goes to the Samuroid head Cisco kept and ripped off the face to reveal a camera. "He's been watching us!" He shows them the camera before crushing it.

"You didn't check for a camera, Cisco?" Joe asks the man.

"We decapitated him, I didn't expect it to still be working." Cisco defends.

"I'll be back." Peter says and walks off.

-

Peter made it to Clifford DeVoe's classes and sees it's empty.

"Clifford DeVoe." Peter says and walks up to the man.

"Do I know you?" Clifford asks, as calmly as possible.

"You do know me. You think you're so brilliant, but I traced everything back to you. Because I was there when you gained your abilities. I heard your whole plan. Who are you really?" Peter asks him.

Clifford gives up and rolls over to face him. "Who's asking? Peter Parker? Or Spider-Man?"

"How do you know who I am?" Peter asks.

"Oh, please. Your little secret is one of the more underwhelming revelations I have uncovered. I was struck by lightning just like your friend, Barry Allen."

"How come you didn't show up on our tests?" Peter asks, since his meta DNA seems to be hidden from them.

"For such a brilliant man, you are stupid. I'm smarter than you. You and your science team have devised no strategy, no action, no coordinated effort for which I'm not already prepared."

"You created the Samuriod to bring me back to the team and help you create the bus metas. And I know you think you're so high and mighty that you think you can get away with this. That you don't need to fear us...but I'm known for being unpredictable. We have a collection of the smartest minds from around the multiverse ."

Clifford just chuckles at that like it was a joke. "Yes, your Council of Wells. Could any one of those clowns identify what my abilities are?"

"I did. Your intellect was amplified thanks to your thinking cap and the particle accelerator. But I know how to predict your every move. I have abilities that can match your mind. We're both able to attack the others every move. It's just a matter of who's the better player at the board." Peter warns him when his class starts coming in. "You've been warned. We will stop whatever you have planned."

"I'll be thinking of you." DeVoe promises as Peter leaves.

-

"How do we stop someone who has super intelligence?" Miles wonders, seeing no possible way.

Cisco shrugged. "We're pretty smart," he commented, before walking across the room to the board and writing _THE THINKER _in all caps across the top. "The Thinker!" Cisco proclaimed, grinning.

Caitlin nodded, approving of the name. "That's good,"

Harry agreed. "Nailed it in one."

Cisco shrugged, smiling modestly.

"Guys, it's gonna take all of us to stop him." Barry murmured.

"Sounds like you all could use a hand," said a voice from behind them. All of them turned to see Wally West standing in the doorframe into the Cortex.

"How's Blue Valley?" Barry asked once the youngest West had been passed to him for a hug.

"Self-reflection and a battle with a blue starfish from outer space gives you perspective," Wally replied, smirking a little.

"So you found what you were looking for?" Peter asks as he pulls him into a hug.

"I don't know, to be honest," he shrugged. Joe laughed and grabbed him in another hug, and Peter's arm slid over Caitlin's shoulders. She snuggled into his side.

"We need to take our time, and formulate a plan for this one." Peter says, not wanting to run in blind again, especially with someone with this type of mind.

But Barry won't exactly be available for a while...he's got his wedding next.

————————

**_Yeah, I needed to get this out of the way so we could get to the Crisis of Earth-X which will becoming next._**

**_So you get a double update._**


	75. Crisis on Earth-X part l

Earth-X

Germany has won the war.

The skies are dark red with same colored lightning flashing everywhere as the Nazi flag hangs everywhere around the city. But there is a resistance in the world trying to stop the reign of terror that they live in.

-

The said rebellion is working on a device to travel in between universes to find heroes that can help save their world, but know that if the Third Reich got their hands on it, they could rule the multiverse and conquer any world they wished. That's why they're doing what they can to get it working before it's discovered.

"Hey, doc, you really think you can get this thing working?" One of the men guarding the entrance asks the scientist.

"We need to make it work if we're ever bring hope back to this darkened world." The scientist states to the guard when suddenly, an arrow comes flying in and kills the scientist and multiple other guards. He looks to see a man in an all dark suit with a hood and a metal mask covering his face and he knows exactly who it is. The_Dark Archer__._

The last guard sees the Dark Archer and runs when he gets shot by another arrow. The Dark Archer takes down the remaining men with hand to hand combat and arrows within a problem.

"You're the best you could send?" Dark Archer asks someone as Guardian emerges from the darkness in his American flag suit.

"Funny. I was gonna say the same thing." Guardian mocks as Dark Archer quickly shoots an arrow at him and he creates a shield to dodge the attack and begins to walk towards Dark Archer and begins to fight him in hand to hand combat. He gets a few good hits but mostly dodges Dark Archer's attacks when Dark Archer pins him to the wall and pulls out a knife and stabs through him and throws him to the ground and cracks his chest.

"There are more like me...and one day they will free this world." Guardian says with his dying breath.

"That day may come, but you won't be here to see it." Dark Archer states. "That flag died a long time ago."

"Well, it still means something." Guardian informs the Archer, believing that the world can still be saved.

"Yeah. It's a bull's-eye." Dark Archer states raising his bow and arrow to his face and shoots him through the head and enters the warehouse to see their machine.

"With this, our reign will last for eternity." Dark Archer says to himself.

-

Earth-1

Peter is fighting dr. Octavius who somehow was able to escape ARGUS custody and with it being a school night, Miles is a no show, and Caitlin is home watching Frankie. So Crystal isn't going to be much help either.

Along with Barry who's fighting off King Shark across the city, so he's not gonna be able to help either.

Otto throws a tentacle at Peter and he grabs it before it can impale him.

"_Hey, Peter, is this a bad time?_" Caitlin asks into his com link.

"Yeah, kinda." Peter says as he quickly sends a web in Otto's face causing him to go off balance and he takes the moment to leap away and Otto gets the web off his face. "What's up?" He asks while running to escape the tentacle claws.

"_Frankie's missing her homework she left on the table, you seen it?_" Caitlin asks him.

"Honey, can't this be sorted after I defeat my sworn enemy?" Peter asks when Otto grabs him by the foot and throws him down the street.

"_Come on, it's only dr. Octopus. It's not someone like Morbius or Juggernaut._" Caitlin replies as Peter stands back up to face Otto who's charging at him.

He charges as well at the four metallic armed man. "Has she looked in her room? I'm sure I put it there so she wouldn't loose it." Peter asks her while jumping off the street and flipping around Otto's arms and goes behind him and webs the back of Otto's head, dislocating the nano-chip contorting the arms and he drops.

"_Wait, she found it. Thanks._" Caitlin tells him and turns off the com link.

"When you're a superhero, parenting is hard." Peter tells himself before swinging off.

-

Earth-38

Peter and Kara are fighting off Dominators that showed up on Earth.

Kara slammed her's into a car as Peter webbed his and spins him around and collides the two Dominators together.

"These guys are so last year." Kara says as she and Peter use their super strength to slam the two into the wall, knocking them out.

Later, Peter drops by Kara's place to see how she's doing with the whole Mon-El thing.

"I mean, the man I loved and thought was dead, is alive. And he's actually here, but he's now married." Kara informs Peter of her dilemma. "And I actually thought I'd be more broken up on learning that, but...it's like it's nothing."

"Yeah, why can't we have normal people problems? Like you found him cheating on you or something." Peter wonders.

"I shouldn't be complaining, I know you dealt with the pain of Gwen." Kara remembers.

"Skirt, it hasn't hurt me in the past four months, thanks to you." Peter tells her. "We're just two people who have had nothing but bad luck when it comes to relationships." He then looks at her table and sees a wedding invitation for Barry Allen and Iris West. "Oh, you got one as well." He says picking it up.

"You got an invite?" Kara asks him.

"A giant breach opened up at my place and dropped it." Peter says looking over it. "You plan on going?"

"Wasn't really thinking about it. Besides, I'm not the only one on the invitation." Kara says and Peter sees Mon-El was her plus one on the invite.

"Right. Sitting on a couch and eating anything that would cause a normal person to gain weight it is. But neither of us can gain weight." Peter admits.

"No, you know what? We are not going to sit here and wallow." Kara says as she gets off of the couch. "We are going to get ourselves out of this funk of wanting people we can't have, off of this couch, and we're going to get our mojo back." She says and finds the breach device and opens a breach.

"I guess we're going to their wedding?" Peter guesses as they step through the breach.

-

Earth-1

In the outskirts of Central City, the Waverider is flying in and camouflaged itself as on the highway, Oliver and Felicity are on a motorcycle as a breach opens as Supergirl and Iron-Spider come flying out and into the city.

The girls meet up at a salon while the boys are getting their tux's.

"Iris, you are really glowing." Felicity tells Iris while handing her a glass of Champaign.

"Wait, it's pregnant women who glow, brides blush." May informs Felicity.

"Right. Blushing bride I can do, the other one, not just yet." Iris replies.

"Oh, it doesn't get better than this, ladies." Felicity says as she gets her nails done.

"I know." Kara agrees with her. "It feels so good to just be away from it all. Everything."

"Where's Mon-El?" Iris wonders.

Kara just sighs, not wanting to explain it right now. "You know what? It's a long story, but thank you for letting me just bring Peter as my plus-one."

"Absolutely. We know how much our Peter and your Peter like to freak people out." Caitlin says and just wonders what her boyfriend and Kara's friend plan on doing now.

Suddenly, the device the salon woman was using ended up getting destroyed.

"I'm sorry. I should have warned you. I take a lot of keratin." Kara quickly lies.

"Super strong nails." Felicity helps.

"So, Felicity, you and Oliver? You guys next, you think, to walk down the aisle?" Iris asks her.

"Maybe once the city is not being attacked and Oliver is no longer under indictment and he's spent enough time with his son who's stop; mourning the loss of his mother." Felicity replies.

"So, any day now." Caitlin jokes.

"What about you, Caitlin? You and the amazing Peter Parker, walking down the aisle." Felicity gets the attention on her.

"Yeah, I don't think anytime soon." Caitlin tells her. "Between Parker Industries, looking over Frankie, and everything else going on, it's not happening soon."

"Well, cheers, Iris, to your big day." May says and they all raise their glasses.

-

"You know, I mean I've been in love with Iris since I was ten. How am I supposed to fit all that love into one vow?" Barry asks as he and the guys are getting their tux's. "I've already written 38 pages, single spaced."

"You tried speed reading?" Peter asks him.

"No, nobody would understand me." Barry tells him as Oliver comes out in a tux. "I don't know what to do, I need help."

"Barry, when you're up there, and you look into her eyes...the words will come." Oliver promises him. "And if they don't, the look on your face will tell her everything that she needs to know. You clean up nice, my friend."

"Thanks. Yeah, you, too." Barry says as Peter-38 joins them in his tux.

"I can't believe you're really doing this." Oliver tells Barry.

"Yeah, man. What can I say, I got the girl. And, so did you. You ever thinking of making it official?" Barry asks Oliver.

"Again? Yeah." Oliver admits. "I think with everything going on, it's just not the right time."

"You love her?" Barry asks.

"I love her so much." Oliver replies.

"Put a ring on her." Barry tells him. "People like us are always going to be getting into trouble. Having someone we love by our side just makes getting out of that trouble that much easier. We have something to fight for."

Peter-38 listed to his advice and thinks for a minute when Peter-1 joins the three.

"My god, that's still weird." Oliver says looking at the two Peter's.

"What?" Both Peter's ask at once.

"That...is weird." Barry admits before separating.

-

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco is working on something for Jax and Stein, it's a serum to stop the Firestorm genetics in them.

"I call it, _the calm after the Firestorm_." Cisco says as a bottle with a serum emerges from a machine.

"What is it?" Jax asks him.

"It's a deficient acceleration serum." Harry explains to them.

"It's a cure?" Stein asks them. "We've spent months trying to devise a solution to neutralize the Firestorm matrix." He states to them wondering how they solved it.

"Uh, separate ourselves without exploding." Jax clarifies for them.

"Or switching bodies, we read your notes." Harry explains. "Although, why you wouldn't want to switch bodies with him is beyond me." He says.

"What Squidward is trying to say is, we took the data you extrapolated from Newton and Curie and Galileo-" Cisco says And is interrupted.

"Hacks. Everyone of them." Harry states interrupting Cisco.

"And we ran it though a Conway class nucleo-dynamic synthesizer. Curtesy of yours truly. Hold your applause." Cisco tells them.

"First off, nobody was clapping. Second, that explains why it couldn't splice a proton for a neutrino field." Harry says and laughs at his own joke.

"I'll splice the proton from your neutrino field." Cisco states to Harry.

"_Fields_. I've got a million fields." Harry corrects Cisco as they get into each other's faces while arguing again.

"Really? Are all of your friends this unbearable?" Cisco asks Harry and they start arguing louder.

"Gentlemen, we appreciate your efforts, but how do you account for the destabilization of the Firestorm matrix?" Stein asks them.

"We trick it." They both say at once.

"Quark spheres." Stein realizes seeing what they did. "They'll convince the matrix that our genetic codes are connected, when, in actuality, they're not. That's genius!" He says while getting excited and happy.

"And, you're sure this'll work?" Jax asks. "No powers for either of us?" Jax asks them.

"Guaranteed to put out the fire in Firestorm." Cisco states.

"One of you takes it..." Harry says.

"You're back to your old selves." Cisco finishes.

"No offense." Harry tells Stein.

Stein still looks at the serum in shock. "Just to be safe, I'd like to have Gideon run some tests, calculate dosage. We could take this directly after the ceremony. I can't wait to tell Clarissa and Lily I'm finally coming home. This is fantastic news, isn't it?" Stein asks Jax.

"Yeah, it's great. It's everything we wanted, so thanks, guys." Jax says unenthusiastic about loosing Stein.

-

Everyone is at the rehearsal dinner all together at Jitters.

"I never pegged you as a wedding guy." Cisco tells Mick.

"I never pass up on a free buffet. Or an open bar." Mick replies to him and takes the beer from his hands. As he walks away, he bumped into Caitlin and Frankie. "Sorry, didn't I try and kidnap you, once?" He asks her.

"Yes. And I wouldn't try that again." Caitlin warns him as he walks away.

At the bar, Peter-38 is drowning the sorrows of the old memories that are coming back up. Sadly, his powers _and_ his DNA don't allow him to get drunk.

"Somebody who drinks like that is looking to make something go away." Sara sees as she walks over to him.

"Well, the last time I did anything about a wedding, it was planning my own." Peter-38 informs her. "You know, right before my fiancée died after being murdered by a dimension hoping psychopath who rides a glider."

"Ooh." Sara sees and pours herself a drink. "So being at the rehearsal dinner for the world's most perfect couple is probably the last place that you wanna be."

"I'm sorry, Ellen and Portia are my standard for most perfect couple." Peter-38 states. "This? I'm basically watching a brother and sister get married. I'm living _Game of Thrones_."

"Oh, so both of our universes have _Ellen_ and _Game of Thrones..._that's something." Sara sees.

Barry looks around and spots Kara up on the upstairs of Jitters.

"Hey. This is really nice. Thanks for having us." Kara thanks Barry.

"Of course. I actually wanted to ask for a favor." Barry says and looks down to Peter-38. "It's safe for him to drink all that, right?"

"Don't worry. He can drink normal drinks like it was water." Kara assures him. "Except it burns in the morning according to him. He's going through a rough time, even moving on from Gwen's death."

"He's not the only one, I'm guessing. I just noticed you don't have a plus one." Barry says.

"Well, I am plus zero these days." Kara tells him.

"What happened with Mon-El?" Barry asks.

"What didn't happen?" Kara rephrased. "End of the world."

"Faced it three times." Barry tells her.

"Time travel."

"Been there.

"He's married to someone else."

Barry freezes and has nothing to help her there.

"But I had Peter so it made the pain easier. Really, it doesn't actually hurt me. I just feel...confused." Kara admits, not knowing why she feels this way.

"I finally got Oliver to admit it's okay to have love in his life, now I've got to convince you?" Barry asks her.

"Barry, it's different for you guys, you're human." Kara says.

"And you're what? Other than an alien, I mean...you know."

"Alone." Kara tells him.

"Well, I wouldn't say alone." Barry says and they look back down to Peter-38 who is with their Peter and people are trying to understand how and why they look alike and have the same names.

"Yeah, Peter's a good friend." Kara agrees.

"If he's anything like my Peter, he's gotta be amazing." Barry states.

"Anyway, what was the favor you wanted to ask me?" Kara asks.

"Oh. The last adventure that we had together, I was told of a very cool, new, non-superpower ability that you have." Barry says.

"Yes."

"I was wondering if you might mind breaking it out?" Barry asks of her.

Stein and the others join in and he goes to his family.

"You're late. As usual." Clarissa tells Stein.

"Sorry. Had to change." Stein apologizes.

"Don't you have a time machine?" Lily asks her father.

"Yes. Very droll." Stein says and looks to Jax. "Jefferson, I've been meaning to talk to you. Would you excuse us for a minute?" Stein asks as the two go to a corner of the room.

"Where have you been, man?" Jax asks, since he hasn't seen him since the talk they had with Cisco and Harry.

"This." He states showing the serum for the Firestorm separation.

"Wait, I thought the cure S.T.A.R. Labs made for us was blue, not...orange." Jax states completely confused by him.

"This isn't the cure. This is a molecular resequencing smart virus with a non-normative reciprocal action." Stein explains.

"Do you just make up scientific words to make yourself sound smarter?" Jax asks him.

"The contents of this file will rewrite your DNA and give you superpowers."

"Are you serious? What kind of powers?" Jax asks him.

"Well, I extrapolated it from the genetic abilities of a _Microhexura Montivaga_. The spruce-fir moss spider." He explains to him.

"You're trying to turn me into another Spider-Man?" Jax asks completely confused as they all know about Miles.

"Well, no. I mean, you won't be super strong and able to lift ten times your body weight. Nor will you be able to shoot webs from a sundial gland in your wrist flexor muscle."

"I think that his web shooters do that, not his actual wrist." Jax reminds him. "But I'll have Spidey-sense?" He asks.

"Don't call it that." Peter-38 tells him as he walks past the two.

"And I'm afraid not." Stein answers his question.

"What powers would it give me?" Jax asks.

"You'll be able to stick to things." Stein explains. "Incredible inhesion. As if you were glue. You'll just be stuck right on something, no sliding off."

"Yeah, the spectacular Sticky-Man." Jax says mockingly.

"That was one of my original names." Peter says as he passes the two to catch back up with Frankie and Caitlin as Jax looks to see the two voices came form the two different Peter's.

"God, that's still creepy." Jax says.

"Well, I'm sure Cisco could fashion you a more exciting sobriquet. The important thing is, you can still have what you want. You told me, when we began our latest adventures, that all you wanted was superpowers and be able to be on the Waverider. Now you can have both. You may not be able to be Firestorm anymore, but you can still be a Legend." Stein explains and Jax scoffs.

"I thought you would be happy about it." Stein says, confused by his reaction.

"Yeah, you would think that." Jax asks and walks away.

"See you're drowning your sorrows." Peter-1 tells Peter-38.

"You'd be doing the same if you had my life." Peter-38 replies as he drinks a whole glass in one gulp.

"You drank that faster than my girlfriend." Peter-1 says and remembers the day Caitlin drank and sang with him.

"Well, my biology doesn't allow me to get drunk unless going to this specific place, so feeling a buzz is the next best thing." Peter-38 says and looks up to Kara who's talking to Barry still.

Peter-1 watches him stare at her and starts to see something. "You like Supergirl?"

"What?!" Peter-38 yells, finding that absurd. "No!"

"You're lying to yourself, you know. Literally and figuratively." Peter-1 says seeing it in Peter's eyes he likes her. "Want some advice?"

"No." Peter-38 quickly replies and walks off.

Peter smiles and rolls his eyes at his doppelgänger, knowing he's ignoring his fleeings and makes it over to Caitlin and Frankie and sees the two of them looking almost identical you'd mistake them for mother and daughter. "There's the two of my three favorite girls in my life." He says as he kisses Caitlin and ruffles Frankie's hair, causing her to laugh.

"Look at who can clean himself up." Caitlin says looking over him.

"I don't always dress like a high school principal, dr. Snow." Peter tells her and Caitlin laughs at the inside joke.

"I don't get it." Frankie tells them.

"Inside joke. Don't worry about it." Peter tells her.

"Oliver, I don't want to marry you!" Felicity yells a bit too loud as everyone hears it and looks to the couple and she leaves.

"What was that about?" Caitlin wonders.

"I have no idea. But something tells me we're going to have someone sleeping on our couch." Peter says looking over to Oliver.

-

They did in fact have Oliver with them for the night, but it seems he at least gets along with Frankie just fine.

The next morning, Oliver wakes up to sees Frankie meditating in the middle of the living room.

"She picked it up from a friend of mine." Peter explains to Oliver. "Helps her from stressing out about her abilities."

"Abilities?" Oliver asks.

"Oh, right, I guess we didn't really tell anyone. Frankie's a metahuman. She's able to move any metallic object with her mind." Peter explains to him.

"If you guys don't mind, I like silence while I'm meditating." Frankie asks of them and they leave the room for the kitchen for coffee and get some breakfast before heading to the ceremony.

-

"Welcome to the West/Allen wedding, can I show you to your seat?" One of the women at the church ask Peter-38. "Are you here for the bride or groom?"

"Well, considering I've saved the groom more times than my friend, I'll get groom's side I suppose." Peter-38 says as Kara meets up with him.

"Well, that would be the right side." She tells him.

"Great." Kara says as the two of them decide to sit together and sit next to Lucius Fox who's beside Caitlin and Frankie.

"Uh..." Fox says getting Caitlin's attention and she sees them.

"That's Peter's doppelgänger from the multiverse." Caitlin explains and Fox now understands.

-

Peter was outside the church, making his way there when he bumped into somebody.

"I'm so sorry!" A yong female voice apologizes as Peter stops to make sure she was okay.

"No, that was my fault." Peter apologizes when his senses go off like they did for Miles, confusing him when he looks and faces the girl that seems to be in here late teens or early twenties. "I...wasn't looking where I was going." He says as he looks over her closer.

The girl has long, brown hair, that goes lower than her shoulders with the front having a few streaks of white on her left side. She smiles at Peter nervously and moves her lose hair behind her ear, almost identical to how Caitlin does it.

"I'm sorry, have we met?" Peter asks her.

"No!" She answers loudly and starts getting nervous. "No, I'm a total stranger. Well, some say strangers are friends you haven't met yet. I'm rambling, aren't I?"

"Yeah, a little." Peter tells her.

"Yeah, my friend, Mia, she says I do that a lot." She admits and scratches her neck nervously...almost like how he does it.

"I tend to do that when I'm nervous, too." Peter chuckles at her. "Well, I gotta go. My friend's getting married."

"Oh, my bad." She says and starts leaving.

"Hey, what's your name?" Peter asks her, wondering why his senses went off like that.

She stops in her tracks and turns to Peter again as if she's thinking about it. "...Mary- Jane. Watson...Mary Jane Watson."

"See you around, Mary." Peter says and makes a mental note to look for her later as he makes his way to the alter.

-

The ceremony just starts as Peter makes it to Caitlin and Kara runs up to the microphone for Barry's requests.

"_Can't say how the days will unfold, can't change what the future may hold. But, I want you in it. Every hour, every minute. This world can race by far too fast. Hard to see while it's all flying past. But, it's clear now, when you're standing here now. I am meant to be wherever you are next to me. All I want to do. Is come running home to you. Come running home to you. And all my life I promise to. Keep running home to you. Keep running home. __To you._"

"Everyone, please be seated." The minister asks everyone. "Welcome to you all. I'm honored to be presiding over the wedding of Barry Allen and Iris West. Although I don't know them well, I know that this is a good match. How do I know that? Because of you, all of you. Looking out at their friends and their family..." he continues as Peter-38 looks across of him and notices that Mick is asleep and wished he could join him.

"...and seeing the joy on all your faces, seeing how happy you are for them, tells me everything I need to know. It tells me that these two people deserve to be together. They deserve to e happy and fulfilled. And they deserve a long life together. And now to the standard housekeeping."

As he continues, Peter and Peter-38 sense something as the both look to the entrance and see nothing.

"Everything okay?" Kara asks Peter-38.

"I'm not sure." Peter-38 replies when both Peter's senses start blaring like drums.

"Speak now, or forever hold your peace." The minister says and Peter-38 leaps and goes in front of Barry and Iris before activating his holo-shield as a blast of heat vision hits it and everyone looks to see a blonde floating in the air with a mask on and another person in a Prometheus outfit and Dark Archer next to him. Along with dozens of men coming in with guns.

"Peace is overrated." Powergirl tells them.

"Nazis?" Oliver asks.

"I hate Nazis." Peter says when they open fire and he grabs Frankie and drops to the ground with Caitlin.

Barry speeds along and grabs the bullets before they could hurt anyone as Jax and Stein transform into Firestorm.

"Get everybody out of here!" Kara says as she removes her glasses and Peter activated his Iron-Spider suit and blasts the Nazis away.

Harry, Joe, Barry, and Wally start evacuating everyone as the heroes begin to fight.

"Cait, I think it's time we introduced these guys to your roommate." Peter tells her as he holds Frankie down from the fire.

Caitlin understands what he's saying and Crystal Frost takes over. "Where does she get these outfits?" She asks looking over what she's wearing and stands up to shoot ice at the Nazis when Mick notices her.

"That's what I'm talking about." Mick says as he stands up and starts burning the Nazis.

Peter-38 uses his repulsers to blast the Nazis back as Kara faces Powergirl.

"Who are you?" Kara asks her.

"Come did out." Powergirl dares her and Kara flies through the ceiling and they begin to fight.

Peter-38 goes to help her when he gets crushed into the wall.

One Nazi makes his way to Peter and Frankie when Peter shoots a web at his face and Frankie is able to rip the gun from his hands using her powers.

Frankie gets an idea when Dark Archer shoots his arrows, she concentrates enough to stop it and sent it flying back into his shoulder.

"Nice job, kid." Peter congrats her as he stands up and uses his web shooters to web the Nazis with Frankie keeping close and pulling the guns out of their hands so they can't shoot anyone.

Mick walks down the seats and burns the Nazis without a care in the world.

Crystal forms an ice sphere in her hand and uses it to attack the Nazis.

-

Kara and Powergirl keep fighting outside as they fly into the air and start using heat vision on each other.

Peter-38 finds them and flies up to stop the masked woman. He sends a powerful repulsed blast to send Powergirl flying, but it doesn't keep her down for long as she grabs Peter-38 and throws him back into the church.

The Nazis aim at him and shoot when the bullets all freeze midair and Frankie is holding her hand out and her eyes closed as she's focusing on the bullets until they drop, harming no one.

Powergirl comes floating in, ready to finish off Peter-38 when Kara comes flying in and smashes her into the ground, sending a shockwave of energy taking down several of the people in the room.

Peter-38 gets up and sees Powergirl and sends a repulsed blast from his chest, and both of his hands and sends her flying.

"No!" Dark Archer shouts seeing she's injured. "Fall back. Everybody fall back." He tells them all and drops a device that flashes a light in their eyes and they vanished.

The heroes look around wondering what just happened and Peter helps his doppelgänger get up while Crystal changes back into Caitlin and she runs to check on Frankie.

"Best wedding ever!" Mick tells them.

-

Later they bring everyone to Star Labs and bring Prometheus to the pipeline for questioning as Caitlin is currently checking on Cisco who had been taken down from the blast when Kara slammed Powergirl to save Iron-Spider.

"There must be some way to wake him up." Stein states. "I honestly think the world has gone mad."

"He's definitely got a concussion. It's not too bad, though." Caitlin says dressed in her Crystal Frost suit. "He'll be out for sometime."

"May I ask why you're dressed like that?" Stein asks referring to her suit.

"Oh, I become Crystal Frost when I'm angry or scared, and something tells me I'm gonna be both of those before this is all over." She explains herself.

"Astonishing." Stein comments and looks down at Cisco.

-

"So, what's the game plan?" Wally asks them as he enters the cortex.

"There isn't one yet. Whoever attacked us knows who we are, so I think just get Joe, Iris, Eddie and everyone as far away as possible." Barry tells them.

"No way, man. I have to help out. Come on." Wally states wanting to help.

"You're helping by keeping our family safe." Barry informs him.

"Until we know what these people want, nobody's safe." Joe states agreeing with Barry.

"You wiped the minds of the guests at the wedding?" Oliver asks Mick shows a device in his hand.

"Yep. Everyone's secret identity remains secret." Mick tells them and you can hear how he doesn't care.

"Any ideas where they fled?" Barry asks Kara and Peter-38.

"No, we flew over the entire city, there's no trace of them." Kara tells them.

"Well, clearly they attacked because we were there." Peter-38 states to them.

"Kill earths heroes, then what was their next move?" Peter wonders.

"If I know my history, ethnic cleansing, world domination." Felicity tells them.

"Make America Aryan again." Jax says.

"Which it never was." Caitlin replies.

"I hate Nazis." Mick says.

"Their appearance seems quite a severe course of action in support of a cause that was defeated over 70 years ago." Stein interjects.

"Apparently they didn't know about the Yalta Conference." Barry states.

"What's a Yalta?" Mick asks confused.

"Remind me later, I'll try explaining." Peter tells him.

"That woman didn't seem surprised to see me." Kara says.

"How did they even know you were on this earth?" Peter-38 asks.

"And how was she as strong as you?" Frankie asks as Peter filled her in on the heroes.

"That archer matched me, shot for shot. You know, I think it's time we got some answers." Oliver states looking at the footage of Prometheus in his cell.

"Yeah, he ain't exactly talking." Jax tells him.

"So let's make him talk." Oliver tells them as Prometheus looks towards the camera.

-

On a rooftop in Central City, Powergirl and Dark Archer are looking out to the city.

"The kryptonian was stronger than we anticipated." Venom tells them.

"Next time, we'll be more prepared." Archer tells him.

"Next time, she won't be so lucky." Powergirl tells him as a flash of yellow lightning comes in and they turn to see Reverse Flash.

_"What did you do?" _He asks with his voice vibrating and removes his mask and stops vibrating to reveal Eobard Thawne/Harrison Wells. "What did you do?!" He asks them all. "You were supposed to wait until we were ready before you attacked!" Thawne states to the three of them.

Dark Archer does as he did and removes his mask to reveal Oliver Queen. "Opportunity knocked in the form of a wedding. We answered." He expains to Thawne.

"Oh, opportunity knocked and you answered." Thawne says mockingly. "Well, now, because of your recklessness, we have lost Prometheus!" He yells at them

"Boys, boys, boys, don't fight." Powergirl tells them. "You need to save your power, your anger, for those heroes." She says and removes her mask to reveal Kara Danvers. "Look, we will have another chance to achieve victory. And when we do, we will kill every last one of them." She states angered by her defeat in the church.

——————————

**_I was going to give Peter an Earth-X doppelgänger, but considering I already did the evil twin from Earth-2, Venom from Earth-38, I thought I'd leave him out of it._**

**_Not to mention, one of my other stories When Worlds Collide I did the evil Peter, Oliver, and Kara._**


	76. Crisis on Earth-X part ll

In the pipeline, Barry and the others are watching Prometheus as he removes his mask and Oliver, Sara and Felicity look like they've seen a ghost.

"Oh my god." Felicity says, seeing his face.

"Oh my god, what? Felicity, who is that?" Caitlin asks Felicity.

"That's Tommy Merlyn." Sara explains.

"He died about four years ago." Peter adds, he met Tommy and they easily became friends before he died.

"Oliver, who's Tommy Merlyn?" Barry asks his friend.

"Thea's other brother...and best friend." Oliver explains in complete shock he's alive and moves closer towards the cell. "We're gonna need a moment alone." Je tells them and they leave them and hear back for the cortex.

-

"He's a crony." Mick tells them and they're confused to what he's saying.

"Anachronism." Stein says, correcting Mick.

"That's what I said." Mick states.

"Lately we've been dealing with anachronisms. It's people and things displaced throughout time." Sara explains.

"Okay, but why would Nazis from 1945 wanna crash someone's wedding?" Frankie asks, not getting their plan.

"Crab legs. They were delicious." Mick says and nobody couldn't argue with him.

"Well, she has a point, though." Peter-38 says from across the room. "If they're out of time, they would be targeted the military or law enforcement."

"Tommy was plucked from the past and put in the Prometheus wardrobe? That doesn't make any sense." Felicity tells the group.

"It does make sense if we're not dealing with an anachronism." Caitlin states to them.

"You think they're visitors from another earth?" Peter asks her, seeing what she's thinking.

"Whoa. There are more than one?" Jax asks them.

"There are 52 actually." Kara says.

"Though I'm hard pressed to think of one where Nazis are ascendant." Stein informs them.

"I can." Harry says and they turn to look at him leaning against the wall. "There's a 53rd earth, and it's called Earth-X." He states and goes over to the computers and shows footage of the Nazis winning WWll.

"It doesn't have a designation, because it's a place so awful, so horrific, no sane person would ever travel there." Harry explains to them as they look at the screens in horror. "It's basically earth. Same history, same timeline, with one crucial and critical difference."

"Let me make a hypothesis. The Nazis invented the atomic bomb before the United States did, and were more than happy to use it." Stein guesses and Harry states she's right.

"Yes, the Nazis won the war, and New York, London, Paris, Moscow...all obliterated. The SS set up outposts, not only all throughout Europe but also all throughout the Americas, and Hitler continued his brutal reign aided by prime ministers and presidents until his death in 1994." Harry finishes explaining.

"Now they're not happy ruling just one earth." Felicity says and leaves for some air.

"We have to find them and stop them." Kara states. "I mean, do you think they're using breach to hop between worlds?"

"That or they're operating from a staging area somewhere in Central City or close by." Peter-38 guesses.

"Well, good thing we have a metric ton of smart people in this building...and Rory." Barry states. "Let's get to work on finding our new friends from Earth-X."

-

"Earth-X?" Oliver asks Tommy.

"That's right. And I'm dead on this earth. I'd almost prefer that. I was born into the Reich. The whole world is the fatherland. We don't have elementary schools and summer camps. We have youth groups, military training. We all grow up without a choice." Tommy explains to Oliver, sadly.

"You have a choice now. You can tell me where to find the others from Earth-X." Oliver explains to his friend's doppelgänger.

"On my Earth, you are my best friend." Tommy tells him. "I would die for you."

"I would've died for you."

"Would have?"

"You beat me to it. I lost you. It was like...loosing a limb. And you weren't my best friend." Oliver says and starts choking up. "You were my brother. And you sacrificed yourself for a woman we both loved. And I was right there and I had you right here. You were a good man here. And I believe you still can be."

"No, you don't understand. If I...if I were to talk, if I were to break, the fuehrer will send General Venom to kill my father. He'll kill my mother, everyone that I love." Tommy says in fear.

"I will not let that happen. I will stop him." Oliver promises Tommy.

"You think you can do that?" Tommy asks and Oliver can hear the fear in his voice.

"I promise you that I can do that." Oliver says and Tommy smiles menacingly.

"Then you really are a special kind if idiot." Tommy tells Oliver breaking the act. "Your naïveté would be charming if your weakness wasn't so pathetic. Is this how it is on your planet? Everyone swayed by sentiment? Is everyone here really so weak? The Reich will change that. The weak will be eliminated. Your entire world will be enslaved, but you, you...you won't be around to witness it. He is going to feel your skull crack under the weight of his boot. Everyone you care about, everyone you love, they're gonna die badly...In ways that would give even monsters nightmares." He drops his mask and reaches for something in his mouth. "I really wish I could live to see it." He states and bites down on it before Oliver could open the cell and dies.

-

In their hideout, Thawne and Venom are working on something when an alert goes off from Oliver's suit and he sees its Tommy's life system.

"He's gone." Oliver-X tells them.

"Who?" Thawne asks him. "Merlyn?" He asks not surprised.

"The biosensors in his suit indicate his heart stopped." Oliver-X explains as he starts getting upset.

"He always see,ed kind of soft to me." Thawne states as Kara comes in. "Oliver."

"He died for you." Oliver-X tells Kara-X. "And we will make his death worthwhile."

"That doesn't change the fact that now we're down a man." Thawne informs them all.

"Keep your focus where it belongs and get to work on locating that prism." Oliver-X commands him, getting frustrated with the speedster.

"Watch your tone...or I'll watch it for you." Thawne warns Oliver and he pulls out an arrow and throws Thawne against the wall.

"Oliver!" Kara-X yells at him.

"Did you just tell me to watch my tone?" Oliver-X asks Thawne.

"You're angry...and I like it." Thawne informs Oliver-X.

"Don't you mock me!" Oliver-X states to him.

"Don't threaten me, or have you forgotten?" Thawne asks and raises his vibrating fist. "I could end your life before you birth your next thought."

Kara-X walks up to him and places her hand against his chest. "Try it, once I crush every bone in your body." She warns him.

"Okay, were all going a little too far here. Here's what I suggest. I will stop vibrating my hand, you will stop crushing my chest, and you be 10% less brooding." Thawne suggests and they all back away from each other and Oliver drops the arrow.

"We accomplish nothing by arguing against ourselves." Kara-X informs them.

"It's the accomplishing nothing that has me concerned." Thawne states to her. "We came here to _conquer this earth_, or have you forgotten?" He asks them.

"Locate the prism. Please. Once we have identified the location of the target, I will devise a plan of attack." Oliver-X tells Thawne and Von Strucker as they leave to locate it.

"I'm sorry about Merlyn." Kara-X tells Oliver-X.

"He should've died in the church instead of taken prisoner." Oliver-X states. "Kara, we need that prism. We are running out of time."

"You have to trust in the plan, Oliver. You should. It's yours." Kara-X informs him.

"And do you trust me?" Oliver-X asks her.

"Yes. With all my heart."

-

Back at Star labs, they're working on all of their resources to find the Earth-Xers.

"So, Felicity's got her friend working on Palmer technology's spectrometry satellites." Jax tells Harry and Caitlin who are in the labs.

"Okay, what about the Waverider? I mean, a time traveling spaceship must have some sorta way to boost the tracking system placed we could use." Caitlin suggests.

"Not exactly. It's in the stone age. The literal Stone Age." Jax explains.

"Well, parallel earth jumping is Cisco's specialty." Caitlin states.

"And since he's so busy being unconscious right now, I guess we're on our own." Harry replies as Stein enters the labs.

"Oh, perfect timing, man." Jax informs him, "we're trying to find the guys from Earth-X, and we're coming up with nothing."

"I'm sorry, would you excuse us for a minute?" Stein asks the other two, Harry and Caitlin get the hint and leave them.

Peter-38 and Kara are walking down the hallway as they have a minute alone, Peter-38 thinks about what his doppelgänger said.

"We came here for a wedding, and we end up in the middle of a Nazi invasion." Peter-38 recaps.

"Still not our worst day." Kara admits. "And did you really bring a armored suit to a wedding?" She asks him, since he had the suit on him.

"What, you think I rented a tux? With the prices on this earth? No, I disguised my suit so it would look like I was wearing one." Peter-38 informs her.

"That's one way on saving money." Kara guesses.

-

Caitlin leaves Harry and goes to the cortex and finds Peter and Frankie.

"Hey, what are you two doing?" Caitlin asks them.

"Searching the city for any dimensional activity where the Earth-Xers can be hiding." Frankie explains to her.

"You sure you want her here for this?" Caitlin asks Peter.

"Well, her powers can help us with these Nazis and I want her somewhere I know she will be safe." Peter tells her. "What about Ralph or Miles?"

"I heard nothing on stretchy pants. Warned Miles that we might need him to come in sooner or later." Caitlin tells him and that's better than nothing.

Then something goes off and Peter pulls it up. "There's a break-in at Dayton optical systems. It's them." He warns the two.

"How do you know?" Caitlin asks and Peter pulls up security footage to show its the Nazis. "I'll tell Barry." Caitlin says and leaves to find him.

-

Barry, Kara, Peter-38 are the first three to arrive at Dayton and they're waiting for a good second until Oliver comes up in his motorcycle.

He gets off and takes his bow before facing the other three. "Just a quick reindeer. Super speed; I don't have it." Oliver informs them.

"Noted." Peter-38 promises.

"So what do we know about this place?" Barry asks as they walk towards it. "Why are the Earth-Xers targeting it?"

Dark Archer, Powergirl, Reverse Flash, and a new man wearing an iron suit come out of the building.

"Because...they had something we need." Dark Archer informs them as the Reverse Flash is carrying something.

"Whatever you stole..." Oliver starts.

"We're gonna want it back." Barry finishes.

"Your confidence is predictable." Dark Archer tells them. "You four are a team assembled from three completely different worlds. You've all faced some of the greatest evils known to man, and you've defeated them."

"But if you think so highly of yourselves that you can defeat any threat that comes your way..." Dark Archer says as all of the Earth-Xers remove their masks to reveal themselves and the heroes look in shock. "How do you feel about us?" Oliver-X asks them.

"This is sick." Oliver states.

"Do you mean looking at your reflection and seeing only weakness? I agree." Oliver-X replies to him.

"Thawne?" Barry asks Reverse Flash, confused.

"Direct from Earth-1. Do you like my face?" Thawne asks him.

"It's the face you were wearing when I became the Flash." Barry answers.

"I thought I'd put it on again. For old times sake. Plus, handsome." Thawne tells him.

"We watched you die." Barry reminds him.

"Or did you?" Thawne makes him question. "It's time travel, Barry. So very confusing. I always seem to be saying that to you, don't I?"

"Wolfgang Von Strucker." Peter-38 sees the doppelgänger of Iron Baron as Gwen named him.

"I heard you faced off my doppelgänger on your world. Except I'm more powerful than my doppelgänger." Wolfgang promises.

"We'll see about that." Peter-38 says, ready to wipe the floor with this guy the second time.

"Tommy killed himself." Oliver tells them.

"I heard your Tommy died years ago." Oliver-X replies. "That's what this earth does. It's what all of your earths do. Makes people soft."

"We've been watching all of your worlds for sometime." Kara-X says. "And How you've squandered the potential of three worlds. On our earth, we've developed a meritocracy. We've accomplished greatness."

"You're perverse." Peter-38 says.

"No, Peter, you're the perversion. The most powerful beings on the planet rendered weak by saccharine Americana. My pod was blessed to crash in the fatherland." Kara-X tells her.

"Then go back there." Barry tells them.

"This is not your world. Leave." Oliver threatens.

"I don't answer to the likes of you." Oliver-X states. "My allegiance is to the fatherland...and to my wife." He says and looks towards Kara.

"His wife?" Peter-38 asks confused and sees Kara is just as grossed out.

"Gross! No offense." Kara says to Oliver.

"Last chance. Leave or go through us." Peter-38 states, ready to beat these doppelgänger's senseless.

Thawne raises his mask and speeds off, followed by Barry.

Wolfgang takes to the sky and Peter-38 flies up and starts to fight him off.

Oliver pulls out a lead laced arrow and aims at Powergirl.

"And what do you think that's going to do? Bullets bounce off of me." Kara-X informs him.

"Oh, this arrow won't." Oliver promises and shoots it, causing the top to fall of revealing it's made completely out of kryptonite and it penetrates her chest.

"Is that a kryptonite arrow?" Kara asks looking at him. "Why do you have a kryptonite arrow?"

"In case an evil you ever showed up." Oliver explains.

In the sky, Peter-38 and Wolfgang send repulsed blasts at one another, causing them to collide and Peter-38 shoots a web through the blasts and swings Wolfgang around before throwing him into the ground.

Thawne speeds past and hits Peter and Oliver before seeing Wolfgang is unconscious from the fall.

"Get him and the prism out of here!" Oliver-X tells Thawne and they vanish. "Are you all right?" He asks Kara-X.

"I'm pissed." She replies.

"Take it out on that." Oliver-X says looking to a structure in the distance.

The heroes look and see people are going to get hurt and they all make their way over there.

Peter-38 and Kara grab the falling debris and equipment from falling on the ground.

"Get the workers out of here!" Peter-38 tells Barry as he speeds around to make sure they're okay.

"We need to stabilize the building." Barry tells Oliver and Peter.

"On it." Peter-38 says as he and Oliver swing around and keep everything from falling apart and they all make it back to the ground safely. "Sites clear and stabilized." He now assures them.

"Let's not celebrate yet." Olive tells him. "We gave those doppelgängers the window they needed to escape."

"Escape with what?" Kara asks.

-

"Dayton optical systems call it the Prism." Felicity says, looking over the information she received.

"What on earth do they need a sub-light generator for?" Harry questions. "It's basically a spectral emitter that uses quantum entanglement."

"They could also use it to create a stable fusion reaction." Caitlin says.

"So, you're saying the device they stole can be converted into a neutron bomb?" Peter asks the two.

"Exactly." Harry replies.

"The bottom line is that we have to catch these parallel earth goose steppers." Felicity says as Barry comes in with the kryptonite arrow.

"This might help that." He says, handing it to Caitlin.

"I know I shouldn't have to ask the question, but I am. Oliver didn't shoot Kara, did he?" Felicity asks.

Sort of. The other archer and flying woman are Oliver and Kara from Earth-X." Barry informs them all.

"When you said that Earth-X was horrible, you might have undersold it." Caitlin says, looking towards Harry.

"And also the Reverse Flash from our earth is working with them." Barry says.

"He's an idiot." Harry states.

"Okay, if that arrow has evil Kara's blood on it, we could track it using quantum analysis." Peter says.

"Hey, guys, I think I have a quicker way." Peter-38 says from the labs and they walk up to see him on the computers. "These red blood cells are laced with shortwave radiation." He explains what he found.

"Solar radiation?" Caitlin asks.

"Yeah, incredibly high amounts." Peter states looking at what he found.

"Can you track that?" Barry asks them.

"Well, I once caught a deranged serial killer off his face cream, so..." Felicity explains and they all get to work.

"Let's just do it, fast." Barry tells them.

-

In their hideout, on the outskirts of both Central City and Starlight City, Thawne is on work with the prism as Wolfgang didn't survive the attack from Peter-38.

"Will it work?" Kara-X asks them.

"It will with a few more adjustments and a significant power source."

"My husband is on his way to secure it as we speak." She informs him.

"Your husband has a choice to make."

"Me or the Reich?"

"That's right. Because we have 3 goals, and my worry is if we can't accomplish them, he's gonna choose you over a second earth flying under our banner."

"Oliver will not abandon our mission."

"I've seen this before. In 1945, hitler and his men were equally shortsighted."

"Hitler was driven by passion and childish need. Oliver is 10 Times the man he was."

"Not when he's blinded by his love for you."

"If it comes to Oliver choosing between me and the Reich, I'll make sure he chooses the fatherland."

"How?"

"If it comes to it...by taking the choice out of his hands."

-

Back at Star labs, they're still trying to find their hideout.

"Maybe tracking her off of face cream should've been easier." Caitlin states, seeing this is difficult to track.

"Supergirl-X's blood is filled with solar radiation," Harry replies to her, "more than it should be, but if I could reignite to get that to act as a kind of beacon..."

"Hey, how do you do it?" Mick asks Caitlin, regarding Crystal Frost.

"Do what, Rory?" She asks.

"Bring the other you out of you." He explains.

"You don't want to know." Caitlin promises.

"Sure I do." Mick tells her.

It's just...either when I'm scared or angry." Caitlin explains to him and gets back to work.

"So if I were to...BOO!" Mick yells, trying to scare her and it doesn't work on anyone in the room.

"Nice try." Caitlin states and Harry slams his hand against the table.

"Boom. Whatever's going on with Kara-X!s blood, it's intensifying." Harry tells them.

"Worst for her is better for us." Peter replies.

"Better for tracking her at least." Caitlin states. "We should have her location any minute." She says and Mick takes a drink from his beer.

-

Peter-38 was wandering the halls when he comes across Kara leaning against the wall in the speed lab.

"You doing okay, Skirt?" Peter-38 asks her, walking towards her.

"Yeah, it's just...seeing myself like that. What I was afraid of becoming, it just messed with my head." Kara tells him.

Peter-38 goes down and faces her. "You know you're too good hearted to become that, right?"

"I know, it's just...I could have easily been her. If I ran into the wrong family, or I let my anger out like when that red kryptonite controlled me, I could do serious damage." Kara tells him.

Peter-38 watches her hands shake in nervousness and places his hand on hers to stop them from shaking.

"Kara, you are the most kindhearted, amazingly hopeful and positive person I've ever met. And even after everything we've been through, you're still all of those things. I've known you for three years, and I can say as true as the world is round, you will _never_ become her." Peter-38 promises her.

Kara looks up and smiles at her friend and closes her hand around his.

Neither one knows who started to lean in first, but the two of them start to slowly lean in when Peter finds them.

Peter watches and sees what they're about to do and decides to have fun with his doppelgänger.

"We found them." Peter interrupts and the two of them leap up at his voice. "They're at a shipping depot outside Danville." He says and Kara walks out a little fast as Peter-38 starts to follow her when Peter stops his doppelgänger.

"What?" Peter-38 asks his doppelgänger.

"Were you about to do what I think you were gonna do?" Peter asks him with a smile on his face.

"Nothing was happening." Peter-38 tells him and walks off.

Peter just stays there smiles and knows that he's lying considering it's his face that's lying.

-

They make it to the shipping depot from either flying, swinging, or running.

"Supergirl, Iron-Spider, and Firestorm are sweeping the perimeter." Oliver says as they walk towards the hideout.

"It's done. Wall to wall Nazis in there." Peter-38 says as he and Kara return after searching.

"Peter and I will take up break positions on the northwest corner," Sara replies.

"We think thinks they converted the sub light generator into some kind of super weapon." Peter tells them.

"Speaking of super, theirs is our biggest threat." Barry states.

"Then we take her out first." Oliver replies.

-

Back at the labs, Felicity, Caitlin and Frankie are left waiting for anything to happen when Mick holding a sandwich comes in through the doors.

"Mustard." He says like they're supposed to know what he's talking about. "You people have breaches but no mustard."

"What are you even doing here?" Felicity asks him.

"Yeah, why didn't you go with them?" Frankie wonders.

"Go where?" He asks, and they realize they didn't tell him or he wasn't listening.

-

At the hideout, Oliver and Peter-38 sneak their way in.

"Can you turn off your suit? How are you never spotted with all those lights?" Oliver asks, regarding the Iron-Spider suit.

"Sorry, it's built for combat, not stealth." Peter-38 explains as they come to an opening with a dozen Nazis, but before they could begin to fight them, Barry comes in and takes them down.

"Come on, you could've saved one for us to share?" Oliver asks Barry.

"I'm saving Nazi you for you," Barry states as the others come in.

"There's no sign of the prism." Peter-38 says as he scanned the entire place.

"Well, it's got to be here somewhere." Barry says and Peter's senses go off.

"We've got bigger problems." They both warn the rest of them.

"They're right, we've got incoming." Sara says and they turn to see Nazis surrounding them.

"Stay where you are!" They warn them.

"When has that ever worked for you guys?" Peter asks them, a bit curious if that works on their earth.

When the Reverse Flash runs past and Barry races after him and they all begin to fight off all the Nazis as Powergirl comes flying past as Kara and Peter-38 fly after her.

"I see their Flash, their Supergirl." Sara states as she takes two Nazis and Peter webs one before throwing him at a group of them and Sara takes down several more.

"Yeah, I see them!" Oliver says.

"But where's their Arrow?" Peter asks and goes back to fighting.

The whole hideout is filled with shooting, fighting, lightning crackling everywhere.

-

Outside Star labs, Dark Archer is heading for the entrance, undetected.

As inside, Caitlin enters the cortex with the mustard Mick was asking for.

"It was in the fridge." Caitlin informs Mick. "Did you check the fridge?" She questions him as he takes it.

"Ah, thank you, sweetheart." Mick thanks and walks off.

"Any word from the team?" Caitlin asks the girls.

"They're at the shipping depot, but it's just radio silence." Felicity tells her.

In the halls, Harry is walking towards the elevator and runs into Dark Archer. "Oh god." He says, seeing he's in trouble.

"There is no god." Dark Archer informs him as Harry turns to run and he sounds the alarm before he gets knocked out.

-

Back at the facility, the team is working together and separate to fight off the army of Nazis attacking them.

Peter is webbing and dodging everything he can as best as he can.

Barry is still chasing and fighting Thawne,

Firestorm is flying around attacking every Nazi they can find.

Kara and Peter-38 are holding back Powergirl as best as they can, but it's like Powergirl knows their every move they're gonna make.

Oliver and Sara fight more Nazis on the ground when Powergirl comes up and punches Oliver across the room, knocking him out.

-

Caitlin looks at the cameras and spots Dark Archer in the halls.

"Okay, we've got trouble of our own." Caitlin says and sees this is going to be bad.

"You and you, hide." Mick tells Felicity and Frankie.

"What about Caitlin?" Frankie asks, not wanting to loose Caitlin.

"It's gonna get a lot colder in here." Mick says meaning he's going to need Caitlin for Crystal.

-

Oliver-X enters the speed labs and searches for anyone when his senses warn him when a blast of fire comes in and he dodges the shots easily.

"Afraid of a little heat?" Mick asks him when an arrow launches and wraps him up against a post.

"No." Oliver-X states. "I'm afraid of nothing." He says and starts forming a sphere in his right hand, using the Symbiote and walks up to Mick.

"Bet you're pretty angry and scared now." Mick states.

"I told you, I don't fear anything." Oliver-X states.

"Actually..." Caitlin says behind him and he quickly turns to stab her, she stops him and starts freezing his bow. "He was talking about me." Caitlin says as she's in the middle of transforming into Crystal. "Didn't think this trough, did you? Just you against us." She states as dark Archer gets up.

"I don't need to think to kill you." Dark Archer states and uses his second hand to grab her and throws the ice queen up into the glass, but she starts getting back up.

"Anyone else wanna play hero?!" Dark Archer asks when Team Arrow and the ultimate Spider-Man comes out of hiding.

"They wanted to wait. But I don't think we'd ever get better entrance line than that." Miles admits and goes invisible.

-

Peter-38 is firing at the Reverse Flash and can't hit him once when Thawne throws him into the air. Kara comes in and grabs him easily.

"Thanks." Peter-38 says as she drops him.

Peter grabs Powergirl in a web and kicks her in the face as Barry continues to chase after Thawne.

Kara comes in and punches Thawne into a fire and Barry stops and goes back to helping the others take on the Nazis.

-

Dark archer is now just having fun with Team Arrow as they continue to fight, when Dinah uses her Canary Cry on him.

"Think fast!" Miles warns him as Dark Archer hits his chest with his bow, knocking the wind out of him. "He thought too fast."

-

The team finishes off all of the Nazis when Peter's' senses go off and they look to see an old friend.

"What the hell was that?" Sara asks.

"Metallo." Peter-38 and Kara say when the robot sends a kryptonite blast at Kara.

Peter-38 activates his shield to save her but it ends up with both of them being sent flying.

Powergirl And Reverse Flash come back and finish the job at knocking everyone out. Firestorm comes flying in and Metallo separates the two of them. Oliver tries shoot another arrow when Powergirl approach him.

"Hate to do this to that handsome face but..." Kara-X says to him and Metallo kicks him right in the head.

-

Later on, they all wake up and they're tied against a box and they're all wearing meta human cuffs.

"Is everyone all right?" Oliver asks the team.

"We need to work on yourmeaning of your definition of all right." Sara says.

"Yo, Grey. You good?" Jax asks as they're separated across from each other.

"It seems my retirement was somewhat tardy." Stein informs him.

They start hearing slow clapping and they turn to see Thawne above them.

"Oh, great. Here comes the gloating or the explanation of their evil plan." Peter says, knowing Thawne all too well.

"Well, you're right. Here we are. This is fun for me, not so much for you." Thawne says looking at Barry. "All the times you've killed me, and now here all I have to do is kill you once."

"Enough, Eobard." Powergirl call's out to him.

"We know if you wanted to kill us, you wouldn't have put these dumb collars on us first." Peter-38 states, knowing villains are the same from any corner of the multiverse.

"Now I know what it feels like to hate myself." Kara says looking at her Earth-X doppelgänger.

"Well done." Oliver-X says as he returns.

"It wasn't a problem." Kara-X says when she starts dropping and Oliver-X catches her. "The pain, the pain. I don't know how much longer I can bear it."

"It's all right, it's all right. You're gonna be all right because we found her." Oliver-X promises and looks to the heroes. "We found her, and now we have her. Now wet soon, this nightmare will be over. And I'll take you home. So stand."

Kara-X then finds the strength to rise up.

"Star labs is secure." Oliver-X tells them.

"If you hurt-" Peter was gonna say his family when Oliver-X stops him.

"I did hurt your friends. I really enjoyed hurting your friends." Oliver-X says and Peter sees he doesn't know about Frankie so maybe she's okay.

"Are they alive?" Oliver asks his doppelgänger.

"Yes, yes, for now." Oliver-X promises. "We need your Kara's cooperation. Well, we don't need it. It would be preferable. But for the time being, you see more valuable as leverage."

"What do you want with her?" Peter-38 asks them, not liking this.

"To save my life." Powergirl answers. "That's your little mission statement, isn't it? Help people, save lives. Well, now is your chance."

"The General is dying." Thawne explains to them.

"That solar radiation in your blood." Peter-38 realizes. "She's been exposed to too much solar radiation."

"Yes, like Icarus, I flew too close to the sun." Powergirl says.

"But we can save her. We're going to save her. All we need is a new heart. And, luckily, in this planet, we have the perfect doner." Archer states and they look towards Kara.

"That's why you stole the prism?" Barry asks. "So you could duplicate a red sun, weaken Kara, and cut into her?"

"Can't make an omelet with invincible eggs." Powergirl says.

"I'll crack you like an egg if you harm her!" Peter-38 warns her.

"Hey." Oliver calls out his double. "I'm gonna kill you." He states coldly.

"No you won't." Archer tells him. "You're weak and always choose the high road, you're heroes." He says and walks away and Metallo moves back to them and knocks them all out.

-

Back at Star labs, Frankie and Felicity are walking through the labs to see what happened.

"I thought we were gonna die." Frankie tells Felicity.

"If I had a dime for every time I thought that, I...I'd have 2.40. I thought I'd have more than that." Felicity realizes and keeps the girl close. "But don't worry, I will keep you safe. Peter will kill me if I let something happen to you."

"I do have powers, you know." Frankie reminds her when they look and see Nazis. They follow them and watch as they throw miles into the pipeline.

"They turned it into a prison." Frankie says.

"Stalag Star labs." Felicity replies seeing it's the two of them against them all.

But Frankie sees they mostly wear metal, and then remembers when she and Peter once watched a few of the _X-Men_ movies and gets some ideas.

-

The team wake up and look around to see they're in a concentration camp.

They get up to see Kara and is missing.

"Skirt. Where's Kara!?" Peter-38 asks when they get up and see that she's not there.

"It's okay, we're gonna get her back." Sara promises.

"We need to figure out where we are first." Oliver states and they look around.

"Yeah, about that..." Jax starts and they see where they are.

"This is concerning." Stein states.

"I don't think this is our earth." Barry replies.

"We're on Earth-X." Peter realizes and sees they need to find a way out, back to their earth, save Kara before it's too late.

If it isn't already too late.


	77. Crisis on Earth-X part lll

Earth-X

The team looks to see guards, dogs, searchlights, just about anything you could think of around the camp of death.

They look to see the other prisoners and are crying and sadness knowing the fate that awaits them.

"So this is the hellhole known as Earth-X." Sara says looking through the gates.

"Wells was right." Oliver claims.

"He usually is." Peter says to him.

"It's hard to believe a place like this would exist on any earth." Peter-38 claims.

"I wish I shared your sentiment," Stein replies, "but in all my travels to distant times, one thing with sadly remains constant is man's ability to feel hatred for other men."

They hear someone yelling on the speakers and see prisoners being moved somewhere off.

"The stars and triangles...?" Jax asks them.

"Those are badges to identify the crimes these people may and or may not have committed to get here." Stein explains as Jax sees someone with a buzz cut and a pink triangle.

"What's the pink triangle for?" Jax asks the man. "What'd you do?"

"Loving the wrong person." The man explains to them.

"We got to get out of these things." Sara states about the collars. "Transmute is out." She tells Stein and Jax.

"With pleasure." Stein says and they try to combine, but nothing works.

"I can't vibrate out of them either." Barry states and they look to see the spiders trying to rip themselves free.

"They're stopping my strength." Peter tells them, seeing they're all completely powerless.

"Power dampening collars." Peter-38 guesses.

"It's not like it matters, there's too many guards here. We'd never make it out." Sara states.

"There gonna kill Kara if we don't get out of here." Peter-38 says as he starts pacing around in fear. "And if I go home with a dead Kara, then Alex is going to kill me." He states and starts hyperventilating while freaking out.

"What's up with him?" Barry wonders, never seeing Peter's doppelgänger like this.

"I think I interrupted him and Kara as they almost kissed." Peter tells Barry who's surprised by that.

"And then there's J'onn. If the Nazis don't kill me, then he and Alex will certainly finish the job. And if she doesn't, J'onn will. And if J'onn does kill me first, Alex will find a way to bring me back just to kill me again. There's really no way that I get out of this alive!" Peter-38 states.

"Look, were not gonna let that happen." Sara tells him.

"We're gonna get back to earth before that happens." Barry says.

"How? We don't even know how we got here." Peter informs him.

"We don't know yet. We're gonna figure it out. Then we're gonna find a way to get out of this place, and we're gonna get back to the people we love." Oliver responds to them.

"I hope the others are holding up okay." Barry exclaims.

-

Earth-1

Cisco begins to wake up to the sound of a ball hitting the wall.

"Rip Van Ramon awakens." Harry exclaims and Cisco looks to see they're stuck in the pipeline.

"This doesn't look like a wedding." Cisco states as Dinah is trying to use her scream to break the glass, but it's not working.

"You missed quite a bit, Cisco." Caitlin explains to her friend as the others continue to try to escape.

"All you need to know is that you're locked in one of your fabulous anti-meta human cells with the rest of us. We cannot escape." Harry states as he continues to throw the ball.

"Of course we can't. That's what I designed them for, genius." Cisco responds to him, annoyed already.

"Good command of the obvious." Harry responds.

"Boys." Caitlin says to them as if they're children, which they actually act like they are half of the time when they're around each other.

"Is that a ball?" Miles asks Harry as he tries to punch his way out of his cell.

"Why? Is it bothering you?" Harry asks them.

"Yes." Cisco states as Harry continues, just to annoy him.

"God, Hey!" Cisco exclaims and kicks the wall to get him to stop.

"Are they gonna do that the whole time we're in here?" Dinah asks Caitlin.

"Probably." Caitlin answers as these two act more childish than Frankie or Miles. Then she remembers that Frankie and Felicity are still here and are in trouble and hopes they're going to be okay.

"It hurts! Cut it out!" Cisco yells at Harry.

"Cut what out?" Harry asks, having fun with him.

-

Kara wakes up to see she's being weaken by red sunlight and is tied to a bed so she can't get free.

"Star labs." Thawne breaths as he comes in on his old wheelchair. "It feels like old times, doesn't it? You know, I built this place...with my own hands and called it home for 15 years, and do you know what?" He asks as he stands out of the wheelchair and approaches her. "I hated every minute of it."

"Where are my friends?" Kara asks him.

"Your friends, they're all on Earth-X." Thawne tells her and Kara gets worried about them. "I wouldn't worry about your friends too much because...they're not going to be alive much longer."

Kara tries to use all of her strength to get out and nothings working as her doppelgänger comes in.

"Oh, honey, it's because of the red sunlight. And trust me, it'll make you weaker than you can possibly imagine." Kara-X promises her.

"You did all this just...just to get me?" Kara asks. "Do you know how many innocent people you killed?"

"Their lives to save mine? They should feel honored." Kara-X responds and Kara just keeps trying to get herself free. "It's a strange sensation, isn't it...feeling vulnerable?"

"And it's just gonna get worse because this red sunlight, it's softening you up until pretty soon I'm gonna crack you open like a walnut." Thawne tells her while swinging scissors. "Then I'm gonna take your healthy heart. I'm gonna put it in her, which means we should probably get you going."

"Good. That'll give me to talk to...myself." Kara-X says unknowing that there are still two people in the facility unaccounted for.

In the air vents, Frankie and Felicity overheard everything she said.

"Everyone else is on Earth-X. And Kara only has a few hours before they go full Mengele on her." Felicity lists their problems. "You got any ideas?" She asks Frankie.

"I know that there's a secret room in the building that controls everything, my...I know where it is." Frankie says, not knowing what to call Peter after all this time.

"Can you get to it from in here?" Felicity asks her.

"Maybe." Frankie says, not quite sure and they head through the vents.

-

Earth-X

The alarms start ringing as armed guards come in and surround the team.

"This doesn't look good, gang." Jax states the obvious.

"What are they doing?" Barry asks.

"It's roundup time." The man from earlier explains to them.

"In line, now!" One of the guards order them and they wait and see someone else enter.

"So these are...the heroes." Someone says and Peter-38 looks to see Norman Osborn's doppelgänger, the Green Goblin of Earth-616 they faced.

"My, god. This day can't be any worse." Peter states at seeing him and knowing who he is as well.

"Bring them all. And him!" Norman yells, pointing to the man with the pink triangle.

They're all lead outside the camp and keep walking with several men and Norman behind them.

"Not to be an alarmist, but if we don't have an escape plan, I suggest we get one." Stein says as they keep walking and Oliver gets an idea and turns only for them all to get hit by an electric shock from the collars and fall to the ground.

"I think I know why we're all wearing them." Sara says.

"Up!" Norman commands them and they all rise and turn to see they're standing above a burial ground for others who have been shot.

"Turn around." Norman commands again and they do so. Norman then walks up to Oliver with a sack in his hands. "I know you're not him, but I cannot stomach the sight regardless." He explains and places the sack over his head and walks out of the way of the guns. "Ready!" He shouts to his men and they walk forward and wait. "Aim!" Norman again shouts and they all raise their guns at them.

A blast of ice comes in and freezes their guns and they look to see Leonard Snart.

"I hate fire." Snart says.

"Snart?" They all ask as Oliver removes the sack from his head.

"About time!" The prisoner shouts at Snart.

"Kill them all!" Norman shouts to the remaining guards and they open fire.

"Take cover!" Oliver shouts and they drop into the ditch as Snart freezes everything and shoots a blast at the watchtower and grabs the keys before joining them.

"You were cutting it close." The prisoner tells Snart.

"I thought that was great timing. And I really enjoyed the pun." Snart replies to him.

"So you're Leonard Snart's doppelgänger." Barry says to him.

"No, I'm Leonard Snart, but you can call me Leo." Snart tells him. "That is a fantastic outfit. Did you make that?" He asks Barry.

"Leo?"

"Right. Time to make you shine." Leo says and uncuffs him.

"You might wanna close your eyes." He warns the others.

"Why?" Peter asks when he starts glowing and takes to the air.

"Well, I believe he just answered your question." Stein says as they watch the guy blast fireballs and take down the men and flies back down.

"Come on, let's go."

"Where we going?" Oliver asks him.

"To our base." He explains.

"Your base?" Sara asks.

"And who are you?" Peter-38 asks.

"I was thinking exactly the same thing about you all."

"You might wanna tell us on the way." Leo interrupts as they hear gunfire and they take off.

-

Earth-1

Kara is helpless as the red sunlight makes her weaker by the minute.

"You're looking more human." Kara-X tells her doppelgänger. "Scared, helpless, pathetic...inferior."

"We're not that different from them." Kara tells her.

"Please. We're everything they want to be; blonde, white. Aryan perfection." Kara-X states.

"I'm not like you. I don't think I'm better than everyone else." Kara replies.

"You should. You are. You're a god to them. You could have been living like one." Kara-X informs her.

"Like you?" Kara asks while chuckling.

"Yes, like me. They want someone to bow to, to worship, to lead."

"What you're doing is not leading. It's ruling." Kara informs her evil other.

"Yes, it is. They're like ants, Kara." Kara-X replies.

"They shouldn't fear us for what we can do. They should rely on us when they need us." Kara says.

"Oh, spare me the Good Samaritan crap."

"I'm not gonna take advantage of anyone just because I can." Kara promises.

"The world isn't made better by protecting the weak. It's made better by getting rid of them. You really are pathetic. You know, I saw you at the wedding. Poor, lonely little Kara who had to bring her bestie as a date to not be alone."

"You don't know what you're talking about." Kara states.

"It's written all over that pouty little face of yours." Kara-X says while pinching her nose. "You spend so much time on your planet taking care of everyone but yourself with only a man who is half human to help save the day. Your night in shining armor. Wonder how it'll feel when we kill him."

"You're not gonna get what you want. He's harder to kill than you think." Kara promises.

"Really? You think your Iron-Spider can save you? You don't even know how to tell him how you feel." Kara-X states and Kara sees she somehow knows that she cares about her Peter Parker. But...does she love him?

He's always been there, helped her through her dark times, always gave her hope.

She almost kissed him for crying out loud!

-

Earth-X

The team and their new friends enter the Arrow lair bunker of their world.

"Well, I guess were in Earth-X's Star City." Oliver states.

"I have to say, that's one hell of a story." The man who's name they learnt was Ray says. "You're a speedster." He says pointing at Barry. "You two turn into the burning man." He says looking at Stein and Jax. "And you are both from two different worlds and are both Spider-Man." He says to both the Peter's. "And you're the good doppelgänger of the fuehrer." Ray says, looking at Oliver.

"_Good_ might be an oversimplification." Sara states.

"You still haven't told us which earth you're from." Leo states, looking at them. "Because clearly you're not from here."

"We're from Earth-1." Barry informs the three of them.

"Earth-1?" Leo says and looks to Ray.

"Am I missing something?" Jax asks him.

"I'm from Earth-1, too." Ray explains to them.

"If you're from their earth, you know how we got here." Peter-38 states to him.

"Yeah, I have a pretty good idea." Ray says and grabs a laptop and shows them a device. "I think you guys came through this." He explains.

"A temporal gateway?" Barry asks, seeing the device.

"Same physics as a breach, just more stable and larger." Stein explains to the others.

"Much larger." Barry replies.

"So we have a way to get back." Peter states. "So where is this thing?"

"It's actually not that far from here." Leo tells them.

"22.3 kilometers, to be exact." Ray states.

"Well, we drive there." Leo explains.

"So why don't you just take us to it?" Peter asks them.

"Because we can't." Ray tells him. "The place is in a facility guarded by a not so small army of Nazis." He explains to the team.

"Well, I once took on a army of powered people with nothing but my own powers and a girl in a skirt." Peter-38 says.

"Yeah...and we faced worse.." Jax states.

"Look, it's our only way home. We're going through it." Barry states.

"Nobody's going through anything." A new voice informs to them and they turn to see someone they don't recognize but Peter-38. "Because were blowing it to hell." He states.

"Ned?" Peter-38 asks in complete shock to seeing her friends doppelgänger is actually on the good side. And, you know, alive, and not half Goblin.

"Please, freedom fighter General Leeds." Leo says walking up to him.

"General Leeds?" Peter-38 asks.

"Yeah, and who are you?" Ned asks him.

"New friends, they're from Earth-1." Leo informs Leeds. "They're on our side."

"Except for the part where you guys wanna blow our only way home." Jax states.

"We don't exactly want to." Leo interrupts.

"Everyone we care about is on the other side of that gateway, imprisoned by Nazis." Barry replies.

"The Nazis that want to cut open someone I care about." Peter-38 tells him.

"Eliminate that facility, and you eliminate our only chance to save our friends from your enemies." Stein interjects.

"I'm sorry, we've been waiting for an opportunity like this for years." Ned states. "We can not wait any longer. This is our only chance to separate the Fuehrer from his army. We are trying to turn the war around."

"You are gonna leave our earth at the mercy of the four psychopaths who have ravaged yours." Oliver shouts at him.

"Wait, why does this man look exactly like the man I'm trying to kill?" Ned asks them.

"Look, fingerless globes, all we are asking for a little bit of time. Let us get through the gateway before you blow it." Sara suggests.

"The gateway is guarded by 30 panzer XIIs, 50 sturmtigers, And 100 Schultztaffel officers, not the best odds." Leo informs them.

"Well take our chances." Peter states, ready to get some payback on these Nazis and to get back to Frankie and Caitlin.

"No, you will not. We are blowing that gateway right now. Final order." Ned states to them and walks away.

"Sorry, he's a little touch around the edges." Leo apologizes. "But he is the General, and he's issued his demands."

Peter-38 walking towards Ned to talk some sense into him.

"Hey, you're not gonna change his mind. Nobody ever does." Ray warns him.

"On my earth, I've known him for as long as I have been alive. He and I are basically family." Peter-38 tells him.

"Ray, let him try." Leo says interested as he leaves.

Peter-38 walks up to Ned seeing him looking at the plans for the facility.

"You don't seem to know how to take orders." Ned tells her.

"Mostly because I can't take your face seriously." Peter-38 jokes. "You can't do this, Ned."

"General Leeds." Ned says turning to face him. "Look, I don't know where the hell you think you are, but this planet has been at war for generations. We are tired of the fighting. There are men dying out there the same causes their grandfathers did."

"We're not asking you to surrender, we're asking you to let us go home to finish them. All we're asking is for a small amount of time." Peter-38 says.

"Time is the one thing I can't let you have. They have a weapon...a doomsday weapon powerful enough to affect other worlds. It has to be eliminated." Ned states to her and Peter-38 wonders what the weapon could be.

"Ned. Please..the fuehrer on your earth, the people you hate, they're going to kill my only friend if you don't let me get back to save her." Peter-38 tells him, trying to find his friend he once knew. "On my earth, you and I were the closest of friends, we would do anything for each other. Even when there's no chance at succeeding, I would do anything to take the hit for you. So all I'm asking for is a chance. Please, Ned." Peter-38 says begging her friend.

"Today I have the chance to protect my people, my earth." Ned states and he sees he's not changed. "So you better not make me regret this." Ned says and he looks surprised. "You have a hour. If you're not through the gateway, I'll blow you all with it."

"Thank you, Ned." Peter-38 thanks and goes to tell the others.

"You always made me do things I thought were stupid." Ned smiles.

"I died here, didn't I?" Peter-38 guesses.

"Yeah. Saving a bunch of innocents from a burning building, you said someone had to do it. Now go get back to your world. And get your girl back." Ned says and Peter-38 holds his hand up and Ned understands as they do their secret handshake only they know and have done since they were kids.

"General suits you." Peter-38 tells him and goes to find the others.

-

Jax and Stein are looking around the facility as the others start making the plan. "Jefferson?" Grey calls out and Jax sees him.

"Grey, I'm busy man."

"Yes, I can see that, but I was hoping you might take a moment from your ruminations on dystopian alternative history to accept my apology. It was that I was so thrilled with the reality of my imminent departure I neglected to consider your feelings." Stein explains realizing something.

"Look, man, I'm not trying to take you away from your family or-"

"You are my family." Stein interjects him. "Long before I unexpectedly found myself with a daughter, I found myself with a son. Look around you. We're standing in one of the...darkest places imaginable. Yet somehow I'm optimistic. Do you know why?"

"'Cause you're a crazy old man." Jax states.

"Yes...No." Stein says. "Because I'm standing here with you. You are a better son than I could've ever hoped for. And no length of time or distance will ever change that." He promises.

"Alright. Apology accepted. Come here." Jax says and pulls him into a hug.

Back with the others, they're looking over everything they need to get past.

"Now, you referenced 100 guards. I assume most of them are around the perimeter?" Oliver asks Leo.

"You would be correct, Ninja Turtle." Leo tells him.

"Ha! I'm using that." Peter promises.

"We fight through them outside, we access the main corridor. What is security like inside the hanger?" Peter-38 asks Ray.

"I'll do some recon." Barry says and speeds off and comes back a second later. "So the entire facility has meta-human dampeners." He informs them.

"Okay, we can't take that hanger without our powers, man." Jax states.

"These satellites indicate a control room off the hanger. That must be where the controls for the dampener are." Stein points out to them.

"Okay, well, we definitely can't take the main control room without powers. Trust me stronger men have tried." Ray tells them.

"He's right, it's not like any of us actually fit in here." Jax says when they look over to Oliver next to Peter-38.

"I think we have a way in." Peter says while smiling.

-

Earth-1

They're getting the surgery procedure ready.

"Unfortunately, miss Danvers, we need you awake for this procedure." Thawne explains as the prism continues to make her weaker by the second.

"Peter...my Peter...he'll find you." Kara promises him.

"Your little crush. Really? Here's a fun little detail. I know the Iron-Spider, I fought him, not only him, but all of the Spider-Men. I know things about him he doesn't even know. He is smart...but I'm always smarter." Thawne states. "Besides, if he was smart, he would've avoided dying."

"What?!" Kara asks him and Thawne smiles at her.

"Whoops. Spoiler alert." Thawne realizes what he said.

-

In the time vault, Frankie is watching what they're doing on the cameras while hacking into the mainframe of Star labs.

"They're starting the procedure." Frankie warns her.

"I'm working on it." Felicity replies as she's trying to shut down all power in the facility, and gets it done just seconds before Thawne can cut into Kara. "Done."

-

In the cortex, Thawne is looking over the computers to see what happened.

"We only have backup power and it's not enough." Thawne explains to Oliver-X.

"Well, everyone in the building has been accounted for." Oliver-X states. "Where would people be hiding?"

Thawne gets angry and speeds off into the time vault and can't find Felicity or Frankie but knows it was Felicity, remembering her when she visited the labs.

-

Kara is still awake and waits for something to happen when the guards' guns start floating before hitting them in the face, knocking them out.

Frankie and Felicity then drop from the vents.

"Take that, you Nazi mother-no." Felicity stops herself when she looks to Frankie and the two run to Kara.

"Hey, come with me if you wanna live." Felicity says, quoting _Terminator_.

"Get me to the sun." Kara says and they help her get free and stand up.

They start making it through the halls and make it to theelevator and Frankie pushes the button to call it down.

"We gotta go." Felicity tells her.

The doors open and a blast comes in, sending Kara flying across the hallway.

Felicity looks to be met by Metallo who exits the elevator and sees them.

"I don't believe mr. Thawne is done with you yet." Metallo says as when Frankie uses her powers to slam Metallo into the elevator, short circuiting him when more Nazis come in and take them away.

-

Earth-X

A car is driving up to the facility. "Your papers, sturman." The guards orders.

"We don't have any. This is a special visit." Leo tells him.

"Your papers, now." The guard orders while raising his gun.

"Suit yourself. I think you better talk to the boss." Leo states as the window goes down to reveal Oliver dressed as Dark Archer.

"As you were." Oliver says to him.

"_Mein gott. _My apologies, sir." The guard says. "Let them through!" He orders the gate and they're let in.

As he enters the facility, they see a device in the center of the room that must

"Hail feuhrer!" All of the men shout and Oliver watches Norman Osborn run up to greet him.

"Furher, we were not expecting you." Norman explains.

"Nor was I anticipating being back so soon." Oliver states. "Thanks to your incompetence, the Earth-1 doppelgängers..._my _doppelgänger escaped his execution."

"Yes, he did. We're exhausting every possible man In means to locating them. Would you like us to delay deployment until we do so?" Norman asks, getting suspicious of Oliver.

"Deployment?" Oliver asks.

"She is inbound and ready." Norman explains and points toward cameras surrounding the machine and he pushes a button to activate something.

Outside, a giant weapon becomes visible and Oliver sees a Nazi version of the Waverider.

"The doomsday device." Oliver realizes.

"The Wellenreiter is fully operational and at the ready, mein fuehrer." Norman tells him. "Shall we send her through?"

"As scheduled." Oliver says and Norman activates the transporter to send the ship through the breach.

"The Wellenreiter is on its way. Hail Victory!" He shouts and they all repeat him.

-

Earth-1

The ship comes through a breach in the sky and vanishes.

Back in S.T.A.R. labs, they're working on the power and have Frankie in power dampening handcuffs, so she can't do the same thing twice.

"Report." Oliver-X asks his generals.

"Good news. The Wellenreiter has made the transition to this earth." Thawne reports to him.

"Kara is all that matters." Oliver-X informs him.

"That red sunlight were flooding her with, its burning off. So pretty soon, her cells will be so desaturated, we cannot perform the surgery." Thawne warns him.

"Fix it." Oliver-X tells him.

"I can't." Thawne replies.

"This is your city. This is your facility. So turn the power back on."

"I can't because the system has been encrypted."

"By who?" Oliver-X asks.

Thawne turns his attention over towards Frankie and Felicity who's being held back by Nazis.

"By miss. Smoak." Thawne tells them.

-

Earth-X

Norman approaches Oliver while he's looking for the power dampening controls.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?" Norman asks Oliver.

"No, that'll be all." Oliver replies.

"Very well. Before I go, I have something for you, mein fuehrer. A gift...to celebrate your return. Guard!" He shouts and a guard comes in with a prisoner and Oliver sees its Felicity's doppelgänger.

"Well, I know how much you enjoy executing rule breakers, and this one has broken many of them. We discovered this Jewess handing her rations to the work camp children. Strictly against camp rules, of course." Norman explains and pulls his gun out and hands it to Oliver.

"Those children were starving." Felicity-X whispers, afraid.

Oliver takes a few steps forward, not wanting to do this.

"Well, this must be hard. I hear your double on Earth-1 loved a woman just like this." Norman says and Felicity starts crying, Oliver makes a quick decision and turns to shoot Norman and the gun doesn't go off and he realizes it's a dud.

"Did you really think I would hand you a loaded weapon...BEFORE VERIFYING WHO YOU ARE?!" Norman asks him and the guards start shooting and Oliver takes one of their guns and fights the men off while Norman quickly escapes.

Oliver makes it to Felicity. "Hey, no, you're fine. Just take this and go." He tells her and hands her the gun.

"Why are you doing this?" Felicity asks him.

"It's the strong's duty to protect the weak." He explains to her and she takes it and runs.

Oliver makes it to the dampener and shuts it down as Barry speeds in.

"So, how'd it...oh." Barry says as he sees the dead Nazis.

"Barry, we have a problem. The gateway colt rolls are damaged." Oliver explains the new situation to his friend.

"You're saying we can't turn it on?" Barry asks.

"We can't turn it on here, but there should be a manual override at the platform." Oliver replies.

"All right, that means we're gonna have to fight our way through." Barry says.

-

Outside, Leo just got a message that could complicate...everything.

"What do you mean?! Call it back!" Leo yells into his radio connected to base.

_"Too late. It's been programmed. There's no changing course now." _Ned tells him.

"You said we'd have a hour at best." Leo reminds him.

_"Yeah, well, I changed my mind." _Ned states.

"These heroes haven't gotten through the breach yet!" Leo argues.

_"That's team has nothing to do with us or saving our planet! And everyone who can threaten it is on the other side of that breach!" _Ned argues back to him. _"I'm not risking any more time! We are blowing it up." _He finishes and disconnects them.

"Guys, we have a problem." Leo tells them.

"_What kind of problem_?" Sara asks him.

"A weapon is heading to blow up the facility." Leo explains.

"_A weapon? A missile_?" Peter-38 asks him.

"Not...exactly." Leo states.

In the distance, Red Tornado is flying top speed towards the facility to destroy everything.

-

Earth-1

They're still trying to turn the power back on.

"Felicity Smoak. Turn the power back on." Oliver-X commands her and she does nothing.

"He said..." Thawne says and speeds her into the wall.

"Felicity!" Frankie yells, trying to help her while Oliver-X holds her back.

"Turn the power back on." Thawne tells her.

"I'm sorry Erbart...Ernard?" Felicity asks, trying to get the name right.

"_Eobard." _Thawne corrects her.

_"_Eobard. My god, the future sounds weird." Felicity states.

"That's funny. Sometimes we think we're more clever than we are. Because where I come from, the history books are filled with stories of this Age of Heroes: Green Arrow, Black Canary, Spider-Man, the Flash, Iron-Spider. And yet no one...no one has ever heard _of Felicity_." Thawne says and starts vibrating his hand.

"Stop!" Kara yells and runs into the room. "You came here for me, so just take me, please." She begs them. "Please don't hurt anyone else. Give them the code."

"If I do, they'll kill you." Felicity whimpers.

"It's fine. Nobody's going to die because of me." Kara reassures her.

"Latte, ada, Jonas, 1-1-9-0-0." Felicity tells them and Thawne stops vibrating his hand.

"Latte? Cute." Thawne says and gets to work and the power comes back onto the facility.

"Let's go." The guard says and drags Frankie and Felicity away.

-

Earth-X

"In ten minutes, Red Tornado's gonna bring down this whole facility, and there's nothing we can do to stop that robot." Leo explains to them inside the facility.

"Then we need to reopen the gateway before that happens." Oliver states. "Barry, Ray,-"

"We know, stop a flying robot somehow." Barry interrupts him.

"Good. The rest of us will open the breach." Oliver tells them.

"That's the whole plan?" Leo asks, not sure about it.

"Well, as the Snart on our Earth used to say; _make a plan, execute the plan. Expect the plan to go off the rails. Throw away the plan_." Peter quotes, remembering what Snart told him.

"Wow. That is...terrible advice. I always have a plan, down to the second, so nothing ever goes wrong." Leo states.

"No, no, no. The only plan now is to nit leave this earth without me." Ray tells Leo as they kiss.

"Okay." Leo agrees.

"Right. Looks like we're on robot duty." Ray says looking to Barry.

"Let's do it." Barry says and they leave the facility.

"I thought it would be fun if we all put on our costumes." Leo says and drops a bag she had that contains their suits and weapons.

"Where'd you get the bow and quiver?" Oliver asks him.

"The general collects weapons." Leo explains to him.

"Let's go to war." Oliver says and everyone grabs their suits.

Peter-38 starts to warm up us repulsers and sees his suit is working normally and is ready to fight and get back to their world and save Kara.

-

In the second facility, Norman Osborn is now has everyone waiting for them to come in.

"No one gets to the gateway!" Norman commands them and waits.

All of the men are waiting by the doors as they explode open and Firestorm comes flying in and starts blasting and the others come in shooting while Peter and Peter-38 comes in swinging whole shooting webs at everyone.

Sara walks down looking for the controls with a gun in hand with Leo and Oliver shoot as Nazis comes down their way and they start shooting them.

Firestorm comes flying in and blasts Norman across the room.

Peter and his doppelgänger work together to level the playing field while taking them from above.

-

Red Tornado is still making his way to the facility while Barry and Ray are running to stop him.

"Here we go!" Ray says as they see him approaching and blasts him with his powers.

Red Tornado dodges all of the hits and keeps going and Ray jumps onto his back and crashes into the ground.

-

Firestorm lands and sees the controls in the distance.

"Okay, we're Nazi free. Let's go." Jax says and is about to go when Stein stops him.

"_Hold on. That's an automatic power cell. We need to activate it before using the control console." _Stein explains to him.

"I can Hotwire it, no problem." Jax states.

"_Then I'll turn on the console."_ Stein tells him.

"Wait, you wanna split up?" Jax asks him.

"_It's our most favorable odds. Let's kick some ass, Jefferson." _Stein says and they separate and run off to do their jobs.

Jax makes it to the controls and does what he needs to when a truck full of Nazis pull up and block Stein from his vision.

"Grey, we got power." Jax tells him when the Nazis start shooting at him and he runs for cover.

-

Ray and Barry are still trying to stop Red Tornado and all their tries have failed.

Red Tornado grabs Ray and sends him flying at Barry and they see he's heading back to destroy the facility.

-

Oliver is dodging the Nazis bullets that are coming in more rapid.

Leo keeps shooting his ice at the Nazis as they keep trying to kill him as he dodges them.

They're all pinned down as a machine gun comes in and starts rapidly firing everywhere.

"I'm pinned down!" Jax states as he can't get his part done.

Stein on the other hand is in the clear as none of the Nazis are around him and he sees the control panel from his location. He gets up and starts running towards the control panel as he didn't notice the Nazi solder aiming at him.

"Stein!" Peter shouts seeing the Nazi on his back and shoots a web to grab the gun.

The rest of the facility hears several gunshots and look in shock at what they see.

Stein drops to the ground as he starts bleeding out.

Peter looks to the man who shot him and quickly webs him and sends a powerful taser blast off at him, sending him flying.

More men come in and Peter runs behind some cargo containers as Stein is on the floor bleeding out.


	78. Crisis on Earth-X part lV

Earth-X

Stein is still bleeding out as everyone's trying not to get shot at.

"Grey's been hit! We gotta get him out of there!" Jax says as more Nazis keep coming in and Peter-38 sends a repulser blast at them.

"Red, you finished yet?" Peter-38 asks, getting sick of these guys.

-

Barry and Ray are atill chasing Red Tornado still as it seems he truly is unstoppable.

"Just tying up some loose ends." Barry informs them.

"He's almost at the hanger." Ray states as he tries another blast and he dodges it again.

"If we don't stop him, he's gonna blow up one only ticket home." Barry states.

-

"Not to mention all of us!" Sara states as more Nazis come and start shooting at her and Peter webs their guns, causing some of them to either explode or stop working.

Leo uses his ice gun and freezes their machine gun.

Stein is still laying on the floor and sees them all taking fire and sees he's the closest to the controls. He begins to get off her back and crawl towards the controls. Her strength seems to leave her every time she takes a step, so she shoots a web and uses it to pull her closer easier.

"Grey! Stay down!" Jax yells at him as he's in the middle of a war ground.

Everyone sees him crawling towards the controls as all of the Nazis are on top of the platform to stop them from reaching it.

Norman sees as he pulls herself to stand up. Stein reaches for the controls when he gets shot again.

"Grey!" Jax shouts and runs to him

"Fall back!" Norman yells to his men when Stein powers the device, opening the breach, killing all the Nazis and Norman.

"He opened the breach!" Peter-38 tells them.

"Let's go!" Sara shouts to them as they run to Stein.

"Hey, Grey, we gotta go." Jax tells her as she tries to breath.

"Barry, the breach is open. Where are you?" Oliver asks.

-

"We got to take him out now." Barry tells Ray.

"I have an idea. Throw another lightning bolt at him." Ray suggests.

"We already tried that." Barry informs him.

"Just do it!" Ray says and Barry runs ahead and does so and Ray blasts his lightning with his powers and they create an explosion to short circuit Red Tornado, finally stopping him and causing him to explode.

-

"Barry, we need you to hurry up. Stein's hurt." Sara states as she checks on the injuries.

"_I'm on my way._" He tells her and starts running.

"He's alive, but in critical condition." Peter-1 says.

"All right, Gideon will fix her." Sara states.

"It's gonna be dangerous to move him." Peter-38 informs her.

"Not if he's Firestorm." Sara says and the two merge to keep him alive.

"Thanks for your help." Oliver tells Leo.

"We're not done helping yet. Our enemies are still on your earth, Ollie." Leo states as they all begin to move towards the portal.

"Don't ever call me that." Oliver warns him.

"Give it time, I'll get through that crusty exterior." He states to them.

"Trust me, you really won't." Sara states to him.

"I was talking to you." Leo tells her as they all walk through the portal followed by Barry and Ray.

-

Earth-1

They're beginning the surgery again while Frankie and Felicity are forced to watch as Thawne gets a knife and is ready to cut Kara.

"This next sound...metal through a bone, that's my favorite. You should probably close your eyes." Thawne says as he puts on a surgical mask and tries tearing through her skin and it's not working. "This will all be over in a minute."

"What are you waiting for?" Oliver-X asks him. "Do it already."

"I'm trying. I'm trying but..." Thawne says as it's not working.

Ray is on Kara, stopping the knife from penetrating her.

"Mitts off, Mengele." Ray says as he grows and punches Thawne before blasting him.

Oliver-X tries to hit him, but Ray dodges and blasts him before blasting the guard with the girls.

Ray then goes over and unstraps Kara, freeing her.

"Ray?" Kara asks.

"Hi, how are ya?" Ray asks. "Got your guys' SOS. How was the wedding?" He asks the two as Felicity is working on getting the cuffs off Frankie so she can use her powers.

"The rest of the Legends are here and we're busting everybody out." Ray says as they walk through the halls. "I know I'm late to the party and all, but why have Nazi doppelgängers taken over Star labs?" He asks them.

"They're from Earth-X." Frankie tells him.

"Yeah, and they hate everyone. They want to steal Kara's heart." Felicity says when a Nazi comes in behind them. "Ray!"

Ray turns around and his hand enlarges as he slams the Nazi into the wall

-

In the pipeline, everyone waits for anything when a voice comes in through the speakers.

"_Attention all prisoners: great news. The cavalry has arrived._" Nate tells them.

"About time." Miles states.

"I knew I could count on you, pretty." Mick says. "Did you bring beers?"

"Better yet, an army." Rene asks as the doors open.

"Who needs an army when you got Legends?" Nate asks him.

-

Peter-38 makes it to the medical wing, disguising himself as Oliver-X and sees Kara-X and starts to wake her up.

"We have a problem. I need you to wake up." Peter-38 tells her when Thawne speeds in and sees him.

"The General is no longer safe here." Thawne warns him, not knowing it's a different person.

"I'm well aware." Peter-38 replies. "Get to the ship, prepare for the invasion. I'll get the General to safety." He promises.

"Going up against two Spider-Men is not a good idea." Thawne warns him.

"Are you questioning your furher orders?" Kara-X asks.

"Of course not. General." Thawne says as he speeds off.

-

"_I got Supergirl._" Ray tells Nate.

"I got group B." Nate says as everyone's free.

"You're late." Mick states.

"Don't mind him. He's just pissy because he came out of a steel box." Diana tells him.

"Actually, he's always like that." Peter tells her.

-

"How much further, Ray?" Felicity asks him as they make their way through the labs.

"Waverider's on the roof." Ray tells her as they both carry Kara with Frankie on the lookout for Nazis.

"How do you two know each other again?" Kara wonders.

"We used to date." Ray and Felicity tell her.

"That's...awkward." Frankie says, leading the way through the facility.

"Oliver got the girl, I got the adventure of a lifetime on a time traveling spaceship." Ray says when an arrow shoots him in the back, taking him down and they turn to see Oliver-X with another arrow ready.

Frankie tries to push it out of his hand with her powers, but it's not working.

"Your magnetic powers aren't going to work here. Now step away from her." Oliver-X tells them, meaning it's not a metal arrow.

"There's no way." Felicity says as she pushes Frankie and Kara behind her. "My grandparents didn't survive the Holocaust so the world could be ruled by Nazis so if you want to hurt them, you got to go through me. And even if you do, you're not gonna win. 'Cause we will not back down. We will keep fighting. So get the help off of our earth while you still can."

"As final words him those weren't bad." Oliver-X says and gets ready to fire.

"Don't. You. Dare." Peter-38's voice warns and they look to the doorway to see Peter-38 is holding Kara-X with his repulser ready to fire. "Or I kill her. You kill my Skirt, I kill yours. That red sunlight weakened her just as much as it weakened my Skirt. Meaning she's vulnerable. So either you drop your weapon, or I drop her!"

"Don't listen to him. Just shoot her." Kara-X tells her husband.

"You want the chance to save her, lower your weapon." Peter-38 tells Oliver-X.

"There's only one way to save me." Kara-X replies to that.

"There are ways of doing this without hurting her. But if you release that arrow, I release this blast, making sure she _will_ need a new heart." Peter-38 keeps warning him.

"He's lying." Kara-X states. "Do it for the Fatherland, just kill her!" She says when his senses go off and Thawne takes the two of them and Ray gets up.

"I thought that jerk was supposed to be dead." Ray says and Kara engulfs Peter-38 in a hug.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're okay." Kara tells him.

"It takes a lot more than an alternative Metallo to kill me." Peter-38 says and returns the hug, happy she's alive.

They break off and the two just smile at each other.

"Listen, Skirt, there's...something that needs to be said." Peter-38 tells her.

"I need to say something, too." Kara tells him.

"I'm done pretending." Peter-38 says, and Kara's confused.

"Pretending what?" Kara asks him.

"I'm...terrible at this." Peter-38 admits when his senses go off and Nazis come in.

"Look out!" Frankie tells them.

Peter-38 activates his holo-shield and pulls Kara in close as the shield takes the shots and Peter-38 just grabs Kara and pulls her into a kiss in which Kara easily returns.

Ray, Felicity and Frankie look shocked as Ray covers Frankie's eyes, the Nazis then get taken down by Peter and Crystal who turn to see the two heroes making out.

"Okay...this is weird." Peter-1 says since he's watching himself make out with someone else.

"Ditto." Crystal agrees, since she's watching her boyfriend make out with the girl of steel.

"Guys, we gotta go." Peter-1 says and walks up as the two seem to not be stopping anytime soon. "Don't forget there's a army of Nazis we need to stop...and don't forget to breathe." He states seeing they're not separating.

-

Everyone finally gets on the Waverider and they take off after everyone gets on board.

Jax flies into the medical wing and separates while getting Stein on the chair.

"Gideon, fix him!" Jax tells their onboard computer.

"His pressure's dropping. We have to stanch the bleeding." Caitlin says as she runs inside the labs.

"**Right away, dr. Snow.**" Gideon says and gets to work.

"Jax, relax." Mick says as he joins them. "Professor's going to be fine. He's a tough bastard." Jax starts spitting blood and Nate grabs him.

"Jackson's hit." Nate says as he puts him on the second chair. "I can't find an entry wound.

"Look at their vitals." Caitlin says, seeing they're the same. "It must be because of their connection."

"What the hell does that mean?" Mick asks.

"Even though Jax isn't injured, their life functions must still be linked." Caitlin explains.

"How do we unlink them?" Nate asks.

"We can't. Their connections the only thing keeping the professor alive." Caitlin tells them.

-

Peter runs through the ship until he comes across Frankie.

"Oh, thank god." Peter says as he pulls Frankie into a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay."

"I'm okay, dad." Frankie says and the two freeze at that slip.

The two then break apart and Frankie looks nervously around her, not looking at Peter.

"Hey, it's okay if you want to call me that." Peter assures her. "I'm okay with whatever you want to call me." He promises.

"I just...You're the only good foster parent I've had and, I just didn't want to make it weird." Frankie says.

"I fight crime, wear spandex and you can lift metal. And I'm dating someone with a split personality who are both in love with me. Everything in our lives is weird, kid." Peter reminds her and she wraps her arms around his neck, pulling him into a second hug.

"I'm glad you're okay as well." Frankie cries into his shoulder and Peter just holds his...daughter.

-

Kara and Peter-38 are by the hanger doors a bit nervous to look at the other.

"So...how long have you...liked me?" Kara finally asks Peter.

"Sometime during the time we were both heartbroken." Peter-38 admits while looking at the floor. "And I was gonna tell you, then Mon-El showed up I thought the two of you were going to get back together, so I planed on not telling you. How long for you?"

Kara crosses her arms and thinks for a minute. "Around the same time as you, I guess. I started to like you, but I thought you were still mourning Gwen. So I planed on sitting on them for a while longer."

"So, we were _both_ feeling the same way for another. We _both_ thought we were hung up on somebody else and didn't plan on telling the other?" Peter-38 recaps their situation and Kara just laughs at him.

"That just about sums us up." Kara says and lightly punches him.

"Ow." Peter-38 mumbles as her super strength seems to have returned and Kara laughs. "Okay, come here." He says and pulls her into a second kiss.

-

Caitlin is looking over the two halves of Firestorm and sees it's not getting better.

"How you feeling, Jax?" Caitlin asks him.

"Don't worry about me. How's Grey?" Jax asks.

"I have him sedated. Don't worry. Gideon and I are doing everything we can to fix him." Caitlin promises and walks into the halls and finds Peter.

"Hey, still no improvement?" Peter asks, not wanting to hear the news, but he has to know.

"He's getting worse." Caitlin tells him, sadly.

"Stein or Jax?" Peter wonders, not liking either.

"Both." Caitlin tells him. "Medically speaking, he should've been dead from now, the only thing keeping him from dying is..."

"Jax's bond with him." Peter guesses.

"Jax is functioning as a human life support machine, able to keep the professor alive but...only for so long." Caitlin says and Peter pulls her into a hug.

"What about Jax?" Peter wonders as Caitlin breaks down in his arms.

"He's going to die too." Caitlin says as Peter hears her voice breaking and keeps holding her.

"It'll be okay. Like Barry said, there's a mess of smart people on this ship, one of us has to find a solution." Peter says and hopes he's telling the truth.

"How's Frankie?" Caitlin asks, as she didn't find her on the ship.

"Felicity told me she saved their lives while we were gone." Peter informs her.

"Look at that, in less than a year, you turned her into a superhero." Caitlin jokes.

"She's on her way. But for now, I want her to be a normal kid. Besides, then we need a superhero name and suit for her." Peter replies.

"Oh, Cisco is going to love that." Caitlin states.

-

"Oh man, I have just died and gone to geek heaven." Curtis says as Zari and Amaya lead him through the Waverider.

"Told you we picked the right guy." Zari tells her.

"Picked to do what?" Curtis asks.

"Hunt Nazis. Meet our resident Earth-X expert, the Ray." Amaya says and is greeted by Ray from Earth-X.

"You can use my real name Ray Terrill." Ray says as they shake hands.

"Your secret identity is your first name with the word _the_?" Curtis asks him.

"Why? What's your secret identity?" Ray asks him.

"Mr. Terrific." Curtis tells him.

"Really? That's a little boast-y, don't you think?" Ray asks.

"It's just one of my favorite wrestlers." Curtis says. "Still, you should change your name. Can we talk about the Nazis?"

"They vanished. Owing to fact they have their own Waverider." Amaya informs him.

"We had been tracking them using the radiation signature off by Powergirl because of her-" Zari was saying when Curtis interrupts.

"Extreme exposure to the solar radiation." Curtis says as he sees the readings. "Are these readings right? Because the trace radiation readings on here are slowly approaching the Chandrasekhar limit."

"Which means...?" Amaya asks.

"Kara's doppelgänger isn't just dying." Zari explains.

"If she doesn't get Supergirl's heart, she'll create a supernovas that will destroy the entire Midwest." Curtis finishes.

-

In the end, Caitlin did all she could but couldn't save them.

Sara found Stein's body, a crying Jax standing over it. She was the one who told the others that he was dead, having found a way to break the Firestorm connection and save Jax's life.

Caitlin wandered into the study, feeling numb. Someone had told her that Peter was inside. He looked up when she entered as he's holding onto Frankie, eyes wide with hope, and she shook her head.

He held open his arms wordlessly and she curled into them, almost a ball on his lap. No tears came, but a wrenching ache in her chest told her that grief was still very present.

Frankie didn't know Stein all to well, but she felt sorry for her family and for the fallen hero.

Later, the two separate and are just comforting the other, thinking of their time with Stein.

Peter just ends up throat chuckling to himself.

"Wats so funny?" Caitlin asks, hoping he can bring the same smile to her face that he just brought to his.

"I was just thinking about everything that we've been through with that man." Peter explains as he's thinking back all the way to the first year when they became a team. And everything that's occurred ever since. The good, the bad, the laughs, the arguments. Everything they've been through together.

-

"How are we with tracking the other Waverider?" Oliver asks them

"The data indicates it's somewhere in the vicinity of Central City." Zari explains.

"Which also indicates Powergirl isn't going to last long on this world." Ray states.

"Which means this world isn't long for this world." Curtus says, jokingly.

"Please doesn't." Peter-38 begs.

"No, failure isn't an option." Oliver says. "Loosing isn't an option. We are going to win! And we're gonna show these people that this earth belongs to us."

"Great speech." Crystal tells him.

_"_**_Sorry to interrupt, mr. Queen, but we're being hailed by a fellow timeship_**_." _Gideon tells them.

"Put them through." Oliver commands, angrily.

They all come together as the hologram of Oliver-X appears.

"What do you want, Psycho?" Peter-1 asks him.

"_To offer a truce_." Oliver-X tells them.

"In exchange for what?" Barry asks.

"_We will return to our earth peacefully and other things if you meet my one demand. Supergirl leaves with us._" Oliver-X explains his demands.

"Not going to happen." Peter-38 informs him.

"Here's the difference between you and me." Oliver says as he walks towards the computer. "I don't abandon my friends." He says before shutting it down.

"Everyone ready?" Sara asks them.

"As ready as ever." Nate says.

"We can't bring Marty back, but we can protect the city he loved, and the family he left behind." Ray says.

"For the professor." Sara says and that all nod to that. "Now let's go kick some ass."

-

The Nazi troops, follow Dark Archer march through the streets while gunning down anyone they come across when they turn to see all of the heroes rising from the fog and towards them.

Crystal comes in on a ice slide.

Peter comes in swinging with Miles alongside him.

Supergirl and Iron-Spider comes flying in with Ray, ready to take them down.

"Kill them all." Dark Archer tells their men as they charge the heroes.

As they approach, the heroes, the heroes all go charging and use their powers, their speed, their weaponry to take down every Nazi, every enemy.

Peter and Peter-38 go flying or swinging and fight together.

As they fight, Barry and Thawne continue their rivalry as everything around them goes in slow motion.

Barry and Thawne get in a few punches as they continue their fight.

Oliver and his doppelgänger fight on top of a police car and try to outsmart the other.

-

In the air, the Waverider's are fighting each other and they see they need someone inside so Kara goes up to the window.

"General. Care to step outside?" Kara asks her Earth-X counterpart who activates her mask and flies out her window.

As she does that, Crystal brings Amaya and Zari into the Wellenreiter through the hole that Kara-X created and take down the men inside.

"We're on the bridge, Felicity." Amaya tells her. "And we don't know what we're looking for."

"_Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I'm working on it_." Felicity says and sends over the code. "_If I'm reading this correctly, all you need to do is..._"

Crystal notices a button starting to flash at them. "Hit the big, blinking red button." She says as she pushes it and the shields are shut down.

A breach opens from Cisco and they escape.

-

In the air, Supergirl and Overgirl continue their fight throughout the sky.

"You can't defeat me." Powergirl tells her as she's in a chokehold.

"Maybe not...but I have a friend." Kara says as she gets hit by a power strike from the Iron-Spider.

"Sorry I'm late, honey. Sky traffic is hell." Peter-38 jokes.

"Oh, I'm no longer Skirt, huh?" Kara flirts back.

"Don't get used to it." Peter-38 warns and the two of them start fighting her evil twin together.

-

In the air, Powergirl starts screaming in pain.

"_Supergirl, your doppelgänger's about to have a meltdown_." Harry warns them.

"What do we do?" Peter-38 asks.

"_You need to fly her up. Up. And away. Now_." Harry tells them and Kara just grabs her doppelgänger and flies high into the air.

They watch from the ground as she explodes and dies.

"No!" Oliver-X screams, seeing his wife die. "I'm gonna kill you." He promises Oliver who shoots him before he had the chance.

Kara was knocked unconscious from the blast and is sent falling to the ground when something catches her on her way down.

"Wha-what?" Kara asks when she sees Peter-38 caught her for the second time.

"We better not be making a habit of you falling from the sky." Peter-38 tells her. "But I can get used to you in my arms."

Kara laughs at that and pecks his cheek as thanks for saving her for the bazilyionth time.

Truth be told, she could get used to it as well.

-

It rained the morning of Stein's funeral.

When the Team had gotten back to Star Labs to regroup, they had been subdued. They had won, but they had lost so much along the way. Loosing the Professor was a rough blow to them all, even those who hadn't known him as well.

Frost had finally faded from Caitlin. She was tired, even though it hadn't felt like _she_ had spent the last hour and a half fighting her butt off.

The sky cleared up by 11, which was when Stein's funeral started. There was hazy sunlight streaming through the clouds, and water droplets sparkled on the leaves of the trees in the graveyard.

"Clarissa asked me to say some words," Jax started. He seemed nervous and a little awkward standing on the opposite side of the Professor's grave. Caitlin couldn't even imagine what he was going through at the moment. "But as you all know," Jax continued. "Grey was the wordy one. But...I got used to hearing his voice inside my head, and, uh, even now, I can still hear him. 'Cause even though he's gone... he's still apart of me. He's still apart of all of us. He was the best man... right until the end. The best teacher... friend... husband... father..."

Jax voice wavered, eyes filling with tears as he walked forward, toward Clarissa a Lily. "Clarissa... I'm so, so sorry.. I couldn't save him, I-All he wanted was to come home. To you. To his family."

Jax broke off, head dropping. "Oh, Jefferson," Clarissa whispered, putting her hand on his cheek as tears rolled down her cheeks. "You were his family, too."

"I just..." Jax sniffled. "I don't know how to do any of this without him."

"Then don't," Lily spoke up. Her son, Ronnie, was cradled in her arms but she reached out one hand and squeezed Jax's. "You said it yourself: he's still apart of you."

Jax nodded, wiping at his eyes, and Clarissa stepped up to the grave. "Goodbye, my love," she whispered, throwing a shovelful of dirt on top of the coffin.

Sara went next. "Thank you for believing in me," she murmured.

"Tell Ronnie I miss him," Caitlin whispered, her eyes red, taking the shovel and throwing in her own bit of dirt.

Peter took the shovel from her and walked up to the hole that holds one of his friends in the one place where many of his friends and family are being held. "Thank you for everything you've done, and tell Ronnie I'm sorry," he said softly. Then he took his spot next to Caitlin, an arm around her shoulders.

After the funeral, everyone started to disperse. There were cities to go back to, bad guys to fight... heroes could never stick around for long.

-

"So, are we a...thing now?" Kara asks Peter-38.

Peter-38 inhales and breathes out slowly, no idea what to say. "It's up to you, I guess."

Kara then stops the two and just pulls Peter into another kiss when Peter and Caitlin approach them.

"Is this how it feels to others when we do that?" Peter-1 asks his girlfriend.

"I think so." Caitlin tells him.

"I feel sorry for everyone now." Peter-1 says.

"Thanks for everything, guys." Kara tells them.

"We didn't do much. Just happy to see that even in the multiverse, I can't see the obvious." Peter-1 replies to her.

"Yeah, it must be a Parker thing." Peter-38 jokes.

"No, it's a Peter Parker thing." Kara corrects him. "Now come on, give us a hug before we go." She asks and pulls Caitlin into a hug and Peter waits for his doppelgänger to hug him.

"Not happening." Peter-38 tells him.

"We still got to work on your human side I see." Kara jokes. "Is it weird the two of us dating the same guy, but them not being the same guy?" She asks Caitlin.

"I have a split personality who I share my boyfriend with. Nothing's weird to me anymore." Caitlin replies, happy for Kara as Peter-38 opens a breach back home.

"Come on, Skirt. Let's go home." Peter-38 tells Kara and the two leave through a breach.

"Come on, let's get Frankie and head home, Spider-Man." Caitlin tells him and they head off.

"Right behind you, Crystal Frost." Peter says jokingly as he pulls his girlfriend in for a kiss and Caitlin wraps her arms around him and deepen the kiss.

-

Later, Peter did a quick search on anyone named Mary Jane Watson, and nothing turned up on the girl he met outside the church, leaving him wondering who that girl is.

-

In a dark alleyway, that some girl pulls out her watch and pushes a button on the side.

"This is Agent Tina Parker reporting. I have found no trace of the time disturbance, but nothing has changed." She tells the watch.

"_Agent Parker, return to the Time Beuru to track th source._" The watch says.

"Copy that." She says and opens a window through time and steps through it back to her time.

The one good thing that came from that was she was able to see her father again.


	79. Christmas Crystal

In Central City, Christmas was approaching.

Barry and Iris was due to come home today from their honeymoo, as Cisco and Harry were busy decorating the Cortex.

"What are you doing?" Harry demanded, wearing a lopsided Santa hat and holding the end of Cisco's decorations.

"Tinsel." Cisco told him, giving him a strange look before continuing to wrap the fluffy silver object around the oddly blue true.

"Your tinsel to surface ratio is _terrible_," Harry criticized.

"Are you kidding me?" Cisco demanded. "I've done extensive research to make sure that this tinsel is properly proportioned for this tree!"

"It's terrible." Harry informs him.

"It's terrible? I'll tell you what's terrible. Your Scrooge to Grinch ratio is terrible." Cisco replies.

"You're a mean one." Harry said, tugging the tinsel off of the tree. "I wouldn't touch you with a 39 and a half foot pole."

"Are they always like this?" Frankie asks Caitlin and Peter.

"Basically." Peter tells her.

"You get used to it." Caitlin promises as she walked into the room, a headband with a much smaller Santa hat than Harry's tucked behind her ears. "Hey, Cisco," she called, interrupting Harry and Cisco's brewing argument. "Where's Gypsy?"

"She had the holiday shift," Cisco sighed. He had planned to have his girlfriend stay over for a few nights and join everyone at the Annual West Christmas Party, but she hadn't been able to come. "But! I think I got her the perfect gift. A gulag class mech knife, forged in the unholy blood fires of Earth-22 by none other than Wireless 2.9. Of course..." Cisco tugged out his phone, looking at it curiously. "Gypsy should have sent something for me by now..."

Harry grimaced. "Awkward," he mumbled, before taking another bit of tinsel off the tree. "I'm sure it's fine."

Ralph walked into the room. "Uh...did Rudolph just diarrhea all over your tree?"

"Oh, great," Cisco said sarcastically. "Two humbugs. It's a Festive Miracle."

"Oh, don't get me wrong, Ralphie loves Christmas," Ralph shrugged, walking over to observe the other side of the tree. "I bring it in every year with my Nana. She never remembers me, but I'm getting that inheritance."

Cisco gave him a disgusted look. "You...you are just...incorrect."

"Well, if you don't want to spend Christmas conning your grandma, you're more than welcome to join your friends at the West family...party.." Caitlin trailed off awkwardly as Harry ran a light hand under his jaw, symbolizing that she should stop talking.

"That sounds like a snooze-fest," Ralph groaned. "Unless, of course, you're serving _bacon soda!_" He threw out his arms and made a ridiculous voice, which Harry and Cisco immediately mirrored.

"Bacon soda!" Cisco and Harry copied, before laughing.

Caitlin shifted awkwardly. "Uh, what-sorry, what's that about?"

"Inside joke, Crystal started it." Peter explains while leaning on the doorframe.

"Classic Crystal Frost." Cisco says as he's working on the tinsel.

"You guys were hanging out with Crystal?" Caitlin asks them.

Both Cisco and Harry stopped their tree-decorating and turned to face her. All three of them nodded.

Caitlin swallowed back her jealousy as best she could, her voice still a little bitter when she muttered, "Hope you had a great time."

"Oh, we had the best time," Ralph stated, completely oblivious to her discomfort. "I mean, you're great Snow-Cone, but my girl Frostbite..ay yi yi!"

Harry, Peter and Cisco snapped at him to be quiet, but the damage was already done.

"I'm...going to go get a cup of coffee," Caitlin mumbled, before turning and hurrying out of the Cortex, ignoring Cisco and Harry's calls behind her.

"Hey, if you see my girl Crystal later, tell her what I said about the baking soda!" Ralph says as she leaves and Peter looks at him mad.

"What?" Ralph asks, not seeing what he did wrong.

Peter looks to Frankie. "Stay here with them, I'm gonna go talk to her." He tells his daughter and looks mad again to Ralph while leaving. "One of these days, I'm gonna stretch him with my webbing so far he'll turn into a puddle." He promises while as he left, the tinsel tree fell down.

-

Caitlin was at Jitters having a Crystal Frost, one of their newest drinks on the menus when Peter found her.

"Why would someone who looks her beautifulest be having a self pity roast?" Peter asks her, causing her to smile at him.

"I wish." Caitlin says and shows the pamphlet for the new drink.

Peter takes a look and then begins to chuckle. "The Crystal Frost."

"Finally got a drink, woo hoo." Caitlin says, still being pitiful. "I'm thrilled Crystal helped fight the Reichmen, but now it's like I can't escape her. Everybody keeps saying, _Crystal Frost is so funny. Crystal Frost is so badass._ I spent so much time worried she would hurt people, but now, turns out people would rather hang out with my villainous alter ego."

Peter looks hypothetical since he also enjoys his time with Crystal as much as he does with Caitlin, not wanting to love one more than the other. "Look, Cait, Crystal is cool. Pun not intended. And I enjoy spending time with her, but Frankie cherish the time spent with you than your alter ego." He tells her and Caitlin is happy to hear that.

"Thanks, Pete." Caitlin says.

"I'm always here for you." Peter promises when his senses go off and they turn to see Amunett Black is back wearing a Christmas hat.

"Ho, ho, ho," Amunett Black mumbled. She stepped further into Jitters, patrons steaming out of the now open space where the storefront had once been. "Caity!" she called in a singsong voice, looking around.

"Hide," Peter ordered, standing up and pulling out his web shooters. "Hide. Hide!"

Amunet strode forward and grabbed hold of his hand with a metal encased fist, knocking him out with her own weapon.

Caitlin had taken cover behind a decorated Christmas tree, but when Peter went down, she stepped out and held out her hands. Today was _not_ the day she wanted to transform, but she allowed her hair to turn white and Crystal to take over as Amunet approached.

Before the transformation could complete, however, Amunet had spun her around, grabbed her wrist, and slapped a power-dampening cuff to it. "Frosty melted away," Amunett crooned. "I've come for you, Caity."

-

Everyone in the Cortex was surprised to see Iris West striding through the door. "DeVoe," she said, her voice low as she just walked into the cortex. "He attacked us in the street. He took Barry."

"What?!" Cisco gasped, and it was then that Joe realized they all already looked grim. Peter was sitting at Iris' desk, an icepack to his head. "Are you kidding me?!"

"What happened here?" Iris asked, staring at Peter.

"Amunett Black abducted Caitlin," Joe filled her in.

"Two people missing at the same time," Ralph added. "That's quite a coink-idink."

"Yeah. Great observation, Captain Obvious," Cisco snapped.

"Did we set the satellite to look for Caitlin's criokinetic energy or Barry's speed force signatures?" Harry asked.

"No, no," Iris muttered. "We've got to look for both of them. Cisco, I need you to vibe Barry. We need to know that he's alive."

Cisco looked unsure, but as Iris' eyes bore into him he pressed his fingers to his temples and concentrated.

A second later he was being tossed against the room by an invisible force, smashing into a rolling table and the Christmas tree.

Peter ran over to him, hand on his chest. "Hey! Are you okay?"

"Yeah..." Cisco winced, rubbing his forehead, eyes shut tightly. "Just not gonna be vibing against for awhile."

"What about Allen?" Harry demanded.

"Wherever he is...I've never experience anything like it," Cisco murmured.

That, of course, told them absolutely nothing. They were back to square one.

-

Meanwhile, Caitlin had been blindfolded and dragged to Amunet's newest secret lair.

"Here we are," Amunett announced, leading Caitlin into a dimly lit, starkly decorated building made mostly of cement.

Caitlin glanced around. "You're really moving up in the world," she commented sarcastically.

"You know," Amunett huffed. "A sprinkle of enthusiasm would not kill you."

Caitlin wasn't in the mood for chit-chat. She was supposed to be spending Christmas with her little family by watching old movies, or doing anything. She did _not_ want to be here at the moment. "Listen, Amunett, whatever you have planned, I guarantee you Crystal Frost wants _nothing_ to do with it."

"That's right, darling, but I don't need her," Amunett said. "I need you."

She strode towards a grungy white curtain hiding a section of the room and tugged it open, revealing a medical gurney. Caitlin stepped closer. There was a lying on the bed, his head wrapped in white gauze and his eyes closed. "Meet your patient," Amunett introduced.

"What've you done?" Caitlin asked, striding forward and toward the man.

"Oh, there's not need to be overdramatic; he's alive," Amunett tutted. "And I'm sure he'd be happy to meet you just as soon as that...tranquilizer wears off."

"Why do you have him?" Caitlin asked, brow furrowing. "What is he to you?"

"My Golden Goose..." Amunett sighed dreamily. "See, Dominic here is a new meta that I...found. And I'd intended on selling him but unfortunately he didn't want to go so gently into the good night. And, um..." She lifted up a piece of the gauze with fingers and Caitlin inhaled sharply through her teeth. There was a nasty looking piece of metal lodged in Dominic's skin, right under his ear.

"Well, I shot him," Amunett admitted.

"That is-"

"In desperate need of medical attention; I know," Amunett finished. "And now you know why I need you, Caity MD."

Caitlin gave her a shocked look. "You're talking about an intricate cranial forebody retraction _at _best, and at worst that's a-"

"I'm going to stop you right there," Amunett interrupted, holding up a finger. "Because I have absolutely no idea what you're saying. But you see, it does not matter. Because I knew that _you_ would understand what needed to happen." She shrugged, problem solved.

But Caitlin shook her head. "Amunett, I won't. I can't. The environment isn't sterilized; the equipment is ancient..."

Amunett leaned forward, peering at the wound. "I suppose I could just yank it out myself."

"And risk him bleeding out and a dozen other brain deficits." Caitlin countered.

"Right," Amunett agreed. "Good point." She straightened up and held out her metal-encased fist. "Well, there's only one way to find out."

Caitlin dove in front of Dominic. "No! No." She let out a deep sigh, knowing if there was any chance of Dominic surviving, she would have to at least attempt the operation. "I'll do what I can."

"Excellent!" Amunett said, turning and clicking toward the door. She grabbed her coffee and then stopped, turning back around. "Oh, I almost forgot. Should he die...you die as well." And then she left the room. "This Crystal Frost mug is really delicious."

As she waited for Dominic to wake up, Caitlin took a look around. "Well..." she sighed out loud to herself. "It's not exactly Star Labs."

There was a rustling from behind her and Caitlin turned, instinctively taking a step back as Dominic groaned and sat up. "Who are you?" he asked, eyes wide like a scared child.

"My name is Caitlin Snow," Caitlin introduced herself, trying to seem as harmless as possible. "And your at St. Andrew's Hospital. At least...I think that's where we are; it's been closed down for awhile."

"Please," Dominic begged. "You have to help me get out of here."

"Easier said than done," Caitlin sighed.

"The blond lady? She took you too?"

Caitlin nodded.

"God, I don't understand why this is happening to us," Dominic mumbled, his eyes filling. Caitlin wasn't sure if it was from pain or fear.

"Dominic, do you know what a metahuman is?" Caitlin asked gently.

"Listen-I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't rob a bank or-"

"No, I know," Caitlin assured him. "People with abilities, people like you...they're a commodity, especially to-"

"Especially to Amunett," Dominic finished, and Caitlin stopped.

"Yeah." She said cautiously. "Listen, I'm going to be honest with you. It would be very difficult to fix what she did to you, even under the best of circumstances with the right equipment."

"I feel fine," Dominic argued. "My head doesn't even hurt."

"Which is a minor miracle," Caitlin said. "But if that shard were to fracture..."

"It would cause permanent motor skills impairment or brain deficits."

Once again, Caitlin paused. "How did you..." Then the pieces clicked, and she looked at him in wonder. "You have telepathic abilities. Can you here what I'm thinking right now?"

"When did I get my powers?" Dominic guessed, and Caitlin nodded, intrigued. "A couple months ago. Uh...I took the bus to my job at the airport. TSA. When we got there it was like...everyone was yelling at me, screaming mad. But mouths weren't moving. It only works when I'm close enough to see someone."

Caitlin nodded again, and Dominic sent her a sideways glance. "You don't think we're getting out of here?"

She let out a sigh. There was no point in hiding something from a man who could read her mind. "I'm gonna do everything I can to fix you but...I can't get you away from here." She glanced toward the door, where a couple of guards were hovering. "Not on my own."

"Caitlin," Dominic said seriously, and she looked back to him. "I'm scared, too."

-

Peter found himself outside of DeVoe's home and finds the man in question inside.

"Mr. Parker, what can I help you with?" DeVoe asks him.

"Where's...Barry?" Peter asks him back.

"Has he gone missing?" DeVoe wonders as if he doesn't know.

"Don't play dumb with me. I don't know what you have planned, but I know you're not lazy enough to just kidnap the Flash. And we both know you're not stupid enough to keep him in your home. I know you have a endgame to all of this. The metas, your mind, even letting them get married. I know that was part of your plan. You're not as smart as-"

"Yes, I am." DeVoe interrupts him.

"Just know this; we _will_ stop you. I've stoped men who thought were smarter than me. And I proved how stupid they are when they're blinded by their ego." Peter informs him.

"Dr. Octavius, or as you call him _Doc Ock._ Was in fact blinded by his ego. I have no ego to fulfil. I am here to enlighten everyone." DeVoe tells him.

"Then it's survival of the smartest. Just know this; I have friends. And I'm not threatening you...just thought you should know. I have a private eye, a Kung fu warrior. Hell, I have a friend who can use animals as a power under my belt. I _will_ find your weakness...because everyone has one. It might be as big as an exhaust port on a giant Death Star, or as small as a microchip controlling mechanical arms."

"It's not survival of the smartest, mr. Parker. I've already won." DeVoe says and Peter just stares at the man, hoping he gave fox enough time before leaving.

-

Peter returns to Star labs, followed by Drone-y alongside him.

"Did I give you enough time?" Peter asks Fox.

"Hacked into his security cameras. But why do you need this footage of your argument?" Fox wonders.

"You think that there was something wrong with how happy I was showing while talking to him? He has something planned. Kidnapping Barry is just a play. And if we have this evidenced with what the spider drone caught of him abducting Barry, we have an upper edge." Peter explains to him.

"Clever." Fox comments seeing he's doing everything he can to be ahead of the game.

"Let's hope it's something he didn't see coming." Peter says, praying he's one step ahead of the man.

-

The only thing Caitlin could think to do was try to break the power dampening cuff. She had explained to Dominic about Frost and how, if she could get the cuff off, Frost could save them.

As she struggled with the cuff, Dominic gave her a quizzical look. "Who's Peter?"

Caitlin paused, the screwdriver she was using to attempt to get her cuff off falling to her side.

"He's on your mind a lot," Dominic elaborated quickly, noticing her expression. "Almost as much as Crystal Frost."

Caitlin sighed, turning around to give Dominic her attention. "He's my boyfriend," she explained, the words rolling off her tongue with delightful ease.

Dominic's eyebrows went up. "Oh!" he said. "Does he know about your powers?"

"Yes. He has some, too," Caitlin told him, deciding not to elaborate.

"Then can he come save us?"

Caitlin shook her head. "He could, but...well, he doesn't know where we are. But I know he will stop at nothing until he finds us. But for now, I think we're on our own." She paused, looking at Dominic. "I'm going to be honest with you. It's too risky to preform this surgery here, and I don't have any powers to save us." A thought suddenly struck her and Caitlin started to smile. "But you do."

In just a few seconds Caitlin had slid the curtains across the bed, blocking the door-guards view of them. She and Dominic ran around the corner and towards the hallway.

"Come on," Caitlin whispered, running down a shot flight of steps and turning the corner into another corridor.

"No, Caitlin, get back!" Dominic hissed, and they pressed themselves against the wall just as two of Amunett's men rounded the corner.

They dove into a side room just in time to avoid getting seen, and as soon as the guards passed they were on the move again.

Caitlin could see the end of the hall. They were almost there when a wall of interlacing metal pieces sprung up in front of them. Filled with dread, Caitlin and Dominic slowly turned around.

"Somebody's made my naughty list," Amunett Black growled.

-

After a strangely comforting and also alarming talk with Amunett about her past, Frost's powers, and Caitlin's remarkableness as herself and as a doctor, the stirrings of a plan began to develop in Caitlin's brain.

She had managed to rig an x-ray machine from some equipment from the basement, and she believed that she could preform the surgery on Dominic and get them both out of there. Caitlin called in Amunet and a couple of her guards and had them stand back, wrapping a mask over her mouth and nose and pressing a breathing tube to Dominic's face.

"Now, I'm going to need you to hold still," Caitlin said as she flicked on her impromptu x-ray machine, showing and image of Dominic's collarbone, head, and neck. "You're going to feel some pressure," Caitlin told him, reaching for a pair of tweezers. Her eyes on the x-ray, she began to carefully remove the bullet. "Extracting the foreign object..." she murmured, hands steady and eyes concentrated.

And then it was out. "Foreign object extracted," Caitlin reported, triumphant. "Applying some surgical glue."

The heart monitor began to beep rapidly. "He's going into shock," Caitlin said, glancing back and forth.

"So, unshock him!" Amunett ordered.

"I can't," Caitlin said, starting to press her hands against Dominic's chest.

He flatlined, and the metal shards in Amunett's bag began to rattle. "I need to hear a beep beep beep or Dominic won't be the only flatliner in the room."

The two guards collapsed, and Caitlin stopped pumping on Dominic's chest.

Amunett got a odd look on her face. "Oh," she murmured, tilting to the side. "Oh, you're good." She said as she crumpled to the ground, having inhaled too much of the steadily leaking knockout gas Caitlin had been spraying into the room.

Almost immediately, Caitlin plugged the gas tube back in and Dominic sat up. He unstrapped the mask from around his head and Caitlin took off her medical coverup. "They're out cold," Dominic said, amazed.

"40PSI of ventilation anesthetic. That'll keep them out, but not for long," Caitlin told him. "Let's go."

They began to sprint down the hallway, up the short flight up stairs, and into the street. Caitlin was relieved when they got outside, the frigid night air hitting her like a slap in the face. This was the kind of weather Frost enjoyed, but anything was better than the stuffy, dusty air of the abandoned hospital

They kept running, and a second later Dominic yelled, "Caitlin!" and forced her to the ground. Not a moment too soon, three shards off metal spat over their heads and imbedded themselves in the parked truck in front of them.

"Darn it!" Amunett said, her gaze dark. "I was aiming for your head."

She shot out her fist, and with nowhere to go, Dominic and Caitlin could only flinch backwards as more metal shards came spinning towards them.

Caitlin winced, shut her eyes, and waited for death. Instead, none other than Ralph Dibney stretched himself in front of them. The metal struck him in the chest and then quickly popped out. "So pointy!" Ralph grunted. "That is not very nice, lady."

Enraged, Amunet lifted her arm again. This time, she didn't even have time to fire- a stream of blue vibe knocking her backwards and to the ground.

"Are you a time traveler?" Cisco quipped. "'Cause those white girl dreads came _straight_ from the 90s."

"Hey, I do the quipping." Peter informs his friend as Amunett glowered at him but didn't try to get up again. Cisco quickly opened a breach and Caitlin, Dominic, Ralph and Cisco all hopped through. In seconds, they were at STAR Labs.

Safe.

-

Later that afternoon, Barry was discovered and he says that DeVoe did kidnap him, but he didn't explain why.

Peter, Frankie, and Caitlin went home to get ready, and they made it to the West's house.

They arrived at around the same time as the rest of the Team, and walked inside to find an explosion of decorations and none other than Ralph Dibney standing with a Santa suit on while they heard _Spidey Bells _playing.

"What the-?" May broke off, staring around in shock.

"Ho ho ho!" Ralph laughed. "Wait." He turned sideways and stretched out his stomach. "Like a bowl full of jelly."

"Ralph, what is all this?" Peter asked with a smile, taking off his coat and placing it over the back of the couch before helping Caitlin with hers and Frankie.

"Well, Joe said he didn't have any time to decorate, and I wanted to do something nice for... my friends," Ralph explained, nodding a few times. "I realize that I don't usually say or do the right things, and I just wanted to say...I'm sorry."

"Well, you- you went all out, Ralph," Caitlin said. "Thanks."

"Yeah, this looks great, man!" Barry agreed. "Thank you!"

"I'm glad you like it," Ralph said, smiling happily. "And, uh, Caitlin," he added as people began to filter into the house. "Uh...It was wrong of me to say that Crystal Frost is better than you. Because, the truth is...no one is better than you."

Caitlin smiled at the sweet comment. "Thank you. And, I know. I'm the one who saved the day this time." She sent him another smile, and then followed her boyfriend into the dinning area.

After Cisco accidentally opened up a message cube from Gypsy he had thought it was a breakup cube but quickly found out that Gypsy was _not_ looking to break up with him tonight and he hurried to compose himself, Dominic arrived. Caitlin introduced him to the rest of the team and Dominic glanced around a little awkwardly.

"This house is..."

"Bitchin'?" Cisco suggested.

"Festive," Dominic finished slowly, giving him an odd look.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Ralph grinned. "But who the heck are you again?"

Cisco gave him a weird look. "He's the guy you just helped save."

"Yeah," Caitlin agreed. "The meta who can read your mind?"

Dominic smiled and glanced across the room. "And...this must be Peter and Frankie?"

Peter glanced up, eyebrows raised. "Um, yes, that's me. Hello."

"She...thinks about you a lot," Dominic explained, nodding at Caitlin. "And I _may _have read her mind a couple times when she was helping me escape."

"Oh!" Peter looked pleased.

"Anyway," Dominic said. "I'm not really here to fight crime or anything...more just brainstorm ideas about my powers."

Cisco lifted his mug. "Aha! I christen thee Brainstorm."

"Oh, come on, man!" Ralph complained, pouting. "I've been here for months and I don't have a name yet."

Peter and Caitlin were watching them bicker and laughs when Frankie approached Peter and she seemed nervous.

"Hey, kiddo, you okay?" Peter asks her.

"Yeah. I'm fine...can we talk alone? For a minute?" Frankie asks and Caitlin takes that as a que to leave the two alone.

"What's up?" Peter asks her.

"I was...there's something...I...I wanna help you guys." Frankie says and Peter's confused.

"What do you mean by help?" Peter wonders.

"I wanna learn how to be a superhero." Frankie explains and Peter doesn't know what to say.

-

That was before the alarm at Barry's loft went off, and he ran off to check up on it.

That was before he found DeVoe's dead body lying in their apartment, the odd, anonymously sent knife wedding gift sticking out of his chest. That was before Captain Singh began hammering on the door.

-

211 West 47th street, suite 316 New York, New York 10019

One of Hell's Kitchen's greatest lawyers was in his office when his phone started to ring.

"_Peter. Peter. Peter._" His phone rang and Mathew Murdock answers it.

"Peter. What can I help you with?" Matt asks his friend.

"_Hey, Matt, I need you to get to Central City. My friend, Barry Allen, he's being framed for murder and I need the best lawyer I know._" Peter explains to him.

Matt listens to the details and sees why Peter called him.

He was also told Peter already booked him a private flight to Central City.


	80. Devil in Central City

"My name is Barry Allen. And I'm an innocent man. I know that you'll find my fingerprints all over his body. And I know that you'll find his DNA on mine. But I don't know who stabbed him. Or how he ended up in my loft. All I can tell you is I'm being framed for something that I didn't do. I didn't kill Clifford DeVoe." Barry says in the interrogation room of CCPD.

"All right, Allen. Let's-" Singh says when the door suddenly opens and someone with red glasses steps in with a file.

"Barry Allen, stop talking." He tells Barry before dropping the file and turning to Singh and the second man. "Hi, this is over."

"Who the hell are you?" Singh asks him.

"My name is Matthew Murdock. I'm Barry Allen's attorney." Matt tells him, confusing Barry.

-

Peter looks at the Spider-Man suit in front of him as he's at the Spider Cave looking over everything that he was able to get that can help Matt.

"You were right." Fox congratulates him. "He planed on using the kidnapping to make it seem like he had plenty of time to kill DeVoe and nobody would know about it."

"Except we have a conversation with me on video to prove he couldn't have had that much time. And we have Barry's abduction to prove he didn't just vanish." Peter congratulated himself for being actually ahead of the _smartest man alive_. "Is it okay if I gloat? I feel like gloating." He tells Fox feeling happy for himself.

Fox smiles while rolling his eyes at him.

-

Matt and Barry were left alone to talk at the CCPD as everyone left them.

"Are you a public defender?" Barry asks Matt.

"Uh, no." Matt says as the takes a seat across from Barry.

"Then what are you doing here?" Barry wonders.

"A friend of mine, who is a friend of yours referred me." Matt says and Barry puts the pieces together.

"Peter called you." Barry guesses.

"I owe him for a few things, and he told me of this predicament you're in and said you needed the best lawyer. I don't think that highly of myself." Matt admits.

"I don't think I could afford someone as good as you." Barry warns him.

"You don't have to. I'm independent." Matt assures him. "And I'm a catholic. I have a soft spot for hopeless causes." He jokes as he goes through his papers.

"You are definitely a friend of Peter's." Barry mumbled.

"So, I had a talk with the lead detective, it seems that all they have is fingerprints and that could be gotten from anywhere. And you're a forensic scientist, meaning you have to put away some bad people, meaning you make a lot of enemies. With or without the mask." Matt says and Barry's confused.

"Peter told you I'm the Flash?" Barry asks him.

"No, you just did." Matt tells him.

"How...?"

"I'm blind, yes. But I am able to see in my own way. For instance; your heart rate is so fast that I would be concerned about it if I didn't know there was someone who could run at the speed of sound. But back to the problem at hand, they do have enough to convict you. If Peter didn't get evidence of his own." Matt tells him.

"Peter has evidence?" Barry asks.

"Maybe just enough to get you free." Matt promises...hopefully.

-

"This is exactly what DeVoe wanted," Barry said. He was facing the rest of his team, back in the Cortex after his interrogation and Matt was able to get him out. "We played right into his hands. Especially me."

"Why would DeVoe want to orchestrate all of this?" Iris asked, shaking her head slowly.

"I don't know," Barry sighed. "But we know it all started when I was still in the Speedforce."

Joe shook his head. "But why target Dominic?"

"Dominic's power must have allowed DeVoe to inhabit his body," Harry theorized. "We should have been on top of this earlier."

"What about the other metas on the bus?" Caitlin threw out. "Why create them?"

"Part of a larger plan." Peter tells them as he has Fox going over every metahuman they've come across to figure out what their powers could be used for.

Barry nodded, and one foot reached up to knock against the clunky metal cuff on his ankle. It was a cuff designed for people under house arrest, which Barry was.

Ralph frowned. "How are you even here right now, Allen? Aren't you on house arrest?"

"Yeah, well-"

"He's at Joe's, actually," Cisco said, finished his sentence. "Either that or the Courthouse. I managed to hack into the ankle monitor GPS."

"That's not the only thing Cisco hacked," Iris said thoughtfully. "When you came out of the Speedforce, you were talking gibberish. At the CCPD, you said something about not wanting to kill anyone."

"I scrubbed the video," Cisco reassured him. "The last thing we want is someone hearing something we don't want them to hear."

He pulled up the feed from the CCPD, back when they had just found Barry. _"Your honor,"_ video Barry was saying, _"I'm innocent. I didn't do this. I didn't kill anyone!"_

Cisco cut the feed, and Barry shook his head. "Yeah, I mean, I don't remember saying any of that."

"You don't?" Harry asked.

"No."

"Question; should we be saying all this in front of him?" Ralph asks, looking to Matt who's messing with Frankie's hair. They met while Frankie was staying with Jessica and became close.

"Me?" Matt asks, confused. "I can keep a secret, mr. Dibney." He promises.

"How do you even see us?" Cisco asks as Matt is looking directly at them.

"My sight might have been taken, but my other senses have been enhanced so that they can compromise for my sight." Matt tells him.

"Yeah, when he and I first met, I was about to walk into traffic accidentally when he save my life. It was about a week before I got my powers." Peter says.

"You two have known each other since childhood?" Caitlin asks.

"Yeah." They both answer.

"I told him if Spider-Man ever needed a lawyer, let me know." Matt adds on.

"He knows you're Spider-Man?" Cisco asks.

"I also know mr. Allen is the Flash, mr. Dibney is the new stretchy superhero, and dr. Snow is Crystal Frost." Matt informs him.

"Why would you tell him that?" Ralph asks Peter.

"He didn't." "I didn't." Barry, Matt, and Peter say at the same time.

"The cold atmosphere around dr. Snow gave me a bit of an idea about who she was. I could feel strong vibrations coming off of you, mr. Ramon, and mr. Dibney over here was stretching for coffee earlier." Matt tells them and they're all shocked.

"How are you blind and yet see all of that?" Ralph asks.

"Like I said, my other senses take over so I can see in my own way." Matt says. "The evidence they have on Barry is...troubling to say nonetheless. But the evidence that Peter has on him talking to DeVoe during his time of death will put a stick in their mud. Not to mention the abduction of Barry."

"How did you get that footage anyway?" May asks Peter, not seeing how that's possible with no security cameras in the area.

"I...may or may not have spider-drones following everyone for times such as this." Peter confesses.

"Dude! Invasion of privacy." Ralph informs him.

"It's not like I watch them 24/7. I only look when they send the footage after something alarming happens." Peter promises. "Trust me, your alone time activities stay there."

-

After the prosecutor's opening remarks, where he painted Barry as an "evil man", and a "wolf in sheeps clothing", he talked about how Barry's skin cells were found under DeVoe's nails... and finally the knife, the anonymous wedding gift Barry had received, covered in Clifford's blood.

Barry's fingerprints, of course, were all over it.

"He used a wedding gift as a murder weapon," the prosecutor was saying, shaking his head in disgust. "That's a special kind of evil."

A second later, Joe pulled out his phone. "Cisco," he whispered, leaning over. "There's a meta attack downtown. We gotta go."

He and Cisco stood up, hurrying out of the courtroom as quietly as possible.

As for Matt, he's hearing the heartbeats of the jury and see that they are on the prosecutor's side it seems. But he isn't the best lawyer in Hell's Kitchen for nothing.

"Mr. Murdock?" The judge asks seeing he's staring out into space.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, forgive me if I seem distracted. I've been thinking of questions of morality. Of right and wrong. Good and evil. Sometimes, the difference between the two are a thread. Sometimes it's a...blur. Sometimes you just know it when you...see it. A man is dead, I don't mean to make light of that. But these questions...these questions are vital ones. Because they tether us to each other. To humanity. Not everyone feels this way. Not everyone sees the thread. Only the blur. A man is dead...and my client, Barry Allen, took his life? A man he never met? A man he spent no alone time with? And at the same time, he was supposed to be returning from his honeymoon? Now, mr. DeVoe's blood was on the knife, and my client fingerprints were found on the knife, those are facts. And facts have no moral judgement, they only state what is. Not what we think of them, not what we feel. They just are. The facts are, my client was found missing for most of the night in question. Now, they couldn't report him missing as his foster father is a cop and knows the protocol for missing people. The only other witness was this man's frightened wife who was present at the time of the abduction. Those are the facts. Based on these, these alone, the prosecution has failed to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that my client took the knife and murdered Clifford DeVoe in his apartment. And that, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, are the facts. My client, based purely on the sanctity of the law, which we all sworn an oath to uphold, is innocent. And we will prove that as a fact." Matt says as his opening marks and Barry watches and sees exactly why Peter called him in to help.

-

Cisco learned they were dealing with another bus metahuman that attacked everyone and they just collapsed.

About a half hour later, none other than Captain David Singh showed up at the witness stand. He reluctantly testified to seeing Barry Allen standing over DeVoe's dead body. The jury murmured, and then Matt stood up.

"Captain Singh," Matt began, striding toward the front of the room with a kind of confidence only he can have. "You stated that you interviewed Barry Allen five years ago for the job of CSI. I wonder, what was your first impression of the man?"

"He was young," David said. "And had half the experience of everyone else I interviewed."

"Why'd you hire him?" Matt wonders.

"It was really something he said in the interview," Singh said. "Everyone always talks about going after the criminal, the guilty. But Allen said he wanted to help the victims. The innocents. I thought Central City deserved someone like that. Allen is one of the good ones." He gave Barry a look from behind the witness stand. It was obvious that he didn't want to do this.

Matt smiled before turning to the jury, looking at them calmly. "One of good ones," he repeated. "No further questions, your honor."

For a brief moment, Barry thought the tides might be turning in his favor. That was before the prosecutor stood back up. He brought up the fact that Barry had been gone for six months, and that he had been late 72 times in the past two years. "Did you ever ask him why?" the prosecutor asked.

"No," Singh stated firmly, almost angrily. "Because no matter what time he got in he always did his job."

"I'd be curious to know what he does with his time when he's away from work. It's almost as if he has this...secret life."

The trail proceeded. Every time the prosecutor spoke he brought up more contradictions in Barry's "good samaritan" persona, more things he had done wrong over the years when in reality he had been saving the world, time and time again, as the Flash. It was depressing to hear.

"I'd like to redirect, your honor." Matt asks as he also stands back up.

"Proceed." The court allows.

"Has my client done anything in the past that would allow him to become enemies to any dangerous people?" Matt asks Singh.

"A few people. Leonard Snart, almost all the metahuman cases to name a few." Singh answers.

"Now, would any of them know that it was my client that helped put them away?" Matt asks.

"Yes, Barry Allen has in fact testified by name against all the cases." Singh tells him.

"Now, all of these people who have been given abilities, and we know that not all metahumans are bad, but not all of them are against framing someone like mr. Allen. I do recall hearing of a mr. Hannibal Bates who has the ability to shapeshift and has already framed others in the past. If I were a criminal, I'd want to go for the man who holds all the power to put me away again." Matt tells the jury and that gets them to see things differently and Barry sees the tides are turning again.

The court adjourned for a break after Captain Singh's testimony was done. Iris, Barry and Matt went back into a waiting room to talk.

"We seem to have a chance to get you out of this, mr. Allen." Matt says as he did another check on the heartbeats of everyone on the jury before they left and they understand Matt's points. "And we haven't even needed to use Peter's evidence yet."

"I have to say, mr. Murdock, you _are_ truly the best lawyer I have ever met." Barry confesses to him.

"All their evidence points to you, but when I talked about the shapeshifter, it seems they were hit by that. Since many people were framed because of...Everyman? Peter has strange names for his enemies." Matt mumbles. "So that means the _hard_ evidence they have on you, it has all become soft. And reminding them that a forensic scientist has more hatred than any officer or detective, proves someone smart wanted you away and as I said, you have no shortage of enemies meaning there are a number of people who want to frame you. We have the high ground. Let's just hope we can keep it."

-

"This is all we got?" Harry asks looking at the security footage that seems corrupted.

"Yeah, this isn't a lot to go off of." Peter admits.

"I know, okay? We're lucky we even got this footage." Cisco tells them. "For some reason, all the security cameras were fried."

"Hey, guys, I was at the hospital going over the medical records of everyone who was at the bank." Caitlin tells them as she walks into the cortex. "I know why they passed out. They all suffered from fatigue, vomiting, abdominal pain, skin rashes."

"So everyone ate a bad burrito?" Cisco asks.

"They had radiation poisoning." Fox sees.

"That's why the security cameras are fried." Harry says.

"We have to find this guy before he poisons the whole city." Peter tells them.

"Or worse." Harry adds on and they all look to him. "If this meta can cause these levels of radiation in these patients, that means this meta has the similar makeup of a nuclear bomb."

"The fallout from a nuclear explosion could be catastrophic." Caitlin adds.

"Fallout." Harry and Cisco say, naming the meta.

"Great name." Harry states.

"Terrible power." Cisco adds. "Okay, I'll see if the satellite can track his radiation signature."

-

Back at the courthouse, Matt shows the jury the pictures Peter had printed out of DeVoe abducting Barry, but all they can see is the back of a chair and Barry being elevated into the air with his hands tied. They don't see Barry's suit.

"These photos were taken from surveillance from the night in question. Mr. Allen was abducted the night that he supposedly murdered Clifford DeVoe. During this time, his friends and family were searching for him. Joe West, his adoptive father, was also searching and knew he couldn't go to the CCPD since he wasn't present and by the time he was informed on what happened, mr. Allen has escaped with no idea where he was taken. And during this time, DeVoe had a visit from a mr. Parker, as evidenced by their security footage that ms. DeVoe has given us." Matt says and hands out photos with Peter and DeVoe talking around the time that he was supposed to be murdered. "So if I were to put in chronological order the events that occurred; my client returned from his honeymoon, gets abducted and taken, her husband had a talk to with a witness who has testified he was there, and when mr. Allen was free from his captors, he lured mr. DeVoe to his apartment and killed him. If I am reading correctly, there's a lot of holes in that pavement."

The jury seems to follow what Matt is saying and it seems thanks to Peter's evidence, they seem to be winning the jury over.

-

"Seems things are going well from the courthouse." Peter says seeing he has no word from Matt.

"How can you tell if you haven't heard from him?" Cisco wonders.

"With Matt, no word, is good." Peter promises when the computers go off.

"The satellite was able to track a spike in radiation downtown on Main Street. We found him." Caitlin tells them.

"Fallout's on the move." Harry says.

"We got to get dish there now." Cisco tells Peter.

"I'll monitor from here." Caitlin says as the two of them leave.

-

Barry was able to flash in in time to save Captain Singh and the other police officers from radiation poisoning.

"You need to stop!" Peter called over to the radiation-exuding metahuman.

"I don't want to hurt anyone!" Fallout yelled, eyes wide and skin glowing a cracked green.

"I understand, but your radioactivity is dangerous," Peter said, walking forward slowly with one hand outstretched, showing he meant Fallout no harm.

Suddenly, he staggered, an intense wave of pain and nausea flooding him. Never feeling radiation like this before. He tugged of one of his gloves, hand burning, to find it covered with blisters and is shaking. "Guys?"

"7,500 rads," Caitlin told him nervously.

"_Peter, don't get to close to him_," Harry ordered. "_The radiation he's emitting is too hot to allow your cells to regenerate_."

"Yeah, thanks for the heads up," Peter breathed, pulling his glove back on and taking a couple steps back. "What am I supposed to do? How do we stop him?"

Suddenly, Fallout flung his arm out. A blast of green radiation shot from his fingertips and slammed at Peter, but he quickly leaps out of the way.

"I can't stop this!" Fallout cried desperately.

-

"Dang," Cisco muttered. "We need to cool him down."

Harry's eyebrows shot up and he snapped a finger at Caitlin. Cisco grinned. "Crystal Frost!"

Caitlin glanced up, before rolling her eyes. "Great."

"Well?" Cisco prompted, when nothing happened. "Go! Turn!"

Caitlin tossed her hands up in exasperation. "Well-that's-that's not how it works! I can't just snap my fingers and make her appear! It only happens when I'm scared or angry."

Harry and Cisco, in perfect unison, raised their hands to their heads. "Oh good Lord, CAITLIN!"

She jumped.

"Caitlin, the cities about to explode!" Cisco yelled, grabbing his vibe-glasses from the desk, along with her jacket. "Everyone, Every_thing_, you know and love... the birds, the trees, Frankie, Peter, the puppies!"

Harry spun Caitlin neatly around as Cisco loomed over her. "The puppies are going down because you didn't want to SHOW UP FOR WORK!"

The last four words were yelled by both Harry _and_ Cisco, and alarmed, Caitlin hopped to her feet. "Thanks," she muttered, eyes flashing blue.

Harry helped her into her jacket, he and Cisco congratulating themselves before the former cried, "_Yes, _now go!"

Cisco and Caitlin leapt through a breach, and Cisco and Frost stepped out on the other side.

-

"What's going on?" Crystal asks looking around casually. "Is this business or a social call?" Then her eyes caught sight of Fallout and she pulled a face. "Business, I see," she muttered, before hitting him with a steady stream of ice.

In no time, Fallout was encased in a dome of ice. As Crystal tilted her head and smiled, appreciating the satisfaction of a job well done.

That was before the ice melted and Fallout shot a blast of radiation on her. Crystal flew backward and smashed through the glass divider of a bus stop, landing in a crumpled heap on the other side.

Peter shoved himself to his feet and flashed to her side, fingers immediately going to the cold skin at her neck to check for a pulse.

"Is she okay?" Cisco gasped, running over.

"She'll be okay, yeah," Peter confirmed, brushing her hair out of her face before pulling himself away. "Got any more ideas?"

Cisco thought for a second before touching the comm at his ear. "What if I breach him?" he asked Harry.

"_Ramon, no_," Harry replied immediately. "_If you drop him in a breach he could explode_."

"And Fallout's fall out would kill us all." Cisco finished.

"Wait, what if I create a vacuum around him?" Barry suggested, getting to his feet. "That way, even if he does explode we'll still contain the blast."

"_Yeah, yes, Allen_!" Harry exclaimed. "_Yes, that could work. That could contain it. But whatever you're gonna do, do it fast! Fallout is just above 8,000 rads_."

Barry turned to Cisco and they nodded, agreeing to the plan. Then he shot off and began to run in tight circles around Fallout's groaning form.

"The vacuum's containing his energy!" Barry reported as he ran.

"Good!" Peter says.

"But he's still getting stronger!" Barry warns.

"_Allen, I don't know how long you can take this much radiation_," Harry said warningly.

Barry grit his teeth, keeping pace. "I don't have a choice! We have to contain his energy."

"_9,000 rads_," Harry read off. "_10,000 rads. Critical. Ramon! You need to send the energy somewhere_."

"What?!" Cisco cried. "To where?"

"_Earth-15_!" Harry exclaimed. "_Earth-15 is a dead Earth. Breach it there, now_!"

Cisco planted himself and opened up a breach. A couple seconds later, Fallout was collapsed on the ground, radiation gone. Barry skidded to a stop, covered in blisters and panting. But there was a grin on his face.

They had done it.

-

By the time they returned tp Star labs, Barry was back to normal and Fallout was sent to somewhere he can be contained and they see the news talk about the case and they all hold their breath.

"_Superior court, where minutes ago, the jury found Bartholomew Henry Allen innocence in the murder of professor Clifford DeVoe_." As they keep talking, everyone just cheers as they did it. They found all the evidence to stop Barry from going to jail, stopping whatever DeVoe had planned.

"Matthew Murdock, you son of a gun!" Peter cheers.

-

Everyone was at Joe's place, celebrating their two victories at once.

"You are by far the greeters lawyer ever." Peter congrats his friend.

"You did most of the work." Matt admits.

"Me? I got the court to see how crazy this city is? How was that me?" Peter asks him and pats Matt on the back. "That was all you." He says and hands him a glass of champagne that's being passed around.

As the day warns down, Matt bids his farewell.

"It has been a blast, everyone, but I need to get back to New York. My city needs its hero as well." Matt says and they're confused.

"Want me to tell them?" Peter asks Matt.

"Sure, why not?" Matt supposes.

"He's Daredevil." Peter says and everyone freezes in shock.

"You're that badass vigilante that wears all red suit with horns and fights criminals in New York?" Cisco asks.

"Yeah." Matt confirms.

"You're the devil of Hell's Kitchen?" Barry asks.

"Yeah, that's me." Matt says with a smile on his face. "See you around, Peter. Remember, if you ever need me, give me a call." He says before leaving.

"Fox, remind me to send him a check doubled his pay." Peter asks of Fox and they celebrate their success.


	81. Life sized flash and Spider-Man

The team gets news on a new metahuman that somehow stole a whole RD lab as it just vanished from the air.

Not only that, but Cecile seems to be able to read people's minds and Cisco got Ralph a new and better suit.

Cisco was able to get footage on the man and they have an idea on who they're looking for.

"Looks like the man we found is someone who has multiple breaking and entering priors; a Sylbert Rundine." Joe tells them.

"Why does every villain in this city have a name that sounds like it came from a comic book?" Peter wonders. "Otto Octavius, Flint Marco, Eddie Brock. Do parents hate their kids?"

"He must go by something for short." Caitlin guesses.

"Syl. Sylbie. Bertie." Ralph says while snapping his fingers.

"What about DeVoe?" Harry asks them.

"Well, me, Joe and Peter will go check on Rundine and see if he's our guy, and why DeVoe wants him." Barry says and the three of them leave.

-

Joe, Barry, and Peter go to the door only to hear a window open.

Peter kicks the door open and they see someone leap out the window.

Barry speeds around the building as Peter leaps after him.

When they both meet up, they look to see he's gone.

"How do they keep getting away?" Barry wonders.

Peter's senses go off and he turns to see Rundine.

"Look out!" Peter says and pushes Barry as they both get hit by a blast from his hands and they start glowing yellow.

"That felt weird." Barry says as he starts running off and Joe finds them. "Joe, we gotta get him!"

"We've got bigger problems." Joe says and they look to see he's grown.

The two heroes look and see a crushed soda can and they're just almost taller than it.

-

Joe had to carry both Barry and Peter back and everyone looks at the shrunken heroes.

"This is..." Joe says, looking for the words.

"Ridiculous." Harry finishes.

"You guys doing okay?" Caitlin asks the two shrunken heroes, ignoring the other men.

Peter and Barry were on the table and they luckily shrunk with their clothes and not their suits. They get uncomfortable after a while.

Barry was leaning on Harry's coffee mug and Peter was pacing back and forth.

"Are we doing okay? Are we doing okay? Does it look like we're doing okay?! We're two inches tall, Cait!" Peter states as he gestures to himself.

"Yeah, this is seriously weird." Barry agrees as he walks over to Peter. "But, hey, maybe we can wrestle up some spiders for you to tame." He tells Peter.

"Oh, that's really funny, spark plug. I guess your body finally shrunk down to exactly that, a spark!" Peter quips.

"You're no less annoying at that size." Harry tells the two of them.

"Hey, guys, we got something." May says as she returns with Fox.

"We weren't able to contact the Waverider, but we contacted Felicity Smoak. Mr. Palmer uses dwarf star alloy to power his suit's shrinking capabilities. And we learned on October 10th, his last deposit of the alloy was stolen." Fox tells them.

"And that's the same day we brought Barry out of the Speedforce." Cisco says.

"Meaning it's another bus meta." Caitlin adds.

"So that means that Rundine's powers are able to shrink the space between the atomic bonds." Harry says.

"Shrink it so you can steal it, then make it big again to sell it." Joe says when Cecile comes in.

"Dwarfstar." Cisco names him.

Then they see a small trail of electricity speed through the lab and onto the monitors.

"That's the best you could do?" Barry asks as May and Cecile shriek at the site of him.

"Barry, what happened to you?" May asks.

"Well...I was...whew. The distance is tripled at this size." Barry says as he catches his breath.

"What happened to you?" Fox wonders.

"Don't freak out, Fox." Peters voice says as he swings on his shoulder. "Look on your shoulder." He does exactly that and he does exactly what he says he wouldn't do and freaks out.

He shakes Peter off and Caitlin was able to catch him.

"Nice catch." Peter says as Caitlin picks up Barry as well.

"You guys are going in the hamster cage." Caitlin tells them.

"Hamster cage?" Barry asks as she walks off with them literally in hand.

-

"So, in hindsight, we see the hamster cage would be humiliating." Caitlin says as they found a new place to put them and that being the LEGO city they built for the Savitar killing Iris situation last year.

"You think?" Peter asks looking up at his girlfriend.

"Sorry." Caitlin whispers to him.

"For the record, I wish I was small to enjoy it from that size but why do we have a giant LEGO set?" Ralph asks as he looks around the table.

"It's a three dimensional model of the place Iris was supposed to be killed by a false god of speed." Caitlin explains to him.

"That guy," Cisco says as he points to the figure of Savitar they made when Frankie comes running in.

"Hey, I came as soon as I...Wow." Frankie says as she looks at the table and sees her adoptive father and the Flash are the size of LEGO figures.

"Hey, Frankie." Barry greets her while waving his hand.

"Wow. You guys are...Wow. I thought they were joking when they said you guys got that small." Frankie admits when Harry comes in with the Speedforce bazooka.

"How'd you get the bazooka back? That's supposed to be at a secure Parker Industries site." Peter asks.

"Lucius brought it over for us to use and I reconfigured it into an embiggening bazooka, with the help of the dwarfstar alloy we found from Rundine's apartment, and improving upon Ray palmers amateurish schematics, embiggening bazooka." Harry explains and takes aim at them.

"Wait, we're gonna do this now?" Caitlin asks.

"Well, yeah. Rundine's in the wind. Our two biggest hope of stopping him are the size of their actual powers. So we need to embiggen them, so..." Harry says as he gets ready to shoot.

"Okay, first off, _embiggening_ isn't a word." Caitlin tells him. "And do we know this will work?"

"Hey! I'll be a test subject!" Peter offers.

"Okay, what can go wrong?" Barry says.

"That's the spirit." Harry says as he takes aim at them and fires.

The ray hits them and nothing happens.

"Was something supposed to be happening?" Peter asks as Barry scoffs in annoyance when they start to vibrate.

"That wasn't me." Barry says.

-

They look and see that they're now being destroyed on a cellular level.

"Their cells are exploding." Harry says.

"Whatever that embiggening gun did to them seems to have destabilized them at the atomic level." Caitlin tells the,.

"How long do they have?" May asks.

"At this rate, I would guess around ten hours." Caitlin tells her, and that means they need to work on a cure.

-

"Maybe we could use a biochemical treatment and target the pituitary glands? Flood them with human growth hormones?" Caitlin guesses.

"No, that will just...make things worse." Harry says.

"Guys?" Barry calls out for them.

"What?" Harry asks as they walk over and slam the table, causing them to shake.

"This is embarrassing, but...I need to use the bathroom." Barry tells them.

"Can't you hold it?" Peter asks as he's on a bench under a tree.

"My balder is the size of a water droplet." Barry says and turns to them. "Harry, you mind?"

"You're really gonna make me do this, Allen?" Harry asks.

"Please." Barry asks and smiles.

Harry holds his hand out and Barry steps on it and they leave.

Caitlin watches them leave and turns back to Peter. "You doing okay?"

Peter looks up to her and sighs. "Things have been getting complicated with Frankie."

"Yeah, I've noticed you seem to be distancing yourself." Caitlin says and lowers herself to be at head level with him.

"She wants to become a superhero." Peter tells her.

"Oh..." Caitlin sees why he's distracted and distance. "What did you say to that?"

"Nothing. I don't know what to say." Peter says as he gets up and faces the LEGO city. "When I started this, I was angry. I had no plans on becoming this well known hero. I wanted revenge on the man who murdered my uncle. Then I decided against it and then decided to use this identity I created to help people. And Frankie...she...I wanted her to just be a kid, I thought that's what she wanted. But I guess helping us with the Earth-Xers didn't help."

"You rubbed off on her so much she wants to be you." Caitlin says as she rests her head on her hands on the table.

"Yeah, and I've seen things being Spider-Man. There were people I couldn't save. Nights I regretted putting on that suit because they were coming after _me_. The city just got caught in the middle of the fight. Otto wanted to dissect me. Mac wanted revenge after I stoped his weapon deals. Rhino...well, he's just crazy. Kraven saw me as the perfect prey to be his ultimate trophy. Electro blamed me for what happened to him. Adrian hates me because I was able to throw him in prison. I made bad people, worse people. And that's not counting recent years."

"And in the process, you save hundreds of lives. And Frankie? Did you make her worse?" Caitlin asks him. "She wants you to show her the right path. She wants to be like you. Save lives. She has powers. She wants someone she knows who will teach her the right way to use them to help people. She knows how to control them, Magenta's gone. So why not?"

"Because I'm afraid!" Peter finally confesses as he faces her. "I'm afraid that if she goes after someone just too powerful...she will die. And then I have to live with that. I want her safe, and I don't want her to be in the line of fire. She looses control, or falls unconscious, or DeVoe. What if DeVoe finds her? He finds her, or even Miles, and I'm not able to-"

He gets interrupted when a blast of cold attacks the table and Peter looks up to see Caitlin's hand stretched out as she used Crystal to shut him up.

"What was that for?" Peter asks as he's now freezing.

"Believe me, I'd do much worse if I didn't fear killing you at that size." Crystal says and lowers her arm. "My turn. You have been doing this for years, what's the best thing you say it takes?"

"Experience?" Peter guesses.

"Exactly. You've been doing this even longer than our elf friend in Star City. So if there's anyone that can train a hero, and keep them safe, it's you." Crystal reminds him. "And Miles? You've trained him for a year and he's perfectly capable of keeping himself safe. Sure, he still has things to learn. But he can miss a few days of Spider Academy for you to train a freshman."

Peter looks at her and she does make some valid points.

"Of course, that won't necessarily matter if we can't un-shrink you." Crystal says.

"We aren't shrunk. His powers..." Peter was about to explain when he gets an idea and Crystal turns into Caitlin again. "Work not just by removing the space between the atoms. But he takes out the gravity particles so when he enlarges an object..."

"He's refilling it with the same combination of energy he removed." Caitlin finishes.

"In order to fix us, we need to get hit by his blasts." Peter finishes.

-

Time passes and they find him at the Weather Services Airfield.

Cisco breaches them there as Barry and Peter are now flying Drone-y, piloted by Fox back at the base.

"Remember when Rundine tries to shrink us, you guys gotta get in the path of his blasts." Cisco reminds them.

"Copy that." Peter says as fox flies them into the hanger.

Rundine looks up and sees the drone.

"I think he sees us." Barry tells Peter.

"You're not getting big again." Rundine tells them and Cisco tries to blast him, but he dodges and throws a car at them he enlarges.

"I go left, you go right." Ralph says as the two split up and he keeps throwing cars.

Rundine sees them and throws a helicopter at them.

"Evasive maneuvers, Fox/Drone-y!" Peter says as Fox pilots them away before they could get hit.

"We've gotta figure out how to get him to fire at us." Barry says when Rundine pulls out a bazooka.

"You've gotta be kidding me." Peter says as they run and leap off for Drone-y to blast out some of those whistling birds Fox says and cause the missile to go off, and crashed Drone-y but he is repairable.

Peter webbed the ceiling with his backup web shooters he keeps on him and is bringing the two down gently, but the webbing is starting to break.

"We're falling too fast." Barry says.

"Think slow thoughts." Peter tells him.

Cisco and Ralph hide behind the crashed car and Caitlin warns them they only have one minute before they explode.

"What do we do?" Peter asks.

"We go to plan P." Cisco says.

Rundine picks up the shrunken blimp and Cisco tries blasting him and Rundine dodges them all.

"I'm gonna shrink you to the subatomic level, boy." Rundine promises.

"Bring it." Cisco says and Rundine blasts at his chest, but the blast is interrupted by Barry running up Cisco while holding Peter and they get hit by the blast and grow back to normal.

Before Rundine could do anything else, Crystal comes in and freezes his hands so he can't shrink anything else.

"We're big again!" Barry cheers.

"And now would be the perfect time to say, y'all need some tic-tac's!" Peter tells them as they've been smelling their breaths all day and they stink.

-

Harry places a photo of Rundine with their metahuman victims list, marking him the with the rest of the twelve bus metas.

"Well, based on your guys' scans, your cells have reformed and destabilized." Caitlin assures them.

"Yeah, that's a win in my book." Peter says.

"Is it?" Harry asks. "We seem to be stumbling on these metahumans for which DeVoe is responsible for creating. He's planning something, and I have a feeling it has to do with these metas being arrested being part of that."

"Whatever his plan is, we'll figure it out, we always do." Barry assures him.

"Well, in the meantime, Cisco...I need you to do something for me." Peter asks his friend.

"What?" Cisco asks. "Fox is working on Drone-y."

"No, not that. I want you to make me a supersuit." Peter explains to him.

Cisco just starts to smile a bit, liking the request. "Keep talking."

"It's not for me. It's for Central City's newest soon-to-be hero." Peter tells him, and they're confused to who he's talking about.

-

Peter later goes home, waits for Frankie to return and asks her to take a seat across from him.

"What's this about?" Frankie asks.

"Listen...Frankie, I've been thinking about what you asked." Peter starts off. "You wanting to be a hero, I'm proud of that. But...you've got to know, it's not easy. I go out there, I risk not coming home. But then I remembered the wise words I drill into everyone else's mind. '_With great power, comes great responsibility'_. That means if you can do things to help people, than it's like a moral obligation to use your gift to help people. It's not a choice, it's the matter of responsibility. You take responsibility for what happens. So with that in mind, I'll help you become a hero. But you need to do as I say when I say. This is a life or death job. So you wanna hold that responsibility?"

Frankie thinks for a minute and looks Peter in the eyes and nods her head. She has control over her powers and wants to use them to help people, just like her father.

"Then welcome to the team...Metalla." Peter tells her.

-

What they didn't count on was that night, Iron Heights was attacked and Thinker killed the bus-metas and stole their powers, along with their bodies.


	82. Not so sweet sound of music

Four metahumans are left unknown, DeVoe has the powers of all of the past metas they've come across except for Fallout who is still secure, and Ralph.

"I'm still confused on why he wants all their powers specifically." Peter says. "He controls technology, statues, can shrink objects, and has luck on his side. And that's not even counting them all."

That's when Cisco and Ralph come in with a box.

"Where were you guys?" Barry asks.

"A little home away from home, otherwise known as the bus depot." Ralph says as he places the box on the monitors. "But I showed Cisco here an old P.I. trick I learned from my mentor, Colombo. The lost and found box of meta bus 405."

"Question for the room, how did I get stuck doing the buddy system with Ralph?" Cisco wonders.

"I have Frankie and Miles to worry about." Peter defends.

"It's the best way to keep him safe, Cisco." Caitlin promises.

"Well, clearly you've never had to stay over at an apartment that uses neon beer signs for lamps and a kitchen sink for a shower." Cisco tells them. "Ralph, I love you. But you sleep in a futon."

"Futons not that bad." Caitlin defends.

"It is when it's damp." Cisco replies.

"Wh-why is it damp?" Peter asks, afraid of the answer.

"I sweat a lot in my sleep." Ralph explains.

"That's gross." Miles replies to that as Ralph goes through the box.

"Hey, my retainer." Ralph says as he puts it in his mouth.

"Okay, I get it. I'll take the next shift." Barry promises.

"Really? Who uses CDs anymore?" Ralph asks as he holds it out which Caitlin looks at.

"A musician looking for their big break." Caitlin says and reads it. "Izzy Bowen." Before placing the CD inside and country rock music plays.

"Ugh, country." Ralph complains and turns it off. "Music's tone deaf stepchild."

"Okay, do you remember anyone on the bus with a fiddle?" Caitlin asks him.

"There was a guy with a cowboy hat on sitting behind me." Ralph says.

"Boy, I sure wish we had a way of finding out." Cisco says and Caitlin hands him the CD so he can vibe it.

He zones out for a second and comes back.

"Well, it's a her, not a him. And she's playing a gig at the _Busted Saddle_." Cisco informs them.

"Okay, Ralph, Peter, let's go." Barry tells them.

"No, no way. I hate country music." Ralph states.

"Well, buddy system. My turn, come on." Barry says and they leave but Peter stops by Cisco.

"How's the suit coming for Frankie?" Peter wonders.

"I'm working on some designs. I'll let you know when it's ready." Cisco promises as they leave.

-

They make it to the _Busted Saddle_ and Izzy refused to listen to them, but they did listen to her when she sent a sonic screech at them. So they approach her in costume.

On her way out to her car, a breach opens and the four heroes come out, leaving Crystal for backup.

"Izzy Bowen, we need you to come with us." Peter tells her.

"Flash? Spider-Man?" Izzy asks, seeing them.

"You're in danger." Barry tells her.

"I know, everybody keeps telling me that." Izzy says.

"And you're gonna keep hearing it until it sinks in." Ralph says.

"You just have to trust us. We're not gonna hurt you, but we know someone who will." Cisco tells her.

"Who's gonna hurt me?" Izzy asks.

"I am." DeVoe in Lady Luck's body says as they all see her approaching.

"Y'all gonna warns me about her?" Izzy asks.

"DeVoe." Peter says as they approach him.

"Hello, Spider-Man." DeVoe greets him.

"You're gonna leave Izzy alone." Barry warns him.

"You know, you really don't learn from our past encounters, do you?" DeVoe asks him. "You're not smart enough to stop me from getting what I want."

"You don't seem to learn that we're always going to get back up when you beat us down." Peter states.

"There's four of us, and one of you." Cisco adds.

"Check your math, Vibe. It's theee against six." DeVoe corrects him. "Though I doubt I'll need to use all of my powers against you."

Cisco's hand starts to spark and he blasts Ralph in the face, he bounces off the car and knocks into the other heroes except Peter who dodges it.

"You're out of luck, Thinky. Experience is the best teacher." Peter tells him and aims to web him when he starts to use Kilgore's powers to short circuit his suit, sending him dropping.

"You stay away from me!" Izzy warns her before sending a shockwave at her and his wife saved him before they could see what happened.

"You just hurt DeVoe." Barry tells her.

"Who the hell's DeVoe?" Izzy asks as they need to get her to Star labs.

-

"So you're telling me that this three foot tall chick that tried to kill me is actually this Clifford DeVoe?" Izzy asks, as they finished explaining to her what's happening and they learn how exactly she was able to hurt DeVoe.

"DeVoe is transferring his consciousness into other bodies of all the people who were on the bus and got powers." Caitlin says as Peter is next to her, trying to fix his web shooters as they've been malfunctioning ever since their run in with her.

"Wait, this little girl wants my body?" Izzy asks.

"That's why we're trying to protect you." Barry tells her. "DeVoe's already taken most of his targets."

"No, this ain't happening. Not now." Izzy tells them. "I only got my powers recently. And now it's like I've got a deeper connection to my music than I've ever had. I'm about to record the rest of my new album. I'm about to go on tour."

"Izzy, that can wait. This threat is real." Barry tells her.

"So is my big break." Izzy replies. "Do you have any idea how hard I've had to work for this? I left my home. I lost friends and good men, and I have put up with more crap than you could imagine so that one day I would get my dream. And now you're telling me that some pint-sized lunatic is just gonna take it all away?"

"Which is why we need you stay here. We're going to train you." Barry tells her.

"We are?" Cisco, Ralph and Peter ask.

"Her powers weakened DeVoe. That means she's our best shot at stopping him." Barry replies.

"No, this is all too much. I don't even know who you people are." Izzy says.

All the heroes look at her then they all remove their masks.

"You're those people from before." Izzy realizes. "Look, I don't need training. All I need is my life back." She says and leaves the room.

"I kinda feel like if I just followed her into that hallway and gave her one of those inspirational talks, I can get her to stay." Ralph offers.

"Then what are you still doing here?" Cisco asks.

"Sorry, I don't know if you, like, drew straws for this stuff." Ralph says and they push him out to talk to her.

"Well, I've gotta go." Peter says, seeing they've got everything handled here.

"Where you going?" Barry wonders.

"Frankie's first training session." Caitlin explains as she follows him, wanting to be there for this.

-

Frankie is in the middle of the Spider-cave training area with a bunch of scrap metal that Fox was able to find.

"You were able to use your powers in a life or death situation once. But we can't tell if it was the rush of adrenaline, or anything else. So we're gonna start this slow. See how much and for how long you can lift these objects and focus." Peter tells Frankie the plan.

"You can do this, Frankie." Caitlin cheers on.

Frankie starts to use her powers and starts to levitate the metal in the room and she even crushes it with its own weight.

"She seems to have a handle on it." Fox sees.

"Yeah, she's got the powers down, but let's see how she can use it." Peter agrees, but wants to move on to the next step.

He moves down with a pair of web shooters and starts shooting webs at Frankie and she dodges them.

"What are you doing?" Frankie asks.

"You need to keep your focus. There's always going to be distractions. You need to learn to focus through them all." Peter explains and keeps shooting webs at her.

Frankie dodges the webs and tries to keep her focus on the metal, but the more webs he fires, the less focus she has on the metal.

"Your powers, like everyone's, are connected to your emotions. Your emotions control your powers. If you're angry, you loose control. You become afraid, you loose control." Peter tells her as Frankie moves some metal to shield her from his webbing.

Peter smiles at her attempts, seeing she's getting what he's saying.

"Your powers are only as strong as your will. The weaker the will, the weaker the strength on your power." Peter says as he uses his strength to push the metal apart and sends a web attaching to her feet.

Frankie tries to pry herself out of the webbing when she looks and Peter webs her hands together.

"Caught you." Peter says and Frankie sees she lost.

"Hey, guys, you might wanna wrap it up. Harry needs us." Caitlin tells them as her phone goes off.

-

They return to the labs and Harry shows them a small device in his hands.

"Initially I envisioned the mental activity dampener as just disrupting inbound brainwave broadcasts, but I talked to DA Cecile Horton and we had the idea to invert the polarity allowing this to disrupt brainwave broadcasts as well." Harry explains to them what it does.

"So, we can use this to stop DeVoe?" Peter asks.

"Exactly." Harry replies.

"Except...mental activity dampener?" Cisco asks, not liking the name.

"I know. Which is why I've decided it to rename it the cerebral inhibitor." Harry says and Barry remembers that Savitar said the device is what they used against DeVoe.

Okay, so we can use this on DeVoe to keep him from projecting his consciousness into new bodies." Caitlin says.

"How does it work?" Miles asks.

"Place it on his forward. It activates. Simple as that. I'll make a few adjustments, good to go." Harry tells them and walks off.

"When harrys done, we go after DeVoe. We have Izzy's powers, the inhibitor. We have everything we need to stop him." Barry tells the team when Ralph comes in.

"Except we don't, Izzy's gone." Ralph tells them.

"Wait, What?" Peter asks, wondering what he missed.

"Izzy hit the road because of Rookie here." Ralph says, looking to Barry. "She's convinced she can take on DeVoe herself. You pushed her out the door, man."

"I did. I pushed her too hard. It's my fault. But if DeVoe finds we first-"

"That will not happen." Ralph states and they use Cisco's power to locate her and DeVoe is with her before throwing him out of the vibe. Literally throwing him across the room.

"She's at the warehouse district." Cisco tells them.

"Come on." Barry tells the team.

"Wait, Peter!" Fox tells and Peter looks as he tosses him a briefcase. "This time, DeVoe won't be able to short circuit your suit."

Peter smiles and opens it to see...his original outfit. The blue and red outfit he used to wear before he upgraded it.

-

Barry, Ralph and Peter make it to the location.

"Hello, mr. Allen." DeVoe greets them.

"Thinker, Buddy, I hate you. But it's hard to take you seriously with that high pitch voice." Peter says as Barry speeds up only to hear a ringing in his ears, taking him.

"Poor Dominic, he didn't know he could affect minds as well as read them." DeVoe says when Peter comes in and webs his back.

"Sorry, Thinky, you're out of luck." Peter says when he throws a garbage can at him.

Peter catches it with his hand and throws it back to him.

Ralph goes to place the device on Thinker's head and she smacks it out his hand.

Peter goes through his options on his web shooters and finds the taser web setting and sends a shock down DeVoe's back before his web shooter gets fried.

"Tough luck." DeVoe says when he turns around and Izzy places the device on his head.

"That'll teach you to mess with a country girl." Izzy says.

"How did me. Deacon put it? Ah, yes. Call me Kilgore." DeVoe says as he uses Kilgore's powers to fry the dampener. ". You told me once I wasn't as smart as I thought, mr. Parker. Wrong again."

Peter sees he has one good web shooter and this old suit doesn't have as many gadgets or web fluid backups and shoots out a web to save Izzy but it ends up hitting a force field.

"Izzy!" Ralph yells as they try to break through the force field when DeVoe returns with his chair.

"Izzy, just look at me." Ralph asks when a claw comes out of the chair and attaches to her mind and dark matter floods her head.

Peter watches in shock, but also sees there's something wrong with DeVoe. He seemed...desperate to get Izzy. And flooding her with dark matter to take her body?

Not only that, but why do the arms look like Otto's?

Izzy then laughs and Peter breaks from his thoughts.

"Much better." DeVoe says in Izzy's voice. "Please informs mr. Ramon while I had no need for all six of my powers, I now have a seventh. I'm afraid I'm gonna be busy with my wife this weekend, Raphie." He states before disappearing with his chair and leaving the inhibitor behind.

-

They returned to Star labs where Cisco learned that DeVoe is hiding in a pocket dimension, that's where he goes and they just need to find a way to find out he to track him.

Peter is in the halls, leaning against the wall and Caitlin finds him moping.

"I have a feeling this is gonna put a dampener on your training Frankie." Caitlin guesses.

"What do you want me to say? If I keep training her, she could end up the same way. If I don't train her, she will try to train herself." Peter states, seeing he's stuck in a endless loop.

Caitlin leans against the wall and drops down to join him on the floor. "What does your head tell you to do?"

"Keep her as far away from this life, somewhere she's going to be safe." Peter confesses.

"And what does your heart say?" Caitlin asks.

Peter thinks and listens for a minute and knows the truth. "Train her. Let her see firsthand what this life does."

"So which are you going listen to? Your head, or your heart?" Caitlin asks.

Peter thinks and knows what the right thing to do is.

He's going to keep training Frankie.

She wants to be a hero, and he's not gonna stop her. But he's always going to protect her.


	83. Stop watch

"Ready when you are, Barry!" Iris called.

"I'm ready!" Barry, who was currently whizzing around the Speed Lab in circles, replied.

"Are you seriously?" Cisco asked. He was standing in the middle of the room, in front of a white board that was copiously covered in numbers and equasions, shaking his head.

"C'mon, Cisco, just one more," Iris pleaded, standing up and walking towards him.

"She said 10 minutes ago," Cisco shot back.

Iris sighed, standing up and walking towards him. "Look, you know he's not gonna stop until he makes it through," she pointed out. "Come on, you know how Barry gets."

"One more," Cisco agreed, wrinkling his nose at her as soon as her back was turned.

"Thank you!" she called out.

"Alright, here we go," Iris said as Cisco got into position and held out his hand. A breach appeared in the middle of the room. "Three...two...one...Now!"

Barry came skidding out of the running loop and landed in front of the breach a millisecond after Cisco closed it. He skidded to a stop. "Dangit! One more."

"Iris?" Cisco said.

"Barry," Iris started. "Look, why don't we take five?"

"No," Barry said immediately. "Not until get this, come on."

"Barry..." Iris protested.

"Listed, Miyagi," Cisco said. "I've been here all day opening breaches. All right? So unless you wanna...rub your hands together and do some magic shoulder power..."

"I'm not rubbing your shoulder," Barry told him, nose wrinkling.

"That's what I thought, I'm taking five!"

"Come on!" Barry yelled angrily after him as Cisco stalked out the door, Iris gathering her things and heading out behind him.

"_Taking five!_" Cisco states as he walks out of the room.

-

Fox, Peter and Caitlin are at the Spider-Cave with Frankie who's now working on stopping moving metal such as cars, trains and others to start actual training.

"You know, this is not a very aggressive plan." Caitlin says as Frankie isn't exactly learning much of being a hero by stopping trains.

"It's a plan, you know?" Peter argued. "It's the only one we have right now that will be able to protect Frankie from DeVoe. His chair is made of metal, so she might be able to stop him from attacking her.

"And what if he uses his force-field against her?" Caitlin continued, following him doggedly as he walked back across the room to the platform steps. "You don't even know how to get out of it yet."

"I dunno, Cait, but we need something," Peter sighed, sitting down on the bottom step and leaving room for her to do the same. "We have no leads on the next three bus metas; no way to track DeVoe; no way to stop him. I can't let him hurt her!"

Now sitting too, she gave him an unconvinced look, shrugging a little.

Peter reached up and rubbed the bridge of his nose to calm himself down. "I'm sorry," he muttered. "We've just...we've been at this for months, and we have nothing. We were able to stop him from framing Barry for murder, but that it. And we don't even know if he just wanted us distracted by the case."

"Maybe that's the problem, Pete," Caitlin told him gently while placing her hand on his shoulder. "Maybe you just need to take a breather, and let the answer come to you. Do something else for a bit."

"Like what?"

"Like...date night for starters?" Caitlin suggested, looking up at him and he smiles. "You know, we haven't had any quality time together, just you and me, since our journey back to each other and you adopted Frankie, who I adore, but..."

"It is nice to have some time alone just us." Peter admits.

Caitlin nodded her agreement, laughing a little. "I know that we're superheroes, but-"

"We're also Caitlin Snow and Peter Parker," Peter agreed. "You're right. Alright, I'm gonna make a reservation, make plans for Frankie to stay somewhere else. Tonight. Some place that is very romantic, and very expensive."

He squinted at her thoughtfully and she giggled before humming appreciatively. "Mm...sounds perfect. If we wait as long as we did to be dating, we're gonna be a while." Caitlin jokes.

He chucked at the memory. "Why did we hide our feelings for each other for so long?" He wonders.

"Honestly?" Caitlin replied, shaking her head. "I can't even remember. We were so different back then."

"Do you ever miss it?" Peter asked, staring thoughtfully at the white board. "How easy it all was?"

She shrugged. "It didn't seem easy at the time. It never did."

"No, I suppose not," he sighed, pressing his lips to her hair, taking in her scent. "Which is why we have to take each moment as we get it, I guess. There's never going to be a good time for anything."

"No there's not," Caitlin agreed. "Except for tonight. Because tonight is a great time for a date."

That was seconds before Harry called them back.

-

"What is this?" Caitlin asked as she and Barry walked into the Cortex after being summoned by the Team.

"This," Harry explained, gesturing to the screen. "Is a signature field mapping every time DeVoe has been in and out of his liar in the pocket dimension."

"All of these?" Barry asked.

"All of them," Cisco confirmed.

"So, how did you do this?" Peter wonders.

"I didn't do it, actually, Ramon did it," Harry deferred.

"All I did was come up with a really complex and elegant algorithm to track the warping signatures," Cisco said.

Harry made a face and soon the two of them were squabbling.

Barry interrupted. "Do you know that these are-"

"These are DeVoe," Harry interrupted, clicking on one of the points. "This is when Marlize grabbed him from Izzy at Lawrence Hills; this is when he showed up at Iron Heights prison."

Caitlin leaned forward. "This is at his house," she pointed out, clicking another dot.

"This is the alleyway in the city center where he abducted you." Miles added looking at the map.

"How long has this been going on?" Barry asked, crossing his arms and not moving his eyes from the screen.

"Wait for it." Harry says.

Cisco sighed. "The past three years."

"Three years?!" Barry gaped.

"DeVoe orchestrated everything to get the people he wanted on the bus," Cisco said. "He's been playing us a loooong time. He's a planner, just like Thawne."

"I hate planners." Peter whispers.

"All we can do as of now now is wait for the next marker to appear," Cisco shrugged. "Then we can try to get the jump on him. That and we can keep an eye on Ralph using the old buddy system."

"Has anyone seen Ralph today?" Barry asked. His friend had been pretty torn up after Izzy's death, but he had decided to stay with the team.

"No, he's downstairs moving in," Caitlin told him. "He's very nervous."

"I don't know why," Harry grumbled.

"I don't know why, either!" Cisco shrugged. "He's a superhero! People with powers are ready for everything-" he spun around only to yell. "AH! Son of a breach!"

They turned around in surprised. There in the hallway entrance stood none other than Jess Wells. "Sorry," she said, giving Cisco an odd look. "I just came through the breach room."

Caitlin's face lit up. "Hey!" she greeted happily. "Jesse, welcome back. What-what're you doing here?"

Jesse held up an Earth 2 message cube, and all eyes turned to Harry.

Barry, misinterpreting all of it, leaned around Cisco to see Jesse. "Wally's not here."

A while later, they get a call of someone attacking a ARGUS transport.

"Guys, six Argus agents down," Cisco reported. "They just opened the hanger. One armed assailant inside."

"Got it!" Barry called into coms. He and Jesse were already in the field, but Cisco and Peter were still at STAR Labs.

Peter glanced over at Caitlin. "Crystal wanna go have some fun?"

"You are _literally_ the best," Caitlin groaned. In seconds, Crystal had taken over and was throwing on her jacket.

-

Cisco breached them all to the scene of the crime, where a ring of cops was waiting for the attacker, guns raised.

As if in slow motion, a young woman stepped out of the Argus vehicle. She walked confidently towards the cops, before Barry flashed behind her. "Just you and us now," he said, raising his eyebrow.

"It's over," Peter informs her.

The woman spun around. "For all of Central City," she agreed, and held up a device with a large red button on it.

Barry flashed into action, Peter shoots out a web to grab it, but it was too late. She had already pressed the button and when he got close enough he could read what it said.

_Nuclear Detonation. __Active._

There had been a nuke in the truck, and she had just set it to explode.

Still moving in super speed, Barry turned around and walked over to the shipping container. He frantically stripped off his cowl and stared in horror at the nuclear core that was now active in front of him.

"Barry."

Barry spun around at the sound of a voice to find Jesse standing in the entrance of the shipping container.

Barry swallowed and shook his head. "We're too late."

-

Jesse had run off to Earth-3 to find Jay Garrick.

Barry was hopeful that a speedster with such a vast knowledge of the Speedforce might be able to help them find a way out of this. While he waited for Jesse's return, Barry had unfrozen Cisco and had him take a look.

"Yeah...that'll definitely blow your face," Cisco muttered after Barry had explained quickly about Flashtime and they had walked together over to nuke together. "That...that looks like an experimental fission engine, deuterium isotopes. It would make this truck an inertial confinement cage to stop the radiation. But with enough pressure...the isotopes inside, they split, they produce heat, they produce light. It starts out blue, turns yellow...turns purple...and then it's game over."

In desperation, Barry tried to get Cisco to breach the nuke to a dead Earth, like they had with Fallout's excess radiation a couple weeks ago. Instead of working, a few bursts of blue energy came out of Cisco's fist and then dissipated into the air.

"I think I might be all breached out," Cisco muttered, looking over at Barry. "I don't know; I think I breached one too many times today."

"No, that's not it," Barry realized, letting out a sigh. "The breach is a folding of space and time, right? So when we're moving this fast-"

"We're moving in...Flashtime," Cisco agreed. "Then we don't have the time necessary for a breach to form."

"Exactly," Barry said, shoulder's dropping.

A second later Cisco was collapsing against the side of the containment truck. "Hey!" Barry cried, struggling to stay in contact with him as he hit the side of the truck. "Hey, hey, what's wrong?"

"I don't-" Cisco was breathing heavily, hands shaking. "I don't...I don't know."

"You're not a speedster," Barry realized. "Your body can't handle moving this fast for very long."

Unsure of what else he could do, Barry brought Cisco back to Peter and Caitlin's side and froze him.

Before he turned to normal speed, he suggested that he talk to Harry.

Barry nodded, letting him go, and turning towards the exit.

Gritting his teeth, Barry turned and flashed away toward STAR Labs, where Harrison Wells would most definitely still be.

-

The only idea Harry had was for Barry to breach the nuke into the Speed Force using his own speed. By the time that Harry was becoming faint from being in Flashtime and had told Barry over and over to get Jesse out of there, the aforementioned female speedster had arrived at STAR Labs with Jay Garrick.

Barry explained what was going on as fast as he could, as well as Harry's idea. Jay was horrified. "Like hell you will," he said.

"What do you mean?" Barry asked desperately. "Why not?"

"Because, Flash, if you do that, you might lose the Speed Force forever," Jay told him in a serious tone.

"We might lose the Speedforce?" Barry repeated, uncomprehending.

"An explosion of that size might destroy it completely," Jay said. "If that would happen, every speedster across space and time would lose access to their speed instantly."

Barry's eyes went wide. "Every speedster?"

Jay knew where his mind was headed. "Even if you got rid of Thawne and every other evil speedster in the multiverse, you cannot do this! I won't let you."

"Well, I'm sorry, Jay. If this is the only way to save everyone in the city, I have to," Barry replied stonily, pushing past him and heading towards the Speed Lab to work out some equations.

Jay was adamant that Barry would not be sending the nuke into the Speed Force. But he did have another idea.

"There is one other way," he said, standing between Jesse and Barry after going over some basics of nuclear fission. "Cooling it down."

-

Barry gently grasped Crystal's arm and brought her into Flashtime with him.

"I see all these frozen people around me, Flash, and this time, it's not my fault," Crystal quipped after looking around for a second and Barry sees she's been hanging around Peter far too long.

"We need your help," Barry told her.

"Three of you now? What's going on?" Crystal asks and even looks over to Peter who has his arm extended out with a web extending slowly from his shooters.

"The cargo in the container is a nuclear bomb," Barry told her.

"Yeah," Jesse added. "And it went kaboom."

Crystal's eyebrows went up and she was silent for a moment. "Dandy."

"C'mere," Barry urged, keeping his hand on her arm and leading her over to the container.

"Phew!" Crystal exclaimed as they walked into the truck. "It's toasty in here."

"We need you to cool it down," Jay told her.

"You want me to cool down a nuclear reaction that's already gone critical?" Crystal asks to be confirmed, laughing incredulously. Seriously stares meant this statement and her eyebrows raised again. "You're serious."

"Quickly please, Miss Frost," Jay urged.

"Alright," Crystal shrugged. "Let's give it a whirl."

In classic Frost formation, she shot out her arms and sent a stream of ice towards the nuke. It didn't do anything, and after a couple of seconds, the frost petered out.

Crystal let out a breath and glanced over at Barry. "That didn't go quite how I expected."

A whirring sound filled the truck and the blue glow of the nuke faded to yellow. It's container cracked a little more, and everyone jumped.

"Try again," Barry instructed Crystal, unsure of what else they could do.

She looked at the bomb dubiously, but thrust out her hands again. Less than a second later she keeled over, eyelids fluttering.

"No," Barry murmured in horror, wrapping his arm around her to keep her upright.

"So that's what heat feels like," Crystal breathed, blinking a few times to clear her vision. She tried to straighten up and fell into Barry.

"You're burning up," he murmured, pressing his hand to her flaming cheek. "Come on."

Keeping an arm wrapped around her, Barry led Frost back to Peter's side. "It's alright," he whispered as her trembling hand gripped his. "You're okay. I have to let you go, alright?"

His hand reached up and brushed the curtain of hair hanging in front of her face back. Her eyes were glassy but she grabbed his arm with surprising strength as he tried to let go. "Barry?"

He paused, his heart thumping oddly in his chest. She had never called him by his name before.

Frost glanced up, her icy-blue eyes round and pleading. "Don't let Caity die. Or Peter, either." Her face still masked in fear and concern, Barry watched as the lightning flickered around her and she went still. She really did care about Peter and Caitlin.

It was Jesse's idea for all of them to throw a lightning bolt each, all at the same time, to try and short circuit the bomb with 3 billion joules of energy.

It should have worked. But just as Jay was about to throw his lightning bolt he fell to his knees, accumulated energy flickering out.

"Jay!" Barry cried, rushing over and kneeling before the older man.

"I'm not used to going this long," Jay panted, his face a sheen of sweat. He tried to get up but collapsed back to his knees.

"Hey, hey!" Barry exclaimed, trying to get him to stay on the ground. "It's okay."

"Darn legs." Jay muttered. "They don't work like they once did."

"It's okay." Barry repeated.

Jay reached out and gripped Barry's shoulder. "I'm not gonna be able to finish this one, Flash. I'm sorry."

"Just rest," Barry told him.

"I'm so-" Jay's voice broke off and he planted a hand on the floor to support himself. "Sorry-"

Lightning overtook him and he was frozen in time.

-

Jesse was starting to slow down, so Barry told her to get out. In just a few minutes, he went from having two speedsters on his side to being alone in the hanger.

A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead and Barry wiped it away. He was beginning to run out of energy. If he didn't figure out something now, he would stop running, and Central City and everyone he cared about would be decimated by the nuclear bomb.

He stopped in front of Joe on his way towards the door. He could leave now and never see his father again. He was _so tempted_ to wake him up, say goodbye, but he didn't have the time.

He broke into a run and headed towards STAR Labs.

When he came out of his super-super speed, he felt a wave of dizziness wash over him. He crashed into the wall, sweat dripping into his eyes and blinding him. His head was spinning, heart pounding overtime.

As his hand scribbled across the white board, smearing inc and trying to come up with something, anything to get himself out of this mess, he realized it was hopeless. There was only one thing left he could do.

The nuclear core had gone from yellow to purple by the time he got back to the hanger. He hovered in front of Peter and knows he's their last resort. If he doesn't have an idea, it's hopeless.

He touches Peter side and the frozen web shoots off and hits the woman with the remote.

"Whoo! That's a rush!" Peter says as he's confused and looks to Barry. "What? Barry, what are you doing? Why are you holding me?"

"You're moving as fast as I am." he explained, panting.

"What? Why?" Peter asks when he looks to the truck and sees the purple light. "Please tell me that's not the bomb." He begs.

"It is. And it's already gone off." Barry tells his friend.

"I know, I know," Peter murmured as he rips off his mask as the heat is already getting to him. "So there's gotta be something we can do."

"We tried...we tried everything...we tried lightning, and-and breaching it to another Earth and cooling it down...n-nothing would work." Barry tilted his head back, breath coming in gasps. "I don't know what to do. And as soon as I stop it's gonna-"

"I kinda know what's gonna happened," Peter whispered and starts to think of a plan. "Wait...you said you tried to use lightning, right?"

"Yeah, but it...it didn't work," Barry told him. "If I was powerful enough-"

"You could have fused the split atoms," Peter finished, mind working a mile a minute. Literally. "And negated the effects of the bomb."

"But I can't do it alone," Barry said, voice wavering. "I can't generate that kinda energy."

"You can't," Peter agreed when the start of all of this comes into his mind. "But the Speedforce should be able to."

Barry gave him an uncomprehending look. "What?"

"When you went into the Speedforce, there was lightning from the storm. One of those bolts-"

"Would be more than enough," Barry agreed, eyes growing. "But I...can't...how could I draw that out?"

"Look, listen," Peter cut him off, knowing they they're pressed for time. "When we freed you from it, Cisco, Cait, and I worked with a handful of scientists on a quark sphere. It's programed with your genetic marker and designed to trick the Speedforce into believing that you were still a prisoner."

Barry's mouth fell open a little, amazed. "I just need to get that sphere," he whispered in realization. "And the storm will chase me."

"A lightning rod, to bring out the thunder." Peter states as he places his mask back on, knowing that he needs to run and he can't risk someone seeing his face when he comes back. "Now, run, Barry. Run."

-

Barry then did exactly as he said and ran into the Speedforce, took the quark sphere as a type of lightning rod and exited the Speedforce with a trail of lightning bolts behind him before throwing the sphere at the bomb, stopping the explosion.

A half hour and numerous checkups later, Barry was lying in a gurney in a grey Star Labs t-shirt with one arm tucked comfortably behind his head.

Jay Garrick walked in. "Well, this was fun," he grinned, seeming to be fully recovered from his stint in Flashtime. "As usual. But it's time for the old crimson comet to head back home."

"Thanks for your help, Jay," Barry said, smiling.

"Yeah," Peter agreed. "If it wasn't for you two and Jesse, the whole city would've been...kapoot."

"Well, I believe Peter was a big part of that, too. Credit where credit is due." Jay states to the spider hero.

Barry looked at his friend with a smile. "My sentiments exactly."

"You all had the idea. Mine just happened to work. You guys put in the real work with saving everything." Peter tells them.

Jay nodded, as Caitlin was checking on Barry. "When you get home, you need to rest. Your glucose levels are pretty low." She tells Garrick.

"Thanks," Jay accepted, eyebrows twitching. "When I get home I don't think I'll be doing anything _but_ getting rest."

Cisco's brow furrowed. "Meaning?"

"I've been at this hero game a long time," Jay elaborated. "A long, _long_ time. And after today...I'm thinking about trying my hand at something new."

"Like what?" Barry asked.

"For starters: training someone to take over," Jay shrugged.

"There's another Flash on your Earth?" Cisco asked incredulously.

"There will be," Jay agreed. "As soon as I'm done training her." And his eyes slipped to the door, where Jesse Wells had just come in.

As Jay left the room, Caitlin turned to Barry. "So. You need to rest as well, mister," she told him, gently but sternly. "No running, no Flash. Your system is taxed."

"I'm good," Barry assured her.

She nodded, rubbing her hand on his shoulder. "You will be. But you're not yet."

"That's right," Cisco pitched in. "Anything comes up, and we've got it."

Caitlin rested her arm on Peter's shoulder as they leave the room, ready to head out. "Long day, huh?'

"Yes, it was," Peter murmured, nodding his agreement. "You know, I realized a couple of things while I was in my own Flashtime...time."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"Well," Peter began. "We're all more than smart enough to catch DeVoe. We just need to know when he's coming out of the pocket dimension sooner."

"Yeah," Caitlin agreed. "We'll figure that out." She reached up stroke the soft, fluffy hair at his forehead. "What's the other thing?"

Peter looked at her gently. "You were right," he said. "About taking a breather." He brushed her hair out of her hair "Just a moment with you and I'm grounded again. Everything looks more clear. And I'm sorry about our date night," Peter sighed, rubbing his hand up and down her arm.

"Don't be," Caitlin reassured him, eyes still shut. "Popcorn and a movie with Frankie...that's all I've ever really needed. As long as there's a healthy dose of you in there, too."

Peter smiled. "Always."


	84. Spider-Flash? Flash-Man?

It is official to say that they cannot leave Harry to stay up past 9:00 as he's come up with the most craziest plan ever heard.

"This is gonna give us the edge we finally need to be smarter than DeVoe. Or me to be smarter than DeVoe, actually." Harry says as he shows them a thinking cap blueprints. "This is an intelligence booster. You put this thing on Dibny here, and even he would be able to understand the point source construction. You put it on a real genius, I'll be able to out think the Thinker." He then takes a drink from his coffee.

"You know what, I'm not sure this thinking cap is the best idea you've ever had." Cisco tells him.

"It's an intelligence booster." Harry corrects.

"It looks like a thinking cap." Cisco states.

"You don't like it, blame yourself. You gave me the idea." Harry informs him. "You're the one that said DeVoe planned all this just like Thawne in order to stop Barry. And Parker said that DeVoe became the Thinker the same night Allen became the Flash, and so I hacked into security footage of that night to see what you saw." He tells them and shows DeVoe getting struck wearing a thinking cap. "This is why he's so smart. DeVoe boosted his intelligence with neurochemical engineering powered by the dark matter from the particle accelerator explosion. And if we build our own, we can do the same."

"Just to clarify, Harry, you wanna blast 10 billion joules of dark energy into your brain?" Peter asks.

"I've harnessed power from the accelerator before, and I can do it again." Harry promises.

"But reengineering your brain's neurochemistry-" Caitlin was saying when he stopped her.

"DeVoe did it. So can I. How many more metas have to die before we finally stop DeVoe?" Harry asks.

"Not me." Ralph says as he raises his finger. "I say we go for it. Right?"

"Won't harm anyone to explore it." Peter agrees.

"Yeah, I'm onboard." Caitlin agrees.

"No, this is way too risky." Cisco tells them.

"Of course it's risky, but if we succeed, we will save the lives of the four remaining bus metas, including a member of the team." Harry says, pointing to Ralph.

"You're talking about intense amount of dark energy going right into your brain, right into that cap that turned a Mac and cheese loving pacifist into a homicidal maniac. You put that cap on, what's it gonna do to you?" Cisco asks.

"I've run the numbers dozens of times. The math and chemistry check out. I can do this." Harry promises.

"I don't think you can." Cisco replies.

"I can with your help." Harry states.

"Not this time." Cisco tells him. "All right, lets keep coming up with more ways to solve this." He says before leaving the room.

"Just so I'm clear on this, someone finally came up with a way to stop this La-Z-boy riding lunatic and we just might do it?" Ralph asks.

"To be fair...he does raise a valid point." Peter admits while a memory floods his mind. "There was someone else who tried to enhance his intelligence...it didn't end well."

"Who?" Barry asks.

"Otto Octavius." Peter says as he remembers how he was once an amazing scientist...before the arms. "He developed an inhibitor chip to help him control his arms, that also helped enhance his thinking capability. And then he went crazy. So, all we have to do is be careful, and not turn Harry into our next animal based villain."

"Yeah, what is it with your enemies and being animals?" Caitlin wonders.

"Yeah, Rhino, Vulture, Scorpion, dr. Octopus, even Kraven the Hunter." Miles adds on and they all look confused. "What? I was Spider-Man's biggest fan before I became the ultimate Spider-Man, remember?" He reminds them.

-

Then later there was an attempted bank robbery that was failed when the man's powers stoped working suddenly.

And apparently the powers are even hotter than Mick's gun and they learn that he's not a bus meta, but an original meta.

And his powers vanished.

"So, I can think of a couple of ways this might have happened." Caitlin tells them as they all come back to the cortex. "If this Eric Fry metastasis solar radiation to create heat, we could put him in the dark to de-power him."

"But it was still broad daylight." Joe adds.

"Okay. Maybe his internal biochemistry has been altered to create its own internal thermal combustion and he just ran out of fuel." Caitlin guesses.

"So, if this guy's not one of the bus metas, that means there's still three more out there before DeVoe gets to me. So, I'm safe. Safer, I'm safer." Ralph states.

"These are innocent people, Ralph." Barry reminds him.

"I'm innocent. I'm still gonna get terminated." Ralph says. "Oh my god. I'm Sara Conner."

"Eh, I'd say more John Conner, and we're the Terminators saving you." May corrects him.

"I'm gonna go back to my room. Get some comfort food." Ralph says and leaves.

"The way I see it, Fry walks into the bank with his fire powers, meets this other guy, and then his powers are gone." Cisco says as he looks to the footage. "Coincidence? I think not."

"So you think this guy did something to Fry?" Caitlin asks.

"I think we can ask him some questions." Cisco says.

"I interviewed every eyewitness in the bank. Nobody knew who he was." Joe tells him.

"Okay, Cisco, crosscheck the deposits from today with the list of witnesses." Peter offers and Cisco's on it.

"Everyone on the list checks out except a Mattew Kim, an EMT out of Central City General." Cisco tells them.

"Barry, let's go ask some questions." Joe says and they leave.

"I'll get ready for backup." Peter says as he starts changing into his spider suit. "Cait, try and see if you can figure out how this power stealing of his works. Cisco, use the satellite to scan the city for the dark matter. Miles, hit the streets while I'm busy. Frankie, get your homework done." He tells the rest of the team as he leaves.

-

Joe and Barry went to talk to him which ended with Peter and Barry trying to stop him from getting away.

Barry speeds to stop him and Peter shoots a web which causes the two to feel funny before he runs off.

"Go get him." Joe tells him and Barry tries to run, but he just ends up jogging.

"I lost my speed." Barry says, completely confused.

"Guys?" Peter asks for their attention and they look to see his hand is vibrating. "We've got a serious problem."

-

They return to Star labs, and Peter is running around the labs using Barry's speed that turned red and bright blue like his old outfit and he comes to a stop.

"Okay, that's one of the best feelings I've ever felt." Peter admits as he catches his breath.

"This is fun." Barry says as he's balancing himself upside down with no blood rushing to his head.

Caitlin then comes in with results with what happened. "I've run every test I can think of. EKG, cellular regression synthesis, brain chemistry, and dark matter confirms it. Your powers have been swapped."

"How could this be possible?" Joe wonders.

"Barry's connection to the Speedforce, his speed, the dark matter, it all been transferred into Peter. With Peter, his radioactivity, his muscle endurance, strength, spider abilities, even his bone density, all have been transferred into Barry." Caitlin tells them.

"Can we...reverse this?" Peter asks.

"I don't know. I can try." Caitlin promises.

"So, Matthew Kim isn't just removing DNA. He's transferring it to anybody he touches." Joe sees.

"He's not getting rid of metas. He's creating new ones." Ralph adds.

"That's not the only thing. Guess who's got an apartment just a block away from the 405 bus line and rides it every day to get to work?" Cisco asks.

"So Matthew is our bus meta." Peter adds.

"Which means DeVoe is gonna be after him." Barry finishes. "And if he gets him, he can take away all of our powers."

"Unless we get him on our side first." Joe states. "Then he can remove the powers from DeVoe."

"That could possibly work." Caitlin agrees with him. "Matthew's abilities work by melting down the highly concentrated bonds between DNA. That makes them totally pliable so he can extract them and infuse somebody else with the same meta DNA."

"Melting Point." Cisco says, naming him.

"Doesn't that mean somebody has those fire powers now?" Frankie asks.

"She's right. Meaning we need to find them as well as Matthew." Peter agrees with her.

"And I'll find a way to reverse this." Caitlin says as she leaves.

"So, what do we do?" Peter asks as he turns to face Barry only to see he's gone. "Barry?" He calls out for him.

"Up here!" Barry yells and Peter looks and sees he's stuck on the ceiling. "This is nice."

"You can't get down, can you?" Peter guesses.

"No, I can...I'm just choosing to stay up here. It's a long way down." Barry lies.

"Okay." Peter says as he walks off, not using superspeed and leaves the man hanging.

"Wait, just out of curiosity, how would I get down?" Barry asks as he leaves. "Peter? Peter!"

-

Later, Caitlin talked to Cisco about helping Harry with his thinking cap, Peter was able to get Barry off the ceiling and now Barry's teaching him how to run.

Peter was on the treadmill with Barry monitoring his speed.

"Hey, Peter, you wanna slow down?" Barry asks, seeing he's going too fast.

"How the hell do you slow down?!" Peter asks as he's freaking out.

"Just gradually ramp our speed down, otherwise, you'll-" Barry was explaining when Peter tripped and ran into the boxes.

"That hurt." Peter complains as he gets up with Barry's help.

"You sure you're okay?" Barry asks as he gets up.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Peter promises when the alarms go off.

Peter accidentally speeds off and leaves Barry to run back.

"What's the situation?" Peter asks as he's the first to arrive.

"Baldwin Tower's on Fire. CCFD's responding, but there's people on the top floor they can't reach." Cisco tells them as Barry runs in.

"Okay, Caitlin, get Crystal caught up. Cisco, Miles, and Ralph, evacuate everyone." Peter tells them.

"Not a chance." Ralph tells him. "This could just be a trap for DeVoe to get us out in the open." He states while eating food.

"Hey, I think we got a bigger problem." Cisco interrupts. "We don't have a Flash or Spider-Man."

Miles clears his throat, getting Cisco's attention.

"An _experienced _Spider-Man." Cisco corrects himself.

"Actually, we technically do." Frankie says and turns to the heroes.

"No, we can't do anything with these powers swapped." Peter states, knowing that they can't.

"We could use the help, Peter." Caitlin tells him and Peter looks at the Flash suit.

"I'm taking this to my grave." Peter promises and speeds his Spider-Man outfit on Barry and the Flash outfit on him before he speeds off with Barry inhand.

"This should be interesting." Cisco says, wondering how this will turn out.

-

Barry and Peter come to a stop outside and see the large fire outside the building.

"Oh boy." Barry's muffled voice through Peter's mask mumbles.

"Okay, what's the plan...? Okay. Use my monitors, scan for people, think what you want it to do." He tells him and Barry finds civilians.

"This is seriously weird. Okay, there are five people on the 14th floor. You just have to get them out of there as fast as you can." Barry tells him.

"Okay, I do that, you get the foam webbing ready to take out the flames." Peter says as he speeds up leaving Barry there, confused to how to get up there.

"Okay, so how do these work?" Barry asks as he looks at his web shooters and moves his fingers to push the button and it shoots out a web to the 15th floor window and drags him into the flames. "Okay, that was not the best plan."

Peter finishes evacuating everyone and sees Barry's gone inside. "Oh, boy." He whispers before speeding in.

Barry's trying to figure out how to switch web settings as he has a dozen settings. He chooses one with a picture that looks like foam-webs and then pushes the shooters start releasing taser-webs.

"That is the wrong setting." Barry says when Peter speeds in.

"Oh, this is bad." Peter says, seeing the building falling apart.

Barry's head starts buzzing and he looks to see the ceiling falling on them. "Look out!" He moves Barry out of the way and catches the falling building floor piece.

"Okay, let's try a wind tunnel." Peter says as he starts to spin his arms around and he's going the wrong way and it's getting worse.

"Go in the other direction!" Barry tells him as he's struggling to get his hands free of the floor as Peter changes directions and the fire goes down.

"Okay, that was good." Peter says as he turns to see Barry struggling. Peter speeds at him and pulls him free and lets it fall on the floor.

"Thanks." Barry tells his friend when they look at his fingers to see the floor pieces are still sticking to his fingers.

-

"There's still a little bit of irritation in your lungs from all the smoke you inhaled, Peter, but you should be good to go soon." Caitlin tells him as the two returned to the labs and changed out of their suits.

"That's good to know." Peter says. "Luckily, we were able to save everyone. But I don't think I can be the team speedster."

"Yeah, I agree. And we need to find Matthew Kim and whoever he transferred Eric Fry's powers to." Barry adds on.

"How close are you to reversing this?" Harry asks Caitlin.

"I don't know if I can." Caitlin admits.

"What?" All three of them ask.

"I was up all night trying every conceivable solution. Dark matter splicing, pattern DNA cloning, even regrowing meta enhanced stem material on a cellular level. Nothing will work. I can not replicate Melting Point's powers." Caitlin breaks to them.

"So unless we find Kim and reverse what he's done..." Barry says.

"Spider-Man and the Flash have new identities." Caitlin finishes.

The team all separate and Cisco goes to agree to help Harry with his thinking cap.

Caitlin finds Peter sitting in a chair while staring at the two mannequins of Flash and Spider-Man and sees his sad face.

"You doing okay?" Caitlin asks him.

"No, not really." Peter admits looking to her. "I never thought I was destined to be anything more than just Spider-Man. Now it feels like DeVoe created this new meta just to make us go crazy."

Caitlin walks up and places her hands on his shoulder and drops down to loosely hug him. "Where's Barry?" She wonders.

"Miles offered to teach him a few tricks I taught him." Peter replies.

"The student becoming the master now?" Caitlin jokes and Peter laughs at that when the alarms go off and they break apart and see what's happening. "We found who has Fry's missing powers."

They see someone is starting to burn a area where the police have already made it.

"The satellite is tracking the same intensity as the bank robbery, so.." Harry says, meaning it's him.

"Who's that?" Ralph asks as they see Matthew Kim is also there.

"He's gonna try to steal his powers." Harry says.

"All right, lets suit up." Cisco tells Caitlin.

"No, you guys stay here. Me and Barry need to get there and hopefully get back to normal." Peter says and Barry agrees. "You ready?"

"Miles taught me how these web shooters work. Let's see if we can do this." Barry says and Peter flashes them back into their suits.

-

The new metahuman starts throwing fire at the police cars and the officers.

"This is a mistake!" Kim shouts. "You need to stop this."

"Oh, I just got going, pal." The new Fire metahuman says as he recognizes Kim. "Wait, you're that hero from the bank, aren't you?"

"I am. And I need you to stop this." Kim tells him.

"So you can take my powers like you did his? You just gave them to me."

"What are you talking about?" Kim wonders.

"You didn't know that? When you took powers from him, you have them to me. And now I'm gonna get what he couldn't. Money!" He says and shoots fire in his direction that gets interrupted by a flash of red and blue lightning and Peter stops and Barry is waiting to handcuff him.

"I think you've done enough for one day." Peter tells him.

"We'll take over from here." Barry promises and they both approach him.

"Listen buddy, we've been having a bad day. So how about we end it?" Barry asks.

"That sounds fun. 'Cause I was just warming up." He tells them.

"Fire puns?" Peter asks. "Even I find that stupid."

Before he could flame up, Barry webs him with new ice webbing that freezes upon impact. But that only works for a second when his flame burns through it and sends them both flying backwards.

"Okay, that failed." Barry says as he gets back up. "Any other ideas?"

"What if I create a vortex like you did with Fallout?" Peter asks.

"The lack of oxygen will extinguish the flames." Barry understands and Peter starts to run around him, but that seems to make things worse as a thermo cyclone is created.

"Guys, any other ideas?" Barry asks, seeing it's failing and Peter keeps it up, hoping it works.

_"Peter, use your speed to draw enough water from the Central City bay, extinguish the blaze. Allen, while he does that, use the ice webbing and just piss him off._" Harry tells them.

"Pissing people off is what Spider-Man's known for." Barry mumbled.

"Hey! It may be the truth...but, hey!" Peter complains and speeds off and follows Barry's instructions to how to run on water.

While he does that, Barry runs around and dodges his attacks while shooting ice webbing at his face, legs and arms to annoy him.

"You're becoming a pain, spider!" Fire metahuman tells him.

"Come on, man. At least say something original." Barry complains when he turns and sees Peter has made the tidal wave they need and Joe evacuates the cops and at the last second, Barry shoots a web to get him out of the way as the water crashes on him.

While he was down, Peter speed in and handcuffs him.

"I have to say...you're all burned out." Barry quips and Peter looks to him with an eyebrow raised. "What? Admit it, you were thinking the same thing!" He states and Peter was, but he wasn't gonna admit it.

-

"I'm so sorry I did this to you." Kim apologizes to them as they brought him to Star labs to fix their powers. "I thought I was cleaning up the city, but I was just making it worse."

"Well, we stopped him. He's in iron heights, and that's all that matters now." Barry says.

"You sure you both want to do this?" Kim asks them both.

"Well, gonna be frank, I am gonna miss being able to rush around and get everything done. But...I miss my powers." Peter says, knowing he was destined to be Spider-Man, not the Flash.

"And being as light as a feather and as strong as steel is fun, but I miss my powers. Not to mention, I'm afraid of heights and can't stand swinging. I don't know how you stomach it." Barry admits and Peter laughs.

"Ready?" Kim asks and he touches their shoulders.

"That's it?" Joe asks.

"You guys okay?" Cisco asks. "How do we know it worked?"

Caitlin picks up a pen and throws it at Peter who catches it instantly before it could hit him. "Spider-Man's back in action." She smiles.

"Flash?" Harry asks and Barry speeds around the room and stops.

"I feel great." Barry says.

"Well, that's the last time I'm using this power. The city was almost destroyed because of me." Kim says as he starts leaving.

"But you had no idea that would happen." Caitlin replies.

"Yeah, don't be so hard on yourself, pal." Ralph agrees.

"I thought I was chosen for a higher purpose. This can't be it for me." Kim states.

"Maybe you were chosen for a bigger one." Barry tells him.

"Clifford DeVoe, he isn't going to stop until he gets you and everyone. We could use your help." Peter tells him.

"How do we start?" Kim asks.

"I'll give you the tour." Cisco says and leaves with him.

"That was some nice moves you had out there, swinging and actually combining the webbing? Ingenious." Peter admits to barry.

"Says the man who created a tidal wave on his first day." Barry replies. "What do you say? You wanna do one last training session?"

"Sure. Why not?" Peter agrees, wanting to learn how he did that.

While they did that, Harry and Cisco finished the thinking cap and got the last two names of the last bus metas.

Janet Petty and Edwin Goss.


	85. Light weight

"Where are we with tracking down Edwin Gauss and Janet Petty?" Barry asked as he and Iris walked into the Cortex after another failed attempt to train Ralph.

Caitlin and Peter's head popped up, eyes wide. "No-no," she stuttered, making frantic cutting motions across her neck.

"He's-" Peter tries warning him.

"What?" Barry asked, confused, eyes going to Cisco who was crouched behind his desk, pointing urgently across the room.

"He's still-"

"What?" Barry repeated, turning in confusion to Harry.

Harry was standing with the Thinking Cap on his head, but he roughly ripped it off.

"Working on it," Caitlin finished with a sigh.

"I can't work with all this noise!" Harry yelled, sitting down in his chair. It made a very rude noise and Ralph snickered.

"That is disgusting, Harry, really?" Ralph asks.

Harry reached under him and pulled out a whoopie cushion.

"Really?" Harry grit out, chucking it at him.

Ralph caught it. "That was expensive," he grumbled.

"Harry, look," Cisco spoke up, trying to change the subject. "Every time you try to locate these guys it's the same thing. I'm telling you. Just crack that thing open; it's probably broken."

"It's not broken!" Harry argued. "It's just finding these two is complicated."

Iris frowned. "Why is that?"

"Because," Harry cried, pointing at the first man. "This dude, Edwin Gauss, flat out disappeared the day Allen came out of the Speed Force. No credit charges, no bank withdrawals, no social media posts. Nothing! Gone."

"What about Janet Petty?" Barry wonders.

"Just as tricky." Peter answered. "We asked Joe to pull her file from CCPD. Her first known record wasn't until shew as 13, so sort of a nomad. Last known address: Iron Heights."

"What's she in for?" Iris asked.

"Trifecta. Breaking and entering, trespassing, and burglary." Caitlin answers.

"But the real question is where is she now, and what are her powers," Harry said.

Caitlin pulled up her social media pages and Cisco leaned forward curiously. "Is that really her handle? Null?"

"Okay, well, DeVoe needs both of these people for whatever he has planned," Barry spoke up. "So we have to figure out where they are."

"I will, Allen," Harry said, putting the Thinking Cap back on this head. "If I can get a little peace, a little quiet, and _NO INTERRUPTIONS!_"

A second later, a breach opened and none other than Breacher, Gypsy's father, came flying through it. He landed on his stomach and quickly hopped to his feet, growling.

"Great," Harry muttered, throwing up his hands.

Immediately, Breacher had located Cisco and shoved him up against the wall, a hand at his throat. "I need your help!" he growled.

"I'm getting a little bit of a mixed message here." Cisco croaked.

Ten minutes later, Cisco, Peter and Caitlin had been debriefed on Breacher's story.

It seemed that he had been going at it as usual, fighting bad guys with his powers, when they just stopped working. Cynthia, Gypsy's real name, had told him to come to their tech whiz for help. So here he was, asking Caitlin and Cisco for their assistance in getting his powers back.

Not having much else to do, Caitlin agreed once Cisco did, and they doubled down to work as Peter went to help Barry.

-

It seemed that they had found Janet. And it turned out that she had the power to completely mess with gravity, an event that ended with Barry floating around the Cortex, completely weightless.

They needed to call Peter in to actually bring him back so Barry was being healed by a web.

"You okay, man?" Peter asked, a bit concerned, as he's holding the web.

Barry was all the way up to the ceiling, holding on to one of the metal poles that wrapped around the top of the Cortex. "I just wanna get down from here as soon as possible," he replied miserably.

"You could try to burp yourself down, like Charlie Bucket." Ralph suggested.

"_Ralph_," Barry grit out.

"Gotta admit, that was funny." Peter admits. "Anything?" He asked the others.

"Well, as best I can tell, Nulls powers effect the density of his cells," Caitlin told him, walking over to her computer. "It's like you've been filled with helium."

"Terrific." Barry states sarcastically.

"I always knew you were a lightweight." Ralph smirked.

"I _swear_, Ralph," Barry replied murderously.

"Is there a way to reengage his gravitational-" Cisco started.

"Gravitational force?" Harry finished, plunking on the Thinking Cap even as he continued to watch Barry float along the ceiling. "Huh," he said after a second. "Turns out: not necessary."

"Do not let go," Barry pleaded to Peter.

"Taking Barry's standard mass, the gravitational force gene, and the half-life decadent of Null's dark matter infusion...this event should eventually just...wear off." Harry tells them.

Cisco sighed and shrugged, giving Barry an apologetic look.

"Wear off?" Barry asked desperately.

"Your cells should return to normal right about..." Harry gave Cisco a shove a second before Barry crashed from the ceiling and landed with a crunch on the floor. "Now."

Barry was back on his feet in seconds, staring around him in alarm.

"Two for the landing, but _perfect_ end with the thud noise," Ralph commented.

"Why are you joking right now?" Barry demanded, striding angrily towards him. "I mean seriously- what the heck was that back there; pretending to be Joe."

"I committed to the bit, I couldn't blow my cover." Ralph shrugged.

"Ralph!" Barry yelled. "What if that had happened outside on the street?! I could have floated away into the stratosphere and fallen to my death."

Ralph shrugged again. "I would have figured something out."

Barry let out an exasperated breath. "Out of the twelve bus metas, DeVoe is now in control of _seven_ of them," he grit out. "He gets Null, it'll be eight! If he gets control of her powers, we're talking about your life here."

Ralph's gaze slipped sideways and Barry gave him a prompting look. Ralph grinned.

"Sorry I was just thinking about the end of Lost and pow!" He made a motion like his brain exploding and Barry threw his head back. He was seriously at the end of his rope. "The thing with Purgatory, what did Kate really see in Jack-"

"Ralph," Barry cut him off. "I'm sorry, but I'm benching you."

Ralph's face fell. "Why?"

"Because you're constantly in the middle of a comedy routine instead of doing what you should," Barry cried.

"Spider-Man does the same." Ralph states looking to Peter who doesn't want to be caught in the middle of this.

"Yeah, and he gets the job done." Barry replies to him. "If you had just tossed me the cuffs we would have Null right now."

"Yeah, or she could have run out the door and I could have stretched the cuffs on her when she didn't see it coming!" Ralph argued. "It's fine."

Barry let out a breath. "Look, I'm doing what's best for you," he said.

"No you're not," Ralph scoffed. "You're doing what's best for you."

And with that, he turned and strode out of the Cortex.

-

Later, Peter was staring in front of the 12 metahuman profile pictures when Caitlin got back from helping Cisco with Breacher.

Things still were not going well. Instead of telling Breacher that he was just getting old, which is why his powers aren't working, Cisco had shoved Caitlin's bottle of Ibuprofen pills at him and did the breach for him when he tried it out.

"Harry's got nothing on Null so far," Caitlin told him as she walked into the room, rubbing her head. "He's gonna try something else. We'll find her."

"I'm worried about our streak. He's pushing Ralph to be him, and I learned from experience, you can't make someone a hero like you." Peter says knowing Miles is becoming a hero, but his own thing. Frankie wants to be a hero, but she's gonna be a different hero than he will be.

The alarms go off and Caitlin sees there's a robbery.

"Want me to get Barry?" Caitlin asks.

"Yeah, I'll meet him there." Peter promises and goes to grab his mask.

"Okay, what's your plan?" Caitlin asks when Harry comes in with the answer.

"The plan," Harry said. "Is Allen vibrate beyond what she can see. Her fingers- you said they glow when she uses her powers. That means Dark Matter concentration which means and activation in her optic nerve. So basically, you vibrate so fast she can't see you coming."

Peter shrugged. "Let's try it out."

And he makes his way out toward his suit and away.

-

Null was walking away from the museum with her bling when Barry and Peter come in and Barry places the powercuffs on her.

"Didn't see that coming." Null says.

"Kind of the point." Peter informs her.

"No, you didn't see that coming." Null explains and points to a car falling from the air. "See, I call it my getaway car. 'Cause either the person in there dies, or you let me get away."

Barry speeds off to save the man and Peter webs her legs together.

"How'd you think that was gonna work?" Peter asks when he returns with the man from the car.

"There's two of us. How'd you think you'd get away?" Barry wonders the same.

-

Now with Null taken out and Cisco finally broke the news to Breacher, he offered Cisco a place on the team on his earth so he can be with Gypsy.

Cisco asked for some time to think it over and wonders if he can actually leave the team and his whole world.


	86. Missing a piece

"That's the big news?" Cisco said, looking incredulously at Harry as they all stood around him in the Speed Lab. "You're taking sculpture classes at Community College?"

"It's not art," Harry countered. "It's science!!" His voice echoed impressively. "And as such, it is the thing that is going to help us defeat..." he took a second and ripped off a tarp covering a mannequin with a cardboard DeVoe face on it. "DeVoe. Recall the one thing that we've seen, nay, heard, that can actually harm DeVoe."

"Izzy Bowen's sound wave powers." Fox says.

"Yeah, and she was killed by DeVoe, so whatever powers she had are in his hands now," Joe reminded Harry.

"And now, Joe." Harry said. "They're in ours. Watch this. Actually you should...take a few steps back if you value your internal organs."

Harry turned around and smacked the branching, fork-shaped, super-flat stick against the ground. A wave of energy spiraled out of the fork and slammed into the fake DeVoe in the chair. It sent the whole thing up the ramp and broke it into pieces in a second.

Barry cringed. "I know how that feels," he muttered.

"One strike," Harry said. "It incapacitates the Thinker. Two strikes? No more Thinker. I call it...the Sonic Scepter."

"Okay," Cisco said, nodding appreciatively. "Points for alliteration."

"So it's basically just a big tuning fork?" Caitlin spoke up.

Harry shook his head. "My _goodness_."

"Well, I mean..." Peter was peering at the metal object curiously. "It's not just any tuning fork. It must be the most powerful tuning fork in reality. You must have found a way to laser-shaved this thing down to a hair."

"Shaved it right down," Harry agreed with him. "As a matter of fact, child's play for me and my Thinking Cap. The Sonic Scepter mimics Izzy Bowen's sonic frequency so we can penetrate the impenetrable force field of DeVoe. And here's the best part: Because there's no tech involved-"

"It's Killgore proof," Barry finished, nodding in approval. "Nice."

"So, now we just need to figure out where DeVoe's gonna appear next," Fox tells them the bad part of it.

Harry looked at him getying cocky. "As a matter of fact, before you got here, I did a little work on the pocket dimension predictor, and I got a massive head-start. DeVoe's next location, thank you."

"Wait, I thought you said that wasn't possible?" Caitlin spoke up quizzically.

"That's right!" Harry proclaimed. "I did say that yesterday. But today is a new day; I've got a million new ideas. This Thinking Cap- f-f-f-f firing on all cylinders. Onward," he declared, sticking his hand into the air and starting to stride purposefully towards the door. "And upward!"

-

The rest of the team filed out of the Cortex, and Caitlin hurried up to her lab. She had a little side-project that she wanted to continue.

Peter found her clicking away. "Whatcha you working on in here?" He asked, walking up the steps into Caitlin's lab and walks up to her.

"My brain, or, brains," Caitlin tells him, eyes still locked on her computer screen. "I think I've finally figure out the science behind what activates Crystal Frost. In Fight or Flight, the adrenal glands flood the body with what you may know as the stress hormone. And guess where the highest concentration of Dark Matter is in my body?"

"In your adrenal glands." Peter answered, understanding where she's going.

"Exactly," Caitlin agreed. "So if adrenaline wakes up Crystal, all I'll need is a shot of epinephrine." She held up a syringe that was lying on her desk triumphantly. "No more Harry, Cisco, or you traumatizing me to get her to show up. I can't wait to tell her." Caitlin grinned.

"Wait," Peter took paused. "You guys...are able to talk now?" He wonder, knowing if they wanted to talk they usually recorded videos with help of Peter or Fox, or sometimes by themselves.

"Sort of," Caitlin shrugged. "We leave each other notes. It's a system we developed a little bit ago when we were both seriously annoyed about not knowing what's going on all the time." She reached across her desk and plucked a sticky note off of a test tube. "_Thanks for the awesome new jacket. I got some blood on it, don't worry, it's not ours._"

Sighing, Peter wraps his arms around Caitlin's shoulders. "I guess her humor is sort of an...acquired taste."

"Well, she's getting more quips hanging around you." Caitlin states and he just laughs how he's getting through the ice queen. Then alarm than began to blare in the Cortex. "Uh oh," Caitlin said, glancing at her screen. "It looks like a breach is about to open. It's DeVoe."

"Go get that pen ready," Peter told her, already heading towards his suit.

-

In a few minutes, Caitlin had injected herself with epinephrine, changed into Crystal Frost, and was leaping through a breach with Cisco, Peter, Barry and Ralph.

"Okay," Barry said, getting into a half-running position with the Sonic Scepter held in his right hand. "Get ready."

They all braced themselves as a pocket dimension breach opened on the sidewalk, fracturing the air into geometric silver-and-white fractals.

There was a flash of light and a man stepped out of the breach.

Instead of DeVoe, however, or one of the many bodies he had taken over during the past year, a youngish man with a long dark ponytail stepped onto the pavement, whistling. He was wearing a purple robe, pajama pants and slippers, and holding a letter which he was reading as he walk.

Crystal blanched and glanced over at Peter for some sort of idea of what to do. He looked just as confused as she felt as the man moseyed over to the mailbox standing at the side of the road and popped his letters in.

"Edwin Gauss?" Peter asked, straightening up.

Edwin's head shot up and he jumped nearly a mile up before falling backwards into a pocket dimension.

The heroes stood, blinking in confusion at each other, before Cisco shrugged and jumped into a breach of his own. Ralph glanced between Frost and Peter then began to walk home.

-

Frost looked over at Peter as they make it to the labs. "Well wasn't that exciting." she said dryly.

Peter pulled a face as he removed his mask. "Sorry, didn't mean for you to come out for nothing."

"Not for nothing," Crystal winked and sauntered over to peck Peter on the cheek. "I got to see you, handsome."

Peter still finds it weird that he's dating two of the same people, but he's learning to accept the two just the same.

He loves Crystal and Caitlin the same, it's just weird when people see you with two people and they don't know they're technically the same person.

"Alright guys, say hello to our last known bus meta, Edwin Gauss," Barry said after the group re-convened in the Cortex. "As we know there's not much on him; no college history, no known addresses, just a couple of old backpacking photos on an old message board."

"Old?" Cisco said flatly, looking up. "Flip-phones are old. This is from the age of dial-up. Try prehistoric."

"No digital fingerprint," Joe continued. "Everything this guy owns is strapped to his back. He was off-grid before he was even a meta."

"That," Cisco tagged on. "And his powers are the reason we couldn't find him."

"And why there were twelve heat signatures on the bus, including the driver," Caitlin added.

Barry glanced over. "Cisco, the way he appeared and disappeared..?"

"Pocket dimension," Cisco shrugged.

Ralph looked over at him sharply. "What? Like-like the DeVoe kind?"

"No," Cisco said slowly. "Like the Edwin Gauss kind. You see, pocket dimensions, like the one you see here, are unique to their users. Just like DeVoe can only enter and exit his, Gauss too is limited to his own pocket dimension."

"So, why does DeVoe need him?" Caitlin wondered.

"Well," Peter replied. "DeVoe uses his chair to enter and exit pocket dimensions. If DeVoe steals his powers, he won't need it."

"So, we need to catch Gauss first," Joe said.

"And we will!" Harry proclaimed, striding into the Cortex with his Cerebral Inhibitor in his arms like a baby. "Sorry I'm late, just tweaking the cap. Listen: locating the meta is not a task we have to accomplish. Why is that, Harry? Well, I'll tell you why: It's because we already have."

He pressed a button on his computer and a map of Central City flew up onto the big screen. "This is the map that we constructed of all the pocket dimension activity throughout Central City."

"Right, but that's when we thought all the pocket dimensions belonged to DeVoe," Caitlin spoke up. "Now we don't know whether they belong to him or to Gauss."

"And figuring out those distinctions..." Cisco pulled a face. "I'm sorry, but that's too big even for your britches, Harry."

"My britches are plenty big," Harry huffed. Caitlin, Peter, Cisco and Barry exchanged weirded out glances. "Okay? I'll fill my britches. Watch this, okay? By simply tracking the trillions of identifiers, cross referencing the fluctuation migration patterns in the temporal displacement and the energy and..." he pressed another button with vehemence. "I give you Edwin Gauss's pocket dimension activity."

"Ahhhh!" Harry whisper-screamed. "Harry is amazing!"

"Uh, yeah," Peter said, giving him a side-eye. "Let's just all split up and search these different locations for Edwin Gauss. Barry, you, me, and Caitlin, Ralph go with Cisco and Joe. Harry-"

"I'll go with you."

"No, I was thinking that you could just stay here, and hold down the fort." Peter says.

Harry nodded. "Okay," he said agreeably, already heading for the door. "I'll tweak the cap."

"I'm worried about him." Peter admits to the team as they leave.

-

Barry flashed Caitlin and Peter to one of the pocket dimension locations and the three of them began to walk slowly through the forest they had found themselves in. In front of them stretched a layout of colorful tents, people making large bubbles, and crackling fireplaces.

"Guys..." Barry murmured. "Where are we?"

"Looks like some sort of hippy encampment," Caitlin said, frowning thoughtfully.

"Yeah," Peter cringed. "Smells like one, too."

"Yeah, well this is the biggest pocket dimension spot on our list," Barry said, brushing a bubble away. It popped in his face instead and the other two shook their heads, wondering what he had really been trying to achieve there. "So just...do you see Gauss anywhere?"

"Well..." Peter glanced around and then walked up to a random person and held out a photo. "Mr. Flower child. Have you seen this man?"

"Nope," the man said, grinning blindingly. "But I've seen the soul that belongs to this man. The dude's aura is a trip."

"Wait, so you know Edwin Gauss?" Barry confirmed, looking confused.

The man nodded. "Sure do. Round here we call him...the Folded Man."

Caitlin's eyebrows furrowed. "_Folded Man_?"

"He's everywhere," the hippie said. "But...nowhere. But mostly he's around here." He turned to the rest of the crowd and waved. "Time for the reflection hike, everyone! Don't forget to leash your spirit animals!"

"Okay, let's just search for Gauss," Barry said as the group of hippies began to filter towards a denser part of the woods. "Stay in touch over the coms."

"Yeah," Caitlin agreed. She put her hands together in a yoga-namaste position and grinned goofily. "I will leash my inner penguin spirit animal and head south."

Peter nodded, smiling at her cuteness. "Be careful," he called after her, before setting of in another direction with Barry. "Don't touch anybody."

"Way ahead of you." Caitlin assures him.

-

It actually didn't take long for Caitlin to locate their target. She found him walking in slow circles around a few trees, petting their bark and gazing at the sky. "Edwin Gauss..?" she said slowly, stepping forward.

"Ah!" he yelped, leaping backwards. "You're- icy lady- with the white hair!" With that, he took off running into the woods.

Groaning, Caitlin broke into a run and set off after him. "Guys!" she called into the coms. "I've got eyes on Gauss. He's fast for a non-speedster!"

Seconds later, Barry flashed directly in front of Gauss, stopping him and taking him down with a hand on his chest. Gauss lay on the ground, panting and eyes terrified.

"Whoa- whoa whoa whoa whoa!" Gauss cried. "Easy now. I give up."

"We're not cops," Barry told him. "But you are in danger and we're here to protect you."

"Oh," Gauss panted, relieved. "Right." He glanced past Caitlin and smiled widely. "Is that why you brought your ninja buddy?"

Barry's brow furrowed in confusion. "Wha-"

At that second, Peter's senses blazed when something sliced through Caitlin's shoulder. She gasped, looking down to see at least half a blade sticking through her. Then it was pulled back and Caitlin was flung into the air.

Barry was moving before he realized exactly what had happened. He grabbed the sword, sliced the Samaroid's head off, and Peter leaped and caught Caitlin.

"Bring her to STAR Labs," Peter asked of Barry before he flashed off with her inhand.

-

A couple moments later, as Barry was racing into the medical lab and laying her down on a gurney, her hair and skin were leached of color and her shoulder got a weird cloud of frost around it. Barry carefully moved her jacket and shirt aside, watching in wonder as the edges of the cut turned icy and began to sew themselves back together.

By the time Peter and Gauss arrived along with the others twenty minutes later, Caitlin had woken up.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Ralph asked worriedly as she rubbed the handle over her now healed shoulder.

"Yeah, I mean the wound started healing before I even woke up," Caitlin told him, tank top strapped moved down her bicep for better access.

"You frosted out for a sec when we got here; it probably helped," Peter spoke up as she shrugged her jacked up onto her shoulders.

"Yeah," Caitlin nodded, smiling at him. "Thanks for catching me, I appreciate it."

"I think that's part of my job description," Peter teased, winking at her.

"Hey," Ralph called as Caitlin started to head out of the lab. "Shouldn't you rest?"

"Honestly, I'm fine," Caitlin shrugged, not even a little lingering pain in her shoulder. "If anything, this has just made me ever more determined to get DeVoe." She nodded over at Peter. "I'm going to go help Cisco with that pocket dimension predictor."

Peter nodded and leaned forward to kiss her. She smiled against his lips before pulling away and leaving the room.

-

Ralph had gotten it into his head that it would be a good idea to try and take Edwin Gauss and have him open a pocket dimension so he could find DeVoe and fight him himself. Barry had put a stop to it, resorting to knocking Ralph out and then talking with him after he woke up.

The whole Team was waiting when he walked out of Caitlin's lab and into the Cortex. "Well," Barry said. "Ralph was...misguided, but he had a half-good idea."

"Which half?" Cisco asked.

"To use Edwin Gauss' pocket dimension powers to get into DeVoe's lair." Barry explains.

"Yep," Cisco said. "That's the half I was afraid of."

"It can't get more dangerous than this," Barry said, looking around at each of them. "So if we go, everyone needs to sign off."

"You and Peter have lead this Team through every danger there is," Joe said, looking at Barry and Peter. "So, if you guys think this'll stop DeVoe from claiming any more lives then...let's go get him."

"I mean, dang Joe, when you put it all John McClane like that of course I'm in," Cisco said, walking around his desk to stand beside Joe.

"I'm in," Harry agreed.

Caitlin smiled at him. "I don't even need to ask Crystal how she votes. We're in too."

Peter agreed. "So it's settled. Tonight we take on the Thinker."

That night, Peter called in Frankie, Fox and May so if something goes wrong, Joe will be able to protect them. Barry even called in Iris for the same reason.

Crystal was slinging on her blue jacket when Peter came up to her, already in his original Spider suit since it's the one with the least amount of technology.

"You ready?" Peter asked. "I know Caitlin kinda just signed you up."

Crystal winked at him. "Handsome, I would catch a grenade for you." She teased. "Let's hope I don't have to, though."

Peter smiled slightly and shook his head, amused at her.

"I'm just teasing you." Crystal laughed, patting his shoulder. She sobered up slightly. "Just watch out for me? I don't need her passing out and DeVoe sucking me out of her body."

Peter nodded, face falling. "You know I always keep an eye out for her...both of you. I promise I'm not going to let him take you or her away."

Crystal's chin dipped and she looked away. "I guess we should probably get going," she murmured. "Don't want to keep the others waiting."

In just a few minutes, Edwin had opened up a Pocket Dimension and Cisco, Barry, Peter and Crystal were stepped through. Barry had left instructions for Edwin to open the dimension back up in fifteen minutes, and then close it, with or with out them.

Permanently.

-

When they walked through the fractals of shifting grey light, they entered the strange blue-lit room that Barry had been prisoner in. DeVoe's giant chair was front and center, and as it began a slow turn, Barry got ready with the scepter.

But as the waves of air flew from the tech and toward the chair, it did absolutely nothing.

"It didn't work." Peter muttered as DeVoe's face smirked slightly.

"Why would it?" DeVoe asked lightly. "Sound has no effect...on a hologram."

Suddenly, her image flickered. Barry slowly straightened up, eyes wide as the chair and DeVoe vanished. "If DeVoe's not here, then..."

He trailed off, exchanging horrified looks with Peter, Crystal and Cisco. There was only one place he would be.

STAR Labs.

-

DeVoe and Marlize appear in the cortex of Star labs.

"Now, my love...the real battle begins." Devoe says as he uses Kilgore's powers to shut down Star labs.

"What's happening?" Joe asks.

"Someone's taken over our systems and sealed us in." Harry says as he runs to the computers.

"A second pocket dimension opened in Star labs at the exact same time we sent them through." Fox continued seeing they're down several heroes and they only now have two scientists, a doctor, a cop, a reporter, the benched stretch band, and a rookie kid hero to fight him. "I can't get a signal out to call for Miles."

"DeVoe's here?" May asks.

"He used that first opening to conceal his own entrance. That's why our sensors didn't register." Harry replies to her.

"He attacked them while they were saving Edwin so we would use him to send the others to his lair." Frankie realizes.

"He wanted us divided." Joe finishes.

"Where's Edwin?" Iris asks.

"He's back locked in his cell, and we got DeVoe's pocket dimension energy coming from the cortex." Harry says as he runs around on the computers as they become infected by Kilgore.

"That must mean his chair is there." Fox says. "If we were able to get there, we could possibly get them back."

"First, we got to get ourselves out of here." Joe says when Frankie uses her powers to pry the doors open.

"You go, girl." May cheers as they make their way out.

They head towards the elevator and see a Samuroid guarding it.

"Harry, go get your equipment." Joe says and he runs off. "May, think you can get to the chair?"

"I'm on it." May says and runs off.

"Frankie, think you can crush that thing?" Joe asks the kid.

"Let's hope he's got a form of metal on him." Frankie says and comes out of hiding for the Samuroid to try to kill her with a sword.

Frankie she's her powers to manipulate the sword and starts to fight the Samuroid.

-

DeVoe makes it to the pipeline and sees Ralph is there along with Miles.

"See, I heard all the commotion and I thought, _if DeVoe was here, where would he be going?_ So I called the baby Spider-Man to help." Ralph says.

"Hey!" Miles complains for being called _baby Spider-Man_.

"A simple deduction for a simple man. Though I assure you, the two of you are no threat for an intellect of my magnitude." DeVoe tells them.

"Please. Everyone I fight is smarter than me, but no bad guy has beaten me yet. And I got shocker here to zap you." Ralph tells him.

"Baby Spider-Man and Shocker, I can fight you right here and now." Miles warns ralph.

"Well, I'm afraid an old friend requests a rematch." DeVoe says as he holds up a tiny tyrannosaurus skeleton.

"I hate sequels. Especially when they change the original cast." Miles mumbles.

They start running through the pipeline as the extinct dinosaur chases after them.

"Any ideas?!" Miles asks as he and Ralph run for their lives.

"I got one." Ralph says as he starts stretching his legs higher and stops. "Come on. Little closer. Warning: fists in the pipeline are larger than they appear." He quips before enlarging his fist and punching the skeleton and it shatters.

The two return to the pipeline entrance and DeVoe has already taken over the other metahumans.

Ralph runs at him and they get sucked into another pocket dimension.

"I'm pretty sure that's the exact opposite of what we're supposed to do." Miles says to the empty pipeline, knowing Ralph was supposed to _not_ fall into DeVoe's hands.

-

May makes it to the cortex and finds the chair when Marlize comes form behind it wielding a sword.

"Ms. Parker. I was hoping we would meet." Marlize tells her.

"Yeah? Well, there's one thing I bet you didn't count on." May states as she reaches under the computers and pulls out Harry's speedster cannon. "My nephew hid gadgets and weapons all over this place. And if you mess with him, you unleash hell from me."

May starts shooting at Marlize as she uses her sword to block the attacks and Marlize kicks the gun out of her hand and May reaches under another computer and finds the taser web shooters. She quickly places it on her wrist and turn to Marlize before shooting and shocking the chair, causing it to activate and sends Marlize and the chair back and the team returns.

Cisco, Barry, Peter and Crystal got back and find May.

"Where is he?" Cisco demanded.

"You okay?" Peter asks as he runs to her.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," May assured him as he helped her sit up. "The others are still out there fighting DeVoe and the C-3PO Samurai."

Just then, Joe and Frankie walked into the Cortex carrying the Samurai's head, stuck on a sword. "Actually, now it's just DeVoe thanks to Frankie." he said, darkly and angrily, before hurrying over to Iris who just joined them.

"Breach us to him," Crystal told Cisco, feeling the thrill of the chase tingle in her body. "I'm ready to get blood on this jacket."

"That blow back in the liar blew out my breaching," Cisco grumbled.

Barry looked up. "I'll find him," he said, and flashed off.

Peter's senses go off and runs past everything and everyone before he reaches the time vault and finds Harry. With the thinking cap and using dark matter like he promised he won't.

"Maximum capacity, now!" Harry says when Peter walks up and sticks the cap to his fingers and tears it off his head, breaking it in hald. "Parker? What's did you just do?!" Harry asks him.

"You were going to overload your prefrontal cortex with dark matter! That would have..." Peter was gonna tear him a new one when he suddenly realized something. "That would have overload your mind...caused it to reset...just like DeVoe has been doing to the metahumans. Harry...I know what he's planning!" He says as he grabs his shoulders and shakes the man, finally understanding what the mad man is up to.

-

The others were waiting in the Cortex when all the screens clicked on with the same footage.

DeVoe, now in Edwin's stocky body, was standing behind Ralph who was on his knees.

"Fight it alright? Fight it! I'll save you." Barry pleads.

It was then that they all realized that DeVoe had his hand on Ralph's head. The superheroes face was glowing and orange streaked with black and he was jerking like he was having a seizure.

DeVoe was sucking his life out.

Ralph's eyes were wide, and he looked somewhere off camera that they couldn't see. "You already did, Barry," he murmured, before his head dropped and Edwin fell behind him, dead.

Cisco raised his gauntlet and grit his teeth, letting out a cry of pain as a breach flickered open in the Cortex.

The two of them leapt through and Cisco fell to one knee. He touched his ear and it came away with blood on his fingers as Peter came in the normal way. There wasn't much time to take stock of the situation however; DeVoe-Ralph's head slowly rose again, life back in his eyes.

Barry, glued to the floor by one of the many powers DeVoe now had, finally had the idea to phase. He vanished through the cement, leaving Peter, Crystal and the fairly-incapacitated Cisco to face DeVoe alone.

Peter had promised not to let DeVoe take her from Caitlin. He better keep that promise.

In a second, Barry had flashed back into the room and picked up the Sonic Scepter. He was about to hit it against the ground when DeVoe held out a lazy arm and shot him with a blast of sonic sound. Barry went flying backward and up the incline to the running circle.

Cisco was up next, running at DeVoe with a breach-blast. DeVoe opened up a pocket dimension, caught the blast, then released it directly to Cisco's left through another dimension. Cisco was tossed backward and crashed into the wall.

Peter went in and leaped to hurt DeVoe by flipping to his back and catch him off guard, but that failed when he dropped to the ground as his weight has become more than he can lift.

With the boys down, Crystal had had enough. She grit her teeth and grabbed at DeVoe's shoulder, ready to stab him through with an icicle.

DeVoe looked at her. Ralph had never had an expression so cold. "Melt," he murmured, and suddenly something was wrong.

Crystal's eyes flickered. She dropped her icicle with a gasp and stumbled forward. When she looked up again, it was Caitlin staring in horror at DeVoe.

"No!" Peter shouted as in one smooth movement, DeVoe picked Caitlin up with the levitation powers and blasted her back. She hit the rim of the ramp-entryway and fell, cracking her head against the floor when she landed.

"All the training, all the lessons you taught mr. Dibny to help him reach his full potential, this body will be the greatest gift of all." DeVoe says when suddenly the walls crush around DeVoe and wrap him up in it.

They look to the doorway and see Frankie using all her strength to keep DeVoe there and Miles comes in.

"Ah. The trainees." DeVoe mutters, unimpressed.

Miles goes invisible to sneak up on DeVoe and Frankie keeps him still. DeVoe uses a psychic attack on Frankie, causing her to cry in pain and DeVoe lifts Miles before knocking him out and escaping.

-

The team are all back in the cortex after waking up and being checked on by May and look at the photos of the metahumans they couldn't save.

"We tried to save them. But we were all outsmarted." Peter says, knowing that this is a stab for everyone.

Some failed to protect lives, some failed a friend. Now, DeVoe has everything he needs. But they now have an idea that he was planning.

Everyone started to disperse for the night and Caitlin wakes up in her labs and heads to the cortex to find Peter feeling off.

"Hey, Cait." Peter said, looking up. "It's raining outside and-"

"Peter," Caitlin said, her voice shaking. "Can you get Fox and harry? I think something's wrong."

A few minutes later they were in Caitlin's lab. It was decorated with pastel-colored sticky notes, stuck across her computer, her desk, and her office supplies.

"Well, your vitals seem okay," Fox said, putting down his scan.

"Everything looks normal." Harry agreed, reading off the tablet.

"You have to run the tests again." Caitlin was cross-legged on the bed. Her hands were shaking. "There's some feeling...I don't know what it was, but-"

Her eyes landed on Peter, who was staring off into space. "You touched DeVoe," he muttered. "Hand me the Dark Matter scanner."

Caitlin knew what the answer was before he had even finished the scan. He folded the scanner up in his hands, voice soft. "There's no trace of Dark Matter anywhere in your body."

With those words, Caitlin finally put a finger on what was so empty inside of her.

Crystal was no longer a part of her.

-

Peter and Caitlin returned home with Frankie and broke the news about her _cool_ aunt being gone.

But Peter asked Fox to look into her blood work to see if Crystal is gone for good. If she didn't come from the dark matter, maybe there's a chance Crystal was still in her.

He and Harry will tell them what they learned tomorrow.


	87. One step ahead

It was nearly three a.m. when Caitlin woke up with a gasp and flew to a sitting position.

Peter rubbed his eyes and propped himself up on his forearm to figure out what's happening.

"Cait?" Peter mumbled. "Are you okay?"

Gasping for breath, Caitlin wrapped her arms around her stomach for some reason. "Oh my God," she whispered. "Peter, I-I can't do this. We can't do this. How can we have normal lives like this?" And she burst into sobs.

Alarmed, Peter sat up and pulled her into his arms. "Hey, hey, hey, Cait, calm down," he murmured. "What's going on? Where did this come from?"

"I had this...this dream," Caitlin blubbered in his shoulder. "That we...we had a baby and-and DeVoe was still around and he needed the baby's powers for some reason and he took its body just like all the others. Except he just drained its life force and the body was just lying there on the ground, d-d-dead. It makes me afraid for Frankie. What if he tries to take her?"

"Hey, we will keep her safe." Peter promises while rubbing her back to calm her down.

Caitlin shook her head, burying her face in his shoulder. "We haven't been able to save anyone we tried to protect so far."she sobbed. "We couldn't save the metas and we couldn't save Ralph and we couldn't save Crystal...how can we-how can we protect our own child?"

"We stop DeVoe." Peter tells her.

"How?" Caitlin wonders and Peter smiles knowing this will be helpful.

-

"He wants to make everyone stupid?" Joe asks as Peter and Harry explain what they figured out to the team.

"In a nutshell, yes." Peter tells him.

"How would that work?" Barry wonders.

"He is using the bus metas powers not to use them for his plan, but to help with his plan." Harry explains.

"Powers to shrink and grow, make things as light as a feather, technology stopping abilities to keep us away. I think he's using some of these powers just to keep himself safe. Like a forcefield so we can't interfere. But his plan? Is to _enlighten_ the world." Peter says as he emphasized the word enlighten.

"He's the smartest man alive, and to him were a bunch of idiots, so he's going to reboot the entire planet's brains and _enlighten_ us all." Harry says.

"Using the dark matter that he seemed to have collected during his time here when mr. Brain Box over here went back on his promise!" Peter says sarcastically, looking directly at Harry.

"Again, I'm sorry." Harry replies. "DeVoe got in my mind and tried to take away the thing I cherish."

"Yeah, that seems to be his thing." Cisco states.

"We just need to find out how and when to stop him." Peter finishes when there was a new alarm blaring.

"Satellites are picking up three different Pocket Dimensions opening in Keystone," Barry said. He glanced over his shoulder at Caitlin, eyes bright. "Let's use-"

He broke off abruptly and spun back around, pretending it hadn't happened. Caitlin tuned out, her face falling.

Cisco and Barry were heading for the door when Fox stopped them. "Whoa whoa whoa!" she called. "They all just closed."

"What?" Peter asks.

"Hm," Cisco muttered. "Wrong coordinates? Maybe he made a mistake?"

"He doesn't make mistakes," Peter replied. "He must want something in Keystone."

"Tracey's lab," Caitlin realized. "He's going after Fallout."

Barry nodded. "Call Tracey, tell her we're coming for him, okay?"

"Wait," Caitlin stopped him. "And...do what?"

Barry shrugged cluelessly. "Just to- take him somewhere else."

"Well, we can't take him here," Cisco said. "_We_ can't even contain his fallout."

"Tracey's barely been able to contain his powers as is," Peter reminded them.

"This guy is basically a nuclear explosion waiting to go off," Cisco said. "And- I don't know about you, but I have had my fill of nuclear bombs this year."

"Okay," Barry allowed. "But if we can cool him down, we can get him somewhere safe."

Caitlin squinted thoughtfully. "What about Snart's cold gun?"

Cisco shrugged. "Well, I have a prototype but to modify it to our needs, that would take at least a day."

"We don't have that kind of time; DeVoe's coming for him." Barry states.

"DeVoe has anticipated our every move. We would need to do something he would never expect or account for." Peter adds.

"How are we supposed to get Fallout somewhere, cool him down, _and_ still throw DeVoe with a plan he doesn't see coming?" Cisco asks them.

"Call Lyla," Barry told Harry. "Lets see if Argus has anything off-the-grid."

"Okay," Harry agreed dubiously. "But what are we gonna do about the other two problems?" He wonders.

-

Barry decided to get Leonard "Leo" Snart from Earth-X to help them out.

"So," Leo recapped. "You're trying to fight a guy that acts like he's smarter than everyone, and his true-believe lover, who are hell-bent on their evil machinations at any cost."

"That seemed to sum it up." Peter tells him.

"That's right up my alley!" Leo exclaimed spinning around.

"Except DeVoe actually is smarter than everyone, Leo," Barry warned him. "He created 12 metahumans just so he could steal their powers and he left everybody dead in the process."

"Including Ralph Dibney, who was a Team member of ours," Iris added.

"I'm sorry," Leo replied. "That's rough."

Barry brushed it aside. "All these deaths have been rough," he said. "We can't dwell on it right now. We have to focus so that DeVoe doesn't figure out what we're doing and we have a shot at saving Fallout. Which is why we came to you."

"Oh, I see," Leo nodded. "I'm just outside the box enough to catch DeVoe off guard."

"That," Peter agreed. "And we need your cold gun."

Leo popped his hand on top of it protectively. "Oh? For what?"

"We've been working on a transport truck and hasmat suit in order to keep his core from raising to the point of detonation during transport." Caitlin explains. "Your cold gun would be our backup."

"Must be happy hour, and I'm the two-for-one. What about your chilly friend?" Leo asked, frowning conspiratorially at Caitlin. "She doesn't want in on the fun?"

"She's gone," Caitlin said, and left it at that.

His eyes flashed with understanding before he turned around and checked his watch. "That's too bad. Alright! You get me for 24 hours. Not a minute more."

"Wait, why not?" Cisco asked, confused.

"Because I thought I'd make Ray an honest man," Leo said, stepping towards him and then flashing his left hand. A wedding band glittered on the fourth finger. "Tomorrow."

Barry's face lit up and a smile broke over Caitlin's face. "You're getting married? That's so exciting!"

Leo nodded and stepped forward to place his hands on Barry and Peter's shoulders. "I figured if you two could make it, so could we."

The smiles faded off of Peter and Barry's faces, replaced with confusion.

"No," Peter managed, pointing over at Caitlin. "We-"

"I tease," Leo cut him off, smirking.

"Oh," Barry said, smiling and scratching his head uncomfortably.

"So where we moving him to?" Leo asks.

"ARGUS has a facility in New Brighton." Harry tells him. "High tech, high security, he should be safe there."

"How close see you to finishing the suit?" Barry asks Caitlin.

"Few more tweaks." Caitlin reported.

-

It wasn't long before the hazmat suit had been completed, and she, Joe and Leo were in the truck with Fallout.

Joe was in the drivers seat with Peter in the passenger seat, and Caitlin was on diagnostics in the bed of the truck, Leo with her.

"Rads are good," she reported to them. "Heartbeat regular."

With Fallout confirmed to be stabile, Caitlin tucked her iPad pad under her arm. To her surprise, her hand brushed a pale sticky note stuck to the side of her jacket that she hadn't noticed when she put it on.

Reading the message, she laughed a little. Leo raised his eyebrow. "On Earth-X we have a saying...if you laugh out loud, you have to share the joke. Byproduct of living on an Earth where humor is a scarce commodity."

Caitlin smiled. "It's a post-it note," she told Leo. "From Crystal Frost. It's how we talk." She paused and corrected herself. "Talked. _Broke the thermostat again, had to have Spidey fix it. I think it hates me_."

Leo smiled faintly at the message. "That's cute. Do you miss her?"

Caitlin shrugged a little, looking for the words to explain how she was feeling.. "It's not that, it's just...we were starting to become close, lately. Even with Frankie and Peter started to fully accept her. And I know how crazy that sounds considering we're talking about someone who actually _lived _inside of me."

"I'm on an alt-earth world transporting a human bomb with an escort that can literally run back to the future and another who climbs up walls," Leo replied, smirking at her. "Your story is the least crazy thing I've heard all day."

Caitlin laughed a little. "One things for sure," she said with a soft sigh. "I will miss those little notes."

Leo shrugged. "Alter-ego or not, it's okay to miss someone you've lost," he said.

That's when Barry suddenly sped in the truck. "How's he doing?" he asked Caitlin.

"Good," Caitlin replied, glancing down at her iPad to re-check. "His rads are low, vitals seem stabile. I gave him a sedative and it seems to be working."

Barry nodded quickly. He seemed anxious, buzzing with nervous energy. "Okay, good, we're almost there-"

"_Team_," Harry interrupted through the coms. "_There's pocket dimension activity_!"

As he was still speaking, the truck went zero-G. Caitlin held on to her iPad for dear life as she, Leo, Fallout and Barry all floated towards the ceiling. Then, with a bone-rattling crash, the entire truck slammed back to the ground.

"Joe, you okay?" Peter asked from the passenger side.

"We're trapped. Doors are unlocked," Joe replied, grunting a little. "But- the door is stuck. It weighs a ton."

"Coms are out," Peter realized, struggling to his feet. "DeVoe's here." He quickly grabs the roof of the truck and pries it off before leaping to join Leo and Barry.

"Where is he?" Leo asks them when Peter's senses go off and they look to see a pocket dimension opens and DeVoe exits in his real body.

"Mr. Allen. Mr. Parker." DeVoe greets them. "As usual, you're a step behind me."

"You wanna bet?" Peter asks, raising his web shooters. "You're the one who's several steps away." He quips.

"Yay, puns." Leo says sarcastically. "You Earth-1 villains and heroes are sure a hoot."

"You have no idea, mr. Snart." DeVoe replies.

"You're not taking Fallout." Barry states.

"I can, and I will, if not here and now, then after your top-secret transfer to ARGUS. Yes, I know." DeVoe says cheerfully as he points to his mind and they remember he can read their minds.

"Good, I won't have to feel guilty about doing this." Barry says as he uses Harry's sonic scepter to take him down, but it only caused DeVoe to stretch out and back.

"Well, That de-escalated quickly." Leo says.

"The minuscule sound waves produced by that toy trinket of yours are far too weak for this new body of mine. What a gift mr. Dibny provided." DeVoe mocks to the heroes. "Well, it was a gift in a manner of speaking. Right, rookie?" He asks in Ralph's voice and it causes Barry to have an episode, so Peter quickly shoots a taser web when a cry came in and sent them flying.

Not just any cry. A canary scream.

"That's it," Fallout cried, unstrapping himself from his chair and hopping to his feet. "I'm leaving."

Caitlin darted in front of him. The plan had gone south but there was still a tiny chance they could keep Fallout safe. "No! I need you to stay here and _calm down_. Neil, wait-!"

It was too late.

Fallout yanked open the truck's doors and sunlight poured inside. Caitlin froze. Laurel Lance of Warth-X was standing holding a chunky gun at Peter's head.

"I want you all to listen to me very carefully," she ordered. "And hopefully I won't have to raise my voice. This truck is now _mine_."

Peter quickly gets up and sees DeVoe left through a pocket dimension and he sends a taser web to Lance and shocks her, sending her dropping.

"I'm getting sick of my ex's doppelgängers." Peter complains as he limps back up.

-

The rest of the transport went off without a hitch and Leo took the Laurel doppelgänger back to his earth.

Cisco even gave him Snart's old jacket and a breach device so he can come back and ask for help if needed to.

Peter found Caitlin back in the labs and finds Fox sent her results on her blood work.

"Hey, what are you up to?" Peter asks her.

"I don't know." Caitlin admits.

"Well, moving a dangerous metahuman across the state, keeping him safe, rescuing lives. Seems we're still strong even without Crystal, maybe she got the badassary from you." Peter tells her.

"You know, the thing I realized is even though I can live without Crystal, I don't want to." Caitlin says.

"And what did the Fox say?" Peter jokingly asks.

"I've been too afraid to find out." Caitlin admits while chuckling at his joke.

Peter walks behind her and caresses her shoulders. "Then lets do this how we've always done it; together." He says and Caitlin agrees and pulls up Fox's report and they look surprised.

"It's saying the reason the dark matter isn't registering in my body because there is none." Caitlin says. "But...Fox did say that she didn't come from the dark matter and there's another cryogenic anomaly in my DNA."

"That means she's still a part of you." Peter says happily.

"Just means we just have to figure out how to get her to appear." Caitlin says just as happy.

-

The first thing Caitlin and Peter did the next morning was work on the Crystal problem.

After some scientific consultation with Harry and Cisco, Caitlin was set up in the Speed Lab for some experimental get-Crystal-back attempts.

"The thing to do to get Crystal Frost to appear," Harry was saying as he connected a few wires to stickers on Caitlin's upper chest. "Is to get that massive spike in your adrenaline. So Ramon is going to use his vibes to shake-" he jostled her shoulders, as a demonstration, "you on a cellular level and let's see if we can't get your old friend Crystal Frost to come out to play."

Caitlin nodded her acquiescence.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Iris asked uncertainly.

"Well, I mean, like with any hypothesis, you test it to get answers. That's what we've all done since the fourth grade; it's known as the Scientific method." Harry supplied. "Ah!" He'd just spotted Cisco, who jogged into the Speed Lab with his hair bouncing behind him. "Here he is. Okay, good. So. Get in position!"

"Don't worry," Cisco said as he moved to his spot in front of Caitlin. "I lowered the amps on this thing."

Caitlin felt a knot twist in her gut but she smiled weakly and gave him a thumbs up.

"Ramon, you set?" Harry asked.

"Yep."

"Snow, you ready?"

Caitlin narrowed her eyes a little and planted her feet, preparing herself as Cisco tucked his hair back behind his ears and raised his gauntlet-covered hand. "I'm ready."

"Three...two...one...and..."

Cisco let loose a fairly gentle vibe blast. The blue light went straight through Caitlin's midsection and out the other side and she spread her hands, waiting eagerly to feel Crystal take her body.

But she didn't feel anything at all.

Frowning, Caitlin glanced down at her body. "Nothing," she reported with a shrug.

"Alright, Ramon. More power," Harry ordered.

Cisco tried again, and this time Caitlin felt a little bit of a burn when the vibe hit her. But there was still no Crystal Frost, and his frustration started to rise.

"You know what? This isn't working," Harry decided. "Ramon, full power."

"Whoa, whoa, hold on. What do you mean _full power_?" Peter asked, looking at Harry with a slightly irritated expression on his face. "We don't want to blast Caitlin across the Speed Lab."

"Well, we want to spike her adrenaline," Harry said, shrugging blankly.

Now it was May's turn to look at him incredulously. "Harry, she could get injured."

"Well, I...this is...this is gonna work," Harry spluttered, making his way from the monitor back down to the floor of the Speed Lab. "Look, nothing has changed, alright? Snow's DNA tests, they confirm it. Her DNA was not spliced by Melting Point's powers."

"Yeah, but she doesn't have the same metahuman DNA as the others. She's like me and the mutants, not like metahumans. So what works for metahumans might just not work on her." Peter suggests.

"Good point." Harry snaps his fingers pointing at him seeing his reasoning. "We'll find out a way to make her come out." He promises Caitlin.

"Thank you for trying." Caitlin tells him.

-

Barry, Cisco were called in and found DeVoe stole a Alloy 1771 and they learned it's some sort of solar panel that they see this was part of something he's working on.

They called Gypsy to help them and they figured out that DeVoe's next target would be a shipping container down by the dox, but instead of catching him, Cisco and Gypsy ended up locked in a serious argument, DeVoe escaped with a new piece of tech, and the Team was back to square one.

By the time Team Spider-Flash reconvened, Instead of figuring out what DeVoe was planning, the two of them were thrown forcefully back.

Barry ran over to Cisco and Caitlin and Peter hurried over to Gypsy. Thankfully, both of them were fine, but Caitlin herded them into her lab to make absolutely sure there was no lasting damage, physically or powerfully.

When she walked out of her lab about a half hour later, Peter glanced up worriedly. "Are they okay?" he wondered.

She could tell he felt bad, and gave him a half-smile. "Tests show that, physically, they're fine. As a couple...not so much."

Peter gritted his teeth and began to walk towards Caitlin's lab. "Excuse me, mister, where are you going?" she asked him, raising her eyebrow.

"To find out what we can do, we gotta try and get ahead of DeVoe somehow." Peter explained. He turned back to the lab but Caitlin grabbed at him.

"Hold on," she said, giving his arm a squeeze. "I love you for trying, Barry, but...I think you've maybe done enough."

Peter looked at her, uncomprehending.

"Cisco and Gypsy are clearly going through something," Caitlin went on. "And it's not up to us to counsel them through it."

"Well then, who's it up to?" Peter asked, already trying to pull away.

"Just stop for a second," Caitlin pleaded.

"We can't stop!" Peter cried. "The second we do, everyone could fall apart. The Team's hanging on by a thread...even I'm hanging on by a thread."

"But we're hanging on," Caitlin reminded him.

"But for how long?" Peter asked. "Look what's happening, Cait. DeVoe is killing innocent people, killing our friends. He's stealing pieces of tech to make us idiots! Just trying to keep up with him is tearing us apart."

"Peter," Caitlin murmured, rubbing his arm. "It's not your job to hold everyone together. We are all struggling, and we all have to work through those struggles in the way that is best for us. For me, that is trying to get Crystal back. For Cisco and Gypsy, that's being able to work through their differences and their issues in their _own way_. Problems within a couple are hard enough at it is. I can't imagine the added stress of having to co-vibe to find DeVoe resting all on their shoulders is helping any."

Peter leaned back against the desk, his face falling a little. "I remember when I was about to think my way out of situations. Octopus, Rhino, Scorpion, Juggernaut, mr. Negative, Electro. I was able to defeat them even when they thought ahead. I was able to keep my sanity. But it feels like that's DeVoe's grand plan. Drive me to insanity."

"I know it's hard," Caitlin said softly as she rubs his shoulder. "I want Cisco to be happy just as much as you do. But sometimes, you have to let them figure out things on their own, whether their together or apart."

Peter blinked, a wondering expression coming over his face. "Wait, that's it," he muttered, turning to face her with a smile. "The pieces of tech don't seem to fit together because they don't. DeVoe's not building one thing. He's building multiple. But what is the question."

Peter then called everyone in to see how they think of his breakthrough.

"They're machines. Machines that work together, but they're still separate. Satellites." Peter says as blueprints show on the computers how the pieces work.

"So this guy really is a Bond villain." Cisco jokes.

"DeVoe would need a massive amount of computational power for these to be able to work." Harry tells them.

"Something that could triangulate navigation between each satellite." Barry agrees.

"Like a quantum computer?" Caitlin asks and looks to Peter who's now worried.

"Did we miss something?" May asks seeing their faces.

"Parker Industries. We just put a whole system of quantum computers online at our home base." Fox explains.

"But we might be able to catch devoe if we work together." Peter says and pulls his phone calling for backup.

-

DeVoe and Marlize walk through a pocket dimension portal and into the server room with the quantum computers.

"Behold. The key to communicating our message of the Enlightenment." DeVoe says as they walk through.

"Polynomial time computing." Marlize tells him.

"And a dream shall soon become...reality." DeVoe says as he starts using Dwarf Star's powers to shrink the computers and Marlize goes to pick them up.

Barry speeds in and Peter webbed the case holding the computers to him as DeVoe is crashed into their servers.

Miles comes in and webs DeVoe's hands and legs and Cisco stops Marlize.

Barry speeds around the room to charge a lightning strike and Gypsy hits him with a vibe blast.

"Stop it, you're killing him!" Marlize begs and takes down Cisco and she pulls out a sword that starts to float and they see Frankie is there wearing a makeshift outfit Cisco was able to throw together for her.

It was no different to Ralph's first suit design, but the mask was red tinted goggles that only covered her eyes.

"Sorry, I like my brain." Frankie quips as DeVoe starts to fight against Gypsy's attacks and Peter shoots him with a taser web.

"Enough!" DeVoe says as he does a super clap and sends them all flying when they hear the cold gun whirring ad see Caitlin holding the cold gun.

Without hesitation, Caitlin pressed the trigger on the cold gun and DeVoe was coated in a coat of ice.

"_Caitlin_." Harry squawked. "_What the heck are you doing_?!"

Caitlin gritted her teeth. "Bringing her back," she said, and let go of the trigger.

The ice exploded, and the ringing intensified sharply in volume. Caitlin's hand slapped instinctively over her ear as she felt pain shoot through her head. The moment she'd recovered, however, DeVoe waved his hand and she was immobilized along with everyone else in the room.

"Oh I get it," DeVoe said thoughtfully. "You'd like me to frighten you into becoming your better half." He smirked a little. "Gladly."

With another waved of his hand, Peter was lifted off of the ground in what looked like the DeVoe version of a force choke. Peter would have made the quip, but he can barely open his mouth.

It appears even DeVoe is sick of hearing his voice.

"DeVoe!" Barry grunted, pushing himself up.

Irritated, DeVoe rolled his eyes and immobilized him again. "Ugh. Children should be seen and not heard. Though..." he glanced over at Caitlin. "I'm very sure seeing your bestie die would be frightening enough, but I can't kill the Flash!" He paused. "Well. Not just yet. No, my plan for the enlightenment requires his further participation."

Still unable to move, Caitlin could only watch in horror as DeVoe dragged Peter forward. "You, however...are somewhat less fortunate."

Peter feels nothing in his throat as he gaps for air.

"Now, do you feel that around your throat? That is the gravitational equivalent of my boot busting your windpipe." DeVoe says when they get interrupted by parts of the metal wall being thrown at them and DeVoe gets knocked down and they see Frankie is using her powers, even while immobilized.

"Stay away from him!" Frankie commands as Marlize and DeVoe escape with the case and everyone was able to get back up.

-

Knowing his plan was comforting, though finding out what it was unnerved them all. Still, there was a certain occasion the West family had been planning for quite awhile, that being Cecile's baby shower.

Joe and Iris were insistent that it wouldn't be put off, and so the Team took a break from everything for that evening.

Speaking of breaking, Gypsy and Cisco broke up after Cisco got when he went to look at their Earth.

But Cisco was surprised how many heroes are apart of their world. They have their own Spider-Man, their own Flash, their own Vibe, their own Killer Frost and everyone they know. Even a few other heroes. Cal Kestus, Wolverine, Cyclops, Elongated Man, Thor, Hulk. It was confusing to him nonetheless.

"Oh Cisco," Caitlin murmured as she listened to her best friend spill the entire story of how he and Gypsy had decided to end things because he wanted to take the next step and she was just fine where they were. "Cisco, I'm so sorry. Do you want to skip the party tonight? I can head to your place and we can binge all of your favorite _Star Wars_ movies and eat all the junk you want. I won't even comment on the nutritional factors."

Cisco let out a laugh, but Caitlin could tell he was crying. "No, no, it's fine," he declined. "I just, um...I wanted to tell you. I'll come to the party. I could use a drink, anyway."

"Okay," Caitlin replied simply.

At the party, Peter and Caitlin talked alone for a minute about what occurred. "Listen, Cait, can we keep the minimum of you running into the field, virtually defenseless, to try and scare yourself into getting Crystal back?"

"I don't blame you for being upset," Caitlin began, biting her lip hesitantly.

"I'm not upset," Peter interrupted her. "I'm just worried. Are you going to keep doing things like that? I know you're desperate to get Crystal back, so am I. But what if trying to get her back leads to me having to lose you, too?"

"I know, I know." Caitlin let out a sigh and put her hand on her boyfriend's arm, giving it a squeeze. "I'm not going to do anything like that again. Trust me. Clearly, it didn't work, and trying it again while expecting different results wouldn't be smart." She hesitated, not sure how much she should delve into the thoughts she'd been having about how to solve her issue. She decided to be a little vague. "I just...There are a few more things I need to try before I can give up hope on Frost entirely."

"And those things are...?" Peter asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Remember how I told you that sometimes you need to let people do things on their own?" Caitlin said, not answering. "This is one of them. I love you, Peter, and I love you for caring. But I can't have your or anyone else on the team try to stop me from doing what I feel I need to do."

He nodded, giving in with surprising ease. "Okay," he agreed. "But promise me one thing."

"What?"

"Keep yourself safe." Peter begged, cupping her face in his hands. "Do what you need to do, but if you're going to try something dangerous, bring me along or let Fox know. I won't try to stop you, but I will stop at nothing to keep you or Frankie safe."

Caitlin's lips quirked a little and she nodded, leaning forward to rest her forehead on his shoulder.

"I promise." She assures him.


	88. Last chance

"So, last night, Harry, Peter, Cisco and I spent all night running all the different algorithms we could think of involving the satellite tech that DeVoe stole," Caitlin began as they all return to Star labs.

"We think DeVoe plans to position each of his five satellites in different calculated points around the globe," Cisco added.

"And when the quantum computers in each satellite link up..." Peter starts.

"He'll use that network to basically emit a series of Dark Matter bursts." Caitlin adds.

"Rebooting the prefrontal cortex of every man, woman and child on this Earth," Peter finished.

"What did we say about the two of you finishing each others sentences?" Cisco asks, getting freaked out how well they think alike.

"Well, we need to nip this in the bud," Joe said. "We can't let him launch those satellites."

Fox looked blank. "Yeah, but...how are we supposed to find him? I mean, we haven't been able to register DeVoe's pocket dimension breach energy for days."

"And with Null's gravitational powers, he can launch these satellites from any place, any time," Caitlin added.

Barry had drifted away from the desks to look at the little satellites-surrounding-the-planet animation Harry had concocted at some point during their more delirious 3am moments the night before. "Yeah, he can," he breathed, but there was something in his voice that sounded more curious than hopeless.

Peter seemed to catch that note, too. "What're you thinking, man?"

"I think we should shoot them down," Barry said with a shrug that belied the huge idea he'd just dumped on them.

"One small problem," Cisco spoke up. "DeVoe has Killgore's powers."

"Yeah, can manipulate any tech-based weapon we fire at him," Joe agreed.

"So, we don't use tech," Barry concluded. "We use...what about Frankie? Can she like yank them down with her metal powers?" Barry asks Peter.

"If you mean while in orbit, they will plummet to earth and kill us. If you mean beforehand, the metal he stole is nonmetallic. Metallica's not even prepared for something like that." Peter answers.

"Okay, then we need to find a different organic matter weapon." Barry says and they all leave to find what they can.

As they leave, Harry is left to wonder why exactly DeVoe hasn't already done it.

"What are you thinking?" May asks Harry.

"He has everything. The pieces, the power, the means to already launch the satellites. So why hasn't he done it already?" Harry asks her.

May shrugs her shoulders, not knowing herself. "Want some help to find out?"

"I'd like some help." Harry agrees.

-

"Hey, Caitlin?" Joe asked as he goes to her labs. "Do you have any Ibuprofen? Reading up on all this organic matter has given me an organic migraine."

Smiling a little, Caitlin reached for the probably-overused bottle of pills resting on her desk and tossed them to him.

"Thanks," Joe said, before he actually looked at her for the first time. Caitlin smiled pleasantly at him, two acupuncture needles sticking out of her face. "You have a little.. uh..."

"Acupuncture," Caitlin explained, reaching for a cotton pad to take out the needle. "Ever since I found out I still have a cryogenic anomaly in my DNA, I've been trying every medical avenue I can think of to get Crystal to emerge."

"You really do miss her, don't you?" Joe asked softly.

"Yeah," Caitlin said with a shrug. "Crystal was apart of me, and just as I was starting to accept her, she was taken away." She let out a sigh. "I'm running out of ideas."

Joe took a few steps forward. "Well, I know it's not exactly the same, but I've had my fair share of missing persons cases."

"What do you do when you hit a wall?"

"I try to attack it from a different direction," Joe responded simply. "If that helps."

She smiled up him, nodding contemplatively, and he thanked her for the pills and walked out of her lab.

Caitlin turned slowly back to her computer, her thoughts racing. She might just have a solution that could solve both her and the Team's problems. A moment later, she leapt to her feet and called the Team back in again.

-

"We've been attacking this from the wrong direction," she began once everyone had gathered. "We know we need a tech free projectile to stop DeVoe's satellites, and we've been looking for an object. But what we need...is a person. Amunet."

Everyone's eyebrows went up as Peter let out a laugh. "Amunet Black?" He repeated, incredulous.

"I know she's no the ideal choice, but Amunet's psychically powered alnico shards are not only deadly powerful, they're completely immune to DeVoe's Killgore powers," Caitlin insisted.

"Not ideal?" Peter repeated, unfortunately only grasping on to the first thing she'd said. "I mean, she kidnapped you. She tried to sell me into mutant-slavery. She forced me to team up with Deadpool!"

"And she ruined my bachelorette party!" Iris added unhappily.

Barry sent her an odd look, not feeling like that was really the worst of the things Amunet had done that Iris could have mentioned. "That's not..."

"Yeah, we can't partner up with Amunet," Joe agreed firmly. "She's a criminal."

Caitlin spread her hands. "Snart's a criminal. So was Crystal Frost. We work with them."

"Even if we forgive Amunet for everything she's done," Peter said as Caitlin walked around her desk, looking at him imploringly.

"Which is a lot." Iris adds.

"Shh!" Peter tells her, getting annoyed by Iris. "What makes you say she'd be willing to help us?" He wonders.

"I've seen a different side of her," Caitlin replied. "She's helped me before, and I believe she'll do it again."

Joe, Peter and Barry looked around at each other, but Caitlin felt a smile pulling at her lips.

She knew she'd convinced them.

"Alright," Peter said as he faced Caitlin in his suit. "You ready?"

She looked at him, surprised. "Just like that? You're letting me tag along without putting up any fight at all?"

Peter pulled a face at her, knowing his was only partially teasing. "Hey, I meant what I said, I don't plan to hold you back, but I'm not going to let you go at it alone, either. That goes for everything, not just finding Crystal."

"Duly noted," Caitlin said with a smile, and then offered him her arm. "Shall we?"

-

In moments, they made it to to Amunet's hideout, the dim, underground area that Caitlin had spent so much time in as Frost when she'd been working for the crime lady.

Peter dropped them in front of a boxing ring, where two women wearing tank tops and large gloves were sparring.

"This isn't what I expected Amunet's new hideout to look like," Peter admitted as he glanced around.

"I might have made a few changes," a voice from behind them said, as Caitlin and Peter spun around to find Norvock, everyone's favorite snake-eye crazy, coming around the corner with two gun-wielding men.

The men raised said guns and cocked them, but before they could fire, Peter had webbed them grabbed both the weapons and yanked them out of their hands. "Really boys?" he asked, unimpressed, as he dropped the guns to the ground at his feet.

"You trying to get us killed?" Norvok asked his men. "That's Spider-Man, you morons. And Caitlin may look like a librarian, but she's a cold hearted beast."

Caitlin raised an eyebrow at the description of her fashion, and decided to mostly ignore him. "Where's Amunet?" she asked.

"Really?" Norvok asked, waving his bodyguards away and walking closer to the two of them. "No..._hello Norvok. How you been_? You're not even gonna introduce me to your boyfriend?"

"Norvok," Caitlin grit out, taking a threatening step forward. This may have been her _librarian_ side, but she had picked a few things up from Crystal Frost over the past few months. "Where's Amunet?"

"No one's heard a peep from her in months." Norvok responded finally. "For all I know...the witch is dead." He clacked his teeth together and smirked as Caitlin sent a frustrated glance at her boyfriend.

-

"So, Amunet's gone?" Barry recapped after Peter and Caitlin returned to Star Labs with the bad news.

"Well, apparently after her deal with Agent Smith took a nosedive, and after their last encounter, she's been out of the Meta trafficking business. Probably afraid Wade would decapitate her." Peter tells them.

"Who's Wade?" Cisco asks.

"Long story, I'll tell you later." Peter promises.

"Caitlin," Joe asked, looking over at her. "Do you know any personal details that can help track her down?"

"I don't know," Caitlin murmured. "Amunet's always been kind of a private person. Unpredictable, rash...kind of fly by the seat of your pants..." She trailed off, the word 'fly' bringing her back to one detail she remembered Amunet telling her when they'd sort-of-bonded while she was being held captive. "You know, when she kidnapped me at Christmas she said she used to be a flight attendant. I think she was on an airplane the night the Particle Accelerator exploded."

"Okay, that we can work with," Cisco declared and fiddled with the computer for a second. "Yeah, looks like there were 35 flights in the air in Central City the night of the Particle Accelerator Explosion."

"Cisco, can you access the flight manifests?" Joe requested.

"Yes I can," Cisco replied. "And I can take the crews credentials, cross reference them-"

"In the facial recognition?" Barry finished.

Cisco looked up at him, disgruntled. "Can you not read my mind?"

Barry shrugged apologetically.

A few seconds later, a headshot of a familiar-looking flight attendant popped up on a wall monitor. "Her real name is Leslie Jocoy," Caitlin read off, wrinkling her nose.

"Maybe she's operating under her real name, not her pseudonym," Barry suggested.

"Well, she didn't have a criminal record until the Particle Accelerator, so it's not a bad plan." Peter put in.

Joe was frowning down at his phone. "CCPD has several prior work addresses for Leslie Jocoy."

"Alright, let's pay them all a visit," Barry said, nodding.

-

Joe, Peter and Caitlin lucked out.

In a back area of the rundown store where Amunet used to work, there was a whole hidden casino. And at the head of it all was Amunet herself.

It didn't take Joe and Peter long to scare everyone out with his badge and the appearance of Spider-Man helped, and soon it was just the two of them and Amunet left in the room. She looked up at Caitlin, displeasure written all over her expression.

"Leslie," Caitlin greeted, trying not to smirk at the knowledge of Amunet's real name.

Amunet took a sip from her glass of alcohol. "Caity," she replied. "Leave it to your crafty little brain to figure out my dark secret." Her seemingly-friendly smile dropped off her face. "What're you doing here?"

"Calling your bluff," Caitlin said, deciding to try some casino-themed lingo, considering the location. "I knew you were still alive."

"No one could kill me," Amunet agreed.

"What's with the accent?" Peter asks, remembering she had a British accent.

"Part of my disguise. Had to blend in. Now I'm just your average American blonde making an honest living." Amunet explained to him.

"This is still illegal." Peter informed her.

"Well, more honest than my last job I suppose." She corrects, "besides, you know what they say. A zebra never changes its stripes." Still smiling slightly, she turned around and lifted a large canvas bucket onto the table. It hit the wood with a distinct clink of metal, and Caitlin immediately knew what was inside.

Joe seemed to catch on, too. "Flash," he said, touching his hand to the com at his ear.

Barry was there in a second and Amunet jumped, startled. "Oh!" she cried. "Flash. You really do stop all the crime in the city, don't you?"

She hovered a hand over the bucket and her skin was immediately coated with metal shards. Caitlin moved to take cover and Joe raised his gun, Peter gets ready to web her, but Amunet fired at Barry. He dodged it easily, and then grabbed the shards as they became a bommerang before leveled Amunet with a stare.

"I'm not here to fight," Barry said. "We need your help."

-

"Oh. Look! A little hidey-hole for your outfits, and you have a bundle of them." Amunett says looking at the small collection of Spider-Men outfits Peter keeps at the labs for when DeVoe shows up again.

"Hi, excuse me. You don't seem too concerned that some madman's about to launch satellites to reboot our minds." Cisco tells her as Peter and Barry are in their outfits in front of the monitors.

"Oh, no, my dear boy, I find it very troubling." Amunet admits. "The professor turning everyone in the world into a dimwit is tragic. It's brilliant. But tragic."

"So will you work with us?" Barry asks her.

"You gonna help us stop DeVoe?" Peter asks.

"Just, one question...that thing, why do you still have it on?" Amunet asks Peter regarding his mask.

Peter looks at Barry and laughs. "It keeps my identity a secret."

Amunet then takes her turn to laugh. "No, it's doing a terrible job. You see, that stoic jawline, patrician profile, even the voice. You're so obviously that man that was brought in and that other red and menace showed up before killing Agent Smith. May he Rest In Peace."

Peter looks between Caitlin and Barry and just starts taking it off.

"Come on." Amunet encourages.

"I'm doing it." Peter says and with one swift motion, he takes it off his head revealing his face.

"Hello, handsome." Amunet greets him.

"Hello, crazy." Peter greets.

"To think I had the spectacular Spider-Man in my grasp. What a pretty penny I could have gotten for that sale." Amunet wines.

"Amunet." Caitlin calls, getting her off the topic of selling her boyfriend. "Focus."

"Ah! Okay. So...on the one hand, I am more dictator than team player. But on the other...DeVoe stupefying the planet will be bad for business, so I'll do it. Unfortunately, there's a but."

"Of course there is." Cisco complains.

"You see, in life, I have found that bigger isn't always better. But in this case..." Amunet says holding up the bag of shards.

"You need more shards to take out something as big as a satellite." Peter guesses.

"I can see why Caity likes you." Amunet comments.

"So where'd you get those?" Barry asks.

"From the plane I was on when the particle accelerator exploded. They were in the cargo bay en route to a military facility." Amunet explains. "You see, normally I would just pop down to my storage locker to grab my big job stash, but last week, a naughty boy, or girl, or non binary gendered individual, snuck in and robbed the place."

"We should check your storage unit." Barry says. "There might still be some clues. You got anything in your spider suits for CSI'ing?" He asks Peter.

"Back at the cave, yeah, probably." Peter says and Barry speeds him there.

While they did that, Caitlin drags Amunet to talk alone.

"I didn't just bring you here to ask you to help us stop DeVoe," Caitlin admitted.

"An ulterior motive," Amunet murmured. "How furtive. After all...why go to all the hassle of procuring me when Killer Frost could quite easily just ice-blast those satellites down."

"_Crystal_ Frost is gone," she emphasized on her real name, not the news given name. "Remember last year, when I came to you because she was taking over? You fixed me.

"My transmodular genetic splicer." Amulet understands.

"I need to use that splicer again."

Amunet tsked softly, walking over to her. "Caity..." she murmured. "One of the reasons I was so willing to help you and your friends with your professor situations is because it also benefits me. But giving you my splicer...not as beneficial."

Caitlin took a breath. She had hoped it wouldn't have to come to this, but she was willing to do quite a lot to get her back, at this point. "What if I make you a deal?" she offered. "You give me the splicer, Killer Frost and I will do you onefavor."

"Oh...that is a tempting offer," Amunet murmured, looking eager. "But unfortunately...my splicer was stashed right alongside my additional shards."

"Okay," Caitlin said, nodding determinedly. "Wherever we find your shards, we should also find your splicer."

-

That scene turned out to be an abandoned train yard.

"This is where you kept your stash?" Caitlin said incredulously, bending to open up Barry's CSI stuff he brought.

"Well, I got something," Peter reported as his scanners pick up something. "Some sort of substance on the locks. Looks like they applied it to break the door open."

"Young man, David Caruso's got nothing in you." Amunet says while laughing.

"Why couldn't Deadpool get you when he had the chance?" Peter wonders knowing they need her, but back then they didn't know she would be needed.

Barry put a sample into a tube to see how it reacted, and Caitlin peered at the results. "Hemotoxic venom," she said as the liquid in the vial turned yellowish-green.

Amunet's face, which had been lit up as she watched them work, turned stormy. "Oh, that grotty, manky, plug-ugly prat dare betray me?!" She as as she stalked away from them, growling almost-inarticulate curses about a certain someone under her breath.

"I take it she knows who did this?" Barry asked, glancing over at Caitlin.

She sighed, realizing they had gone full circle. "So do you both. Norvok."

"And I guarantee that snake for brains will suffer." Amunet promises.

-

Not only were they back to square one, but Amunet was furious and Caitlin was antsy.

"If Norvock thinks he can steal from me and get away with it, he has got another thing coming." Amunet promises for about the twelfth time in the last minute.

"I can't believe this is happening." Caitlin states.

"The satellites aren't picking up any traces of your alnico metal anywhere in the city," Cisco said with a sigh.

"Norvok may be a moron," Amunet growled. "But he's not stupid enough to keep the stash out in the open."

Barry flashed in at that moment.

"Did you find anything?" Joe asked hopefully.

"No," Barry said, looking annoyed. "Norvok and the box weren't in the ring anymore."

"Of course not," Amunet cried. "Because you and your gang of heroes tipped him off that something was up!"

Barry pointed to himself incredulously and Caitlin strode over to Cisco. "Have you expanded the satellites to beyond Central City?"

Cisco raised an eyebrow at her. "Yeah, of course I did, girl I know what I'm doing." He assures her.

"What about trying facial recognition?" Caitlin asks.

"Yes, of course." Fox assures her.

"And what about a geological scan of the metas signature like last time or-or having run another algorithm to check the electromagnetic fields in the city?" Caitlin keeps badgering them.

"Yes, Caitlin. We've done all that. We've run all the tests." Cisco tells her.

"We're doing everything we can," Barry said, looking at her steadily. "Alright? We're gonna find Norvok and the shards."

His confidence did nothing to reassure her. She turned and started pacing towards the exit, but Joe's voice stopped her. "Caitlin," he said. "Is this about her stolen shards? Or her tech?"

Caitlin gave him a panicked look, but the cat was out of the bag.

"What?" Peter gaze swiveled to her and his eyebrows furrowed. "What tech?"

"Amunet has splicer technology that she used to split Killer Frost last year," Caitlin admitted finally, her voice dull. "I was hoping to use it again to get Crystal Frost to come out, but it was hidden with her metal shards in the storage container."

"Why...why wouldn't you tell us that?" Barry asked.

Caitlin broke his gaze, unable to look at them. "Because I made Amunet a deal. If she helped me, Crystal Frost would do another job for her."

Joe spoke again. "But that splicer tech your only hope-"

"Yes it is, Joe!" Caitlin cried, her voice wobbling a little as her eyes welled up. "I have tried _everything_ I can think of to get Crystal Frost to appear, and _that_ was my last shot." She shook her head. "So now she's gone for good." She then storms out of the room.

Peter shrugs as she leaves. "She didn't tell us about the splicer, and maybe she only wanted Amunet here so that she could fix her powers. But the fact of the matter still stands that Amunet _is_ going to be able to help us. And if she can help Caitlin in the process..." he shrugged again. "I'm glad we asked her for help."

In truth, Amunet ended up being just what Caitlin and the team needed.

-

When Caitlin heard footsteps outside of the pipeline, she thought it was Peter. Instead, Amunet came creeping around the corner, her excessively spidery eyelashes fluttering as she blinked at Caitlin hesitantly.

"What're you doing here, Amunet?" Caitlin asked, letting out a breath.

"Oh Caity..." Amunet murmured, scootching a bit closer. "I hate to see you so torn up like this! So I'm going to tell you something that'll cheer you up: That splicer...did not cure you."

Caitlin blinked, looking at her, uncomprehending what she was just told. "What?"

"Well, you-" another inch closer. "You'd come to me so broken, so needy...and so I put that piece of tech on your head and...nothing! It did not work on you."

"So you decided to lie to me rather than tell me that?" Caitlin recaps.

"Mhm," Amunet chirped. "But just because the splicer didn't technically work doesn't mean that the results were not the same."

"How?" Caitlin gaped. "That doesn't make any sense..." She trailed off suddenly, a thought occurring. "It was a placebo," she realized softly.

"You see?" Amunet murmured. "It's been inside you the entire time. Caity, your power is unlike anything I've ever seen before and no science kit or placebo is going to explain...a placebo...a fake."

"What are talking about?" Caitlin asks, getting lost.

"I know exactly where Norvock is." Amunet tells her.

-

A moment later, they made to some substation underground where Norvock was planning to sell her shards.

Barry, Peter, who decided Frankie could help with it being a metal factory and she needs the heroic practice, all appear in front of Norvock.

"This deal's off. Those shards belong to Amunet." Barry tells him.

"Well, if that decrepit hag didn't want them stolen, she shouldn't have told me where she hid them." Norvock tells them.

"You should have phrased that nicer." Peter says as Amunet approaches from behind.

"Decrepit? That's a big word for such a small man." Amunet tells him.

"Amunet, we've got this." Barry tells her.

"There are some things that a woman just cannot delegate." Amunet say and sends shards flying out to kill him.

Frankie raised her hands and stopped them mid-flight.

Barry sped up to stop Norvock, only to get sprayed from him.

Peter sees the shards truck driving away when Frankie decides to focus on that and use her power to stop it from driving off.

Joe helped by blowing out its wheels with his gun, and Caitlin created a giant chandelier of ice to land on the gunmen's heads.

Peter runs to help Barry as he sees the others have everything handled and he pulls out a special antidote that Fox whipped up after their first encounter with him and injects it into Barry and it starts to work on Barry.

"Whew. At least we know that this works." Peter says.

Caitlin and Joe released the shards and Amunet calls them as Frankie dodges them with a magnetic forcefield around her that push the shards around her and Amunet uses them to create a metallic mask around Norvok's face and eye-snake.

Joe and Caitlin raced towards Amunet and Norvok and Barry got to his feet. Peter and Frankie meet back up as they don't know what to do.

"Amunet!" Barry yelled as the crime lady raised her shard-encrusted fist and prepared to kill Norvok with it. "Don't kill him."

"He's more than earned it," Amunet said, lip wrinkling.

"It's not about him, it's about you," Barry panted, still out of breath from the poison that had just been in his system.

"Amunet," Caitlin said urgently, picking up the slack. "There is a good part of you. I truly believe that."

There was a tense moment where Amunet just glared at Norvok as he clutched at his face, trying to wrench the metal mask off.

"Fine," she relented finally, and pulled the metal away from Norvok's face. He inhaled raspily, snake-eye thrashing in the air. Amunet wrinkled her nose. "But the snake has got to go," she decided, and promptly sliced it off of his face.

Frankie grimaced as the chopped snake came flying off of Norvok's eye and landed, still squirming, at her feet. Norvok let out a howl of pain and got to his feet, stumbling for the exit.

"Like Norvok," Amunet segwayed. "I must be on my way."

She turned, and was about to head out, when Peter stopped her with a web around her fist. "N-n-n-no! Hey! If you leave there is no way we can stop DeVoe's satellite."

Amunet paused, wincing.

"She was never gonna help us," Joe grumbled. "She just wanted her metal."

That, surprisingly, made Amunet turn. "Oh! Truthfully, I did consider it. I did. But a...good player knows when to fold and the professor certainly has a better hand, so..." She shrugged. "Don't try to stop me. After all, I am packing." She gestured to her new enlarged hand of shards.

"I can stop those, you know." Frankie warns her.

"There nowhere you can go where DeVoe's satellites won't reach you," Caitlin said, her voice hard. She knew that self-preservation would be one thing that would reach Amunet, and she was willing to play to that. "If you leave now, you'll be mind-melted just like the rest of us."

Amunet let out a deep sigh, a crease forming between her eyebrows. "Good point. Just for the record, this is not me helping. It is entirely self preservation." she warns, and began to spin her fingers over her palm.

In a few moments, a ball of metal shards had formed, and she passed it carefully to Caitlin. "Filled with shrapnel and bound with my metahuman _je ne sei qua_. Pull a shard, throw it, it will deliver one savage concussive blow. You only get one shot." She looked at Caitlin deliberately. "I know you won't waste it."

Smiling a little, Caitlin nodded.

"Go save the world, my darling," Amunet whispered, and then she was off by a tornado of shards.

"Shouldn't we stop her?" Frankie asks.

"Meh, if she causes trouble, we'll stop her. Besides, I don't think we can stop her like that." Peter tells her.

"At least she didn't leave us empty handed." Barry says.

-

Back at Star labs, Cisco was looking at the snake eye they brought back.

"Eye snakes. Why'd it have to be Eye snakes?" Cisco says.

"Yeah, it's not as cool as it sounds. The first encounter, or second encounter." Peter tells him.

"Guys, I'm sorry I got so worked up with Amunet around," Caitlin said once everyone had reconvened in the Cortex.

"It's okay," May said.

"Amunet still gave us the tiny super grenade," Barry said with a shrug. "And I think it's our best bet at stopping DeVoe."

"We just need to figure out how to fire it," Caitlin agreed, glad that everyone was being so chill.

"Cisco, can you breach that thing?" Joe wonders.

"Me? No way. My energy field can't even reach outer space." Cisco tells them.

"Well, we need to find another solution, and we need to find it before he launches the satellites." Caitlin says.

"Well, actually, thanks to ms. Parker, and the Council of Wells, I have an idea why he didn't launch the satellites." Harry said and they all look to him. "I though, well, if I was a genius moving around in a floating chair, how would I feel."

"You'd feel nothing. Sociopathic." Joe states.

"Right, to me, I wouldn't consider myself sociopathic. No, all my actions would be driven by the one thing that I care most about, right?" Harry explains while drawing emotion faces on a board. "So if I'm not acting, then I don't have the one thing I care most about, my wife."

"So, Marlize isn't with DeVoe anymore?" Peter wonders.

"Exactly." Harry agrees.

"Okay, I'll work on the Spider-Drones to start searching for Marlize." Fox says and leaves.

"Wait, those drones are all over the city?" Caitlin asks.

"How do you think I know about when something happens before the police? I have one set up to keep an eye for anything suspicious at the CCPD, Parker Industries, a few other places." Peter says.

"I'm gonna go on an coffee run, I'll be back." Harry promises and starts leaving.

"Mind if I joined you?" May asks and they leave.

Peter looks confused about what he just witnessed and looks to Caitlin.

"Am...I the only one that saw that?" Peter asks.

"Yeah, that was weird." Caitlin agrees.

Did Harry and May go on a date?


	89. Enlighten me

As the team start putting eyes on every airspace that DeVoe could launch the satellites,from, Caitlin sat on the doctor's plushy couch and spilled out what parts of the story she could, she had to wonder how messed up Sharon was beginning to think she and her group of friends were.

First with Barry and Iris, who had probably had to cover up 80% of why their relationship didn't work. Then with Ralph, who needed to be hypnotized. And now it's her turn.

"So you think your psychosis made a friend of yours...disappear?" Dr. Sharon confirmed.

"Yeah," Caitlin said. "I mean, she's a...really good friend of mine, almost like a part of me."

"So your friend, is...she with us here, right now?" Dr. Sharon asked.

Caitlin felt a flush of embarrassment creeping up her neck. "Oh! No, no, I'm not schizophrenic; she's more like...another personality."

"Dissociative identity disorder," Sharon murmured, nodding her head. "That isusually caused by trauma, and from your history, you've had quite a bit."

"Yeah," Caitlin agreed, sighing. "I did see my fiancé die. Twice. And then my boyfriend almost dies. Several times. And then we split up for 6 months." She lists just recent years. Ronnie's deaths, Peter almost getting killed by Zoom, almost getting killed by the Sinister Six, almost getting killed by Savitar. And then when they broke up.

"I actually meant childhood trauma." Dr. Sharon elaborated, and Caitlin frowned confusedly. "Dissociative identity disorder only develops at a young age, as a defense mechanism. Tell me about your father."

"My dad?" she asked, shrugged. "He was the best. Loving, supportive, always pushed me to get smarter."

"And how did you feel when he passed?"

Caitlin's chest tightened slightly. "I...he had ALS. He was always hiding his symptoms from us. He never wanted us to see him suffer."

Dr. Sharon tilted her head. "Sometimes when we're young we repress things that scare us."

"Oh, I'm not repressing anything from my childhood." Caitlin said quickly, shaking her head. "My missing friend just appeared a couple of years ago. It's my adult life that's got me like this..."

She broke off as her phone buzzed. Glancing down at it, Caitlin winced a little. "I'm so sorry; I have to go. Um...do you charge by the hour?"

Dr. Sharon smiled faintly. "For you and your friends, the quarter-hour."

-

Peter greeted as Caitlin walked through the door. "How did it go at Dr. Sharon's?"

Caitlin screwed up her face a little. "Umm...she thinks I have _DID_. Also, I'm pretty sure that she's under the impression that we are the most traumatized group of people."

"We kind of are," Cisco mumbled from his desk.

Fox shook his head, directing the conversation to what they had called Caitlin in for. "I got a video back from our spider-drone watching Fallout, but it's been scrambled by Killgore's code," he explained and shows the spider-drone that was watching him was taken over.

"Not anymore," Cisco said. "Consider it unscrambled."

Caitlin peeped over his shoulder to see a video that DeVoe is with Borman.

"Where's ARGUS keeping Borman? Do we know?" Barry asked anxiously.

"I can't ping Lyla, but I can try Dig," Peter offered.

Barry nodded. "I'll just go get him," he decided, before flashing off.

Cisco, Fox, Peter, and Caitlin looked at each other for under a second before realizing what super-speed plus John Diggle equalled.

"Trashcan," Cisco said, and the three of them turned around.

"How about recycling?" Cisco suggested, grabbing at the first bin she saw.

"Nah, I'll get it," Peter cried.

Caitlin grabbed at the grey plastic trashcan in the corner and sent a look at Peter's can, which was made up of wire and basically covered in holes. "Really?" she asked him incredulously, raising an eyebrow.

"Seemed like a good idea at the time," Peter muttered, dutifully taking her solid plastic can and exchanging it with his.

Just in time, too. Barry arrived with Diggle. "I'm sorry, man," he winced, and Diggle sent him a murderous look before heaving into the trashcan Cisco now held out for him.

Cringing, Frankie and Miles looked the other way and Peter passed him a water bottle.

"I hate you," Diggle rasped.

"I know," Barry replied, looking chagrined.

"What's this about?" He asks.

"Neal Borman, the man with you, with ARGUS, where are you keeping him?" Barry asked urgently.

Diggle looked around at the group incredulously. "Barry, that's classified information and I'm not the director of Argus-"

"Dig, we don't have time," Peter interrupted. "Please."

Diggle sighed and then relented. "He's in a ARGUS facility called the castle. It's a thousand miles away from anything."

"Can you check it?" Barry asks and Diggle goes to their computers and sees everything fine. Except that "Diggle" had checked in six hours ago.

"DeVoe must've taken on his identity with Ralph's powers and his DNA with Melting Points powers and must've successfully broken into Argus." Fox guesses.

Now, Fallout had gone completely critical, and they came to the horrifying conclusion that DeVoe would be using him to power the satellite.

"We have twelve hours until the Enlightenment began." Cisco tells them

Barry returns Diggle back to Star city.

"Okay, Dig's back in Star City. Now, I'm going after DeVoe." Barry tells them.

"Don't go storming the castle just yet," Cisco cautioned, pulling up some ARGUS schematics on his screen. "You're looking at motion-activated electric shock plates that Argus installed in the facility."

"70,000 volts?" Caitlin told him gravely. "You hit one of those you'll be knocked out for sure."

"So I'll avoid them when I go in/" Barry said, not seeming to think it was much of an issue.

"Genius idea, if their placement didn't randomize every could hours." Peter informs him.

"So DeVoe will basically be charging his battery for 12 hours, completelyprotected by Argus' defense," Harry concluded.

"And then he'll probably just jump into a pocket dimension and get out of there." Cisco finishes.

Barry was staring seriously at the white board, which was covered with some of Cisco's equations. "What if I don't avoid the plates?" he asked, before spinning around and glancing between everyone. "What if I hit them?"

They looked at him blankly.

"I'm serious," Barry pressed. "I mean, if I go into Flashtime, I could use each plate's electric current as a fuel source. Then I'd be fast enough to follow DeVoe into his pocket dimension."

The idea was borderline genius. Caitlin nodded slowly. "You'd get a serious_ b_oost," she said.

"Again," Cisco interrupted as Barry grinned over at her. "An excellent idea, ifhitting the plates didn't cause an electrical explosion."

"Yeah, but I'd be through the pocket dimension before the blast wave, ready to blow up the satellite on the other side," Barry countered eagerly.

Before Cisco could reply, there was a beep from his computer.

"The satellite results came in," Fox reported, hurrying from Iris' desk to his own. "Oh, this day gets better. We've got...six plates. And six heat signatures above them."

"There are ARGUS agents still alive in there," Harry realized with growing dread.

Barry's head ducked and all the enthusiasm about his idea drained out of him. "He has hostages."

"You can outrun an electrical explosion...they can't." Cisco said.

Caitlin tilted her head quizzically. "How is he keeping them suspended like that?"

"I think I've got an idea," Peter said grimly. He must be using one of his twelve powers to levitate them.

-

With all of the different layers to the issue, it took Cisco and Caitlin a little bit to come up with a feasible solution. Once they had, however, they called Barry in. He flashed into Cisco's lab, eyebrows furrowed in concern. "Hey, did you guys send an alert?"

"We did," Caitlin confirmed. "We figured out how to atop DeVoe and save the hostages."

"You bring us into Flashtime with you." Peter explains the plan.

"Guys, we cant split up in ARGUS if I'm holding onto you the whole time." Berry tells them.

"Well, turns out, you don't have to." Cisco says as he pulls out a whiteboard with everything written down.

"At first we thought you were vibrating our molecules when we were in Flashtime, but that didn't explain why we were conscious."

"Which gave us this brain blast. Wen you run, you don't just tap into the Speedforce. You generate Speedforce around you." Cisco says.

"You're creating lightning to protect you from the friction. Like an aura." Caitlin says.

"So when I bring you into Flashtime I'm actually extending my Speedforce aura to you?" Barry asks.

"And what if physical touch just focuses those powers?" Peter finishes.

"I could let go. Share my speed." Barry understands.

"We'd only be able to last a few seconds before we burn out. Like 55 milliseconds of real time." Caitlin confesses.

"And thanks to relativity, that gives us just enough time to rescue the hostages while you chase DeVoe down the rabbit hole." Cisco finishes.

"Guys, I mean...everything looks normal to me while I'm in Flashtime, but it took me months to learn how to operate like that." Barry tells them.

"Exactly. That's what makes you the perfect candidate for training." Cisco tells him. "Train us."

"It's the only play we have left." Peter breaks to him as he gets dressed into the Velocity-Spider that Fox upgraded to use Flashtime for a short amount at a time.

-

Once they'd set up a training course and changed into more functional clothing which is basically included Cisco and Caitlin wearing matching STAR Labs sweatshirts. Caitlin started their one second clock and Barry brought them into Flashtime.

A moment later, Caitlin was pulling her hand away from the timer, which was almost completely at a standstill.

Cisco grinned. "Oh Flashtime, how I've missed thee."

"This feels weird to my mind." Peter says as he activates his Spider-Time.

"Here we go," Barry breathed and Caitlin took a deep breath, readying herself.

"Mmm, that lightning about to hit me?" Cisco asked, looking in concern at the wraps of golden-red lightning spiraling around Barry's arms.

Peter gave him a look. "You wanted to do this!"

Cisco pulled a face and Barry shut his eyes, slowly pulling his hands off of Cisco and Caitlin's back.

A smile spread over Caitlins face as she looked at her own hands in wonder, lightning wrapping around her torso for a moment before it dissolved. "It's working," she murmured.

"Thank you, Speedforce." Cisco says.

"Okay, here we go," Barry said, and started forward. "Just remember, when you're moving this fast, it's not about running with your legs. It's about staying calm. Focused. Centered. Otherwise, you're going to fall on your backside at Mach 3."

Cisco stopped his ninja-walking. "Yeah, okay sensei; I'm just opening a breach." He stuck out his hand and his vibe-energy flickered from his fists in jerks.

"You good?" Barry asked.

"It's a little harder than I thought," Cisco admitted. "Maybe if I shift my weight..."

Lightning began to creep up his leg. "You're burning up already." Barry says incredulously. "Okay."

"I-I can't move my leg," Cisco said, panic creeping into his voice.

"What?"

"My legs not working."

"Alright, stay calm," Barry ordered. "Remember? Concentrate. You're slowing down."

"I- I can't really concentrate," Cisco replied. "I gotta keep it lose, I gotta keep it moving, I mean, to breach-"

"You gotta stay calm," Barry said again, his voice deliberately steady.

But Cisco kept panicking, kicking at his frozen foot with his other leg while he continued to mutter about moving. He vibe energy flickered some more and Caitlin shot a concerned glance at Barry, who looked frustrated.

"Both my legs are stuck," Cisco breathed after a second. "Both my legs are stuck, I can't- I'm working with two frozen drumsticks here!"

"Okay, just relax..." Peter murmured.

"Okay," Cisco sighed as he body began to tilt back. "I'm falling."

In a second, Barry had brought them out of Flashtime as Cisco's body crashed onto the floor on his back.

The timer dropped to 0.

"You okay?" Barry asked with a sigh, extending his hand to help Cisco up.

"Yep," Cisco groaned. "My leg's just asleep, but I'm gonna get this, I'm telling you."

As he began to walk stiffly around the room, Caitlin heard her phone ping. She picked it up and glanced at the screen. "It's Joe and Cecile, do you think I can spare a minute?"

Peter watches as Cisco tries walking it off.

Barry let out a breath, glancing behind him then back at her. "Yeah, I think we could use a break," he said with a sigh.

-

Caitlin did a checkup on Cecile and the baby and see nothing wrong.

"Good news is you're totally healthy." Caitlin tells her.

"Thank god." Joe says when Cecile starts to accidentally read their minds.

"Oh, no, Caitlin, please don't think relax." Cecile begs of her. "If you were nine months pregnant and you started suddenly craving Master Kush and surf, I don't think you would relax."

"Is that normal?" Peter wonders.

"Actually, I was thinking relaxin. The hormone. As we get closer to your due date, your body releases relaxin to loosen the ligaments to make it easier to deliver the baby. Like you're literally stretching." Caitlin explains to them.

"So you think this hormone is stretching her meta powers?" Joe asks.

"I think instead of just reading people's minds, she's now inhabiting them." Caitlin explains.

"Great. I mean, that's one more thing for me to talk about in therapy. I mean, one of these days, after everything, it's bound to come to therapy at some point." Cecile says confusing them. "Or rather face Otto again."

Everyone then looks over to Peter who's looking confused.

"She's in my head, isn't she?" Peter guesses.

"I mean, add that to the list of things. There's the company, Frankie, Miles, our minds being turned into mindless morons. Great, we're going to become the First Order." Cecile says, referencing _the Force Awakens_.

"Yeah, that's definitely your mind." Caitlin says and grabs an inhaler. "Why don't you take this? It'll help you take some deep breaths and focus."

"Right. Of course, Cait." Cecile says and inhales it. "Oh! Sorry, Peter."

"Meh, I've been through worse." Peter assures her.

"How do we stop this from happening again?" Cecile asks.

"I don't think we can until you give birth. So I think the best thing to do is keep you isolated and use this." Caitlin says and hands Joe the inhaler.

-

They went back into training and got right back into it.

Cisco was successful at opening a little baby breach underneath one of the dummies they were using to represent a hostage.

"Yes!" Cisco cheers.

"A little baby breach." Barry cheers.

"That's right, Barry. A baby breach. And in time, Shell blossom into maturity, but for now, in Flashtime, she's my little breachling." Cisco says happy as he's looking his child.

"Okay," Barry said, looking marginally more confident with his team now. He looked over at Caitlin and nodded.

She pressed on the trigger, but the gun just made a couple of noises. "The gun's still not working, just like Crystal Frost," she sighed, feeling frustrated.

"We gotta find a way to offset the friction," Barry said.

Apparently, Caitlin was a little too frustrated, because her leg suddenly froze like Cisco's had a moment before. She dropped the gun. "Darn it! My leg's stuck."

"Alright," Peter said soothingly. "Stay calm."

Off-balance, Caitlin started to tilt. Her free heel slid against the floor and a moment later she was flying backward. Time resumed, and Caitlin crashed into the wall. Unbidden, a scene flashed into her mind.

-

There was a bike on the ground, two legs tangled in the holes. "Dad!" a voice cried. "My leg's stuck."

A familiar voice, a male, cried out. There was the sound of wheels screeching as they braked, and the fender of a dark car coming closer and closer-

-

Caitlin woke up not long after Cisco, Peter and Barry brought her to a gurney. She blinked her eyes open blearily to find Barry sitting beside her, holding her hand and watching her with a deep crease between his eyebrows.

"What happened?" she groaned, the last remnants of her dream or vision or whatever it was starting to fade from her brain.

"Training," Barry replied. "You came out of Flashtime in midair."

"I think you got concussed," Peter added. "Then again, I'm not the team doctor."

"I don't feel nauseous," Caitlin disagreed, sitting up and getting ready to swing her legs over the side of the bed. "Just hand me some acetaminophen and let's get back to training."

No, hold on," Barry said, stopping her from getting up fully. "We have to talk about what happened."

"What do you mean?" Cisco asked, exchanging glances with Caitlin. "You just lost focus, right?"

"Yeah," Caitlin agreed quickly, and shrugged.

"No," Barry argued, and his eyes bored into hers in a way that gave Caitlin the feeling that he somehow knew what was going on inside her head. "No, I mean, it was like something _pulled_ your focus."

"I'm fine," Caitlin deflected.

Peter shook his head. "If this were the real thing, you would have died."

Frustration welled in her. He hadn't been like this when Cisco had messed up. "I'm not a liability," she said angrily.

"We know!" Barry cried, letting out a breath. "I am. I'm putting you guys in danger doing this. I mean, I realize you guys wanna help, but I've gotta stop training you."

He got to his feet, stuffing his hands into his pockets, and Cisco looked at him incredulously. "Barry, come on. Those hostages-"

"We'll find another way to save them!" Barry interrupted.

"You have to let us help you," Caitlin pressed. "I mean, after everything DeVoe did to us...to Crystal Frost..."

"She's right," Cisco agreed. "We're running out of time. It's worth the risk."

Barry didn't seem to agree. "I'm not training you guys just to get you killed," he said stubbornly. "I'm sorry."

Then he walked out of the room.

-

They gave him some cool-off time before they went in.

"You figure it out yet?" Peter asked, watching Barry sigh and rub at his face as he sat at Iris' desk.

"No," Barry admitted. "I could save the hostages, but DeVoe still gets away."

"Actually," Peter said, coming around side of her and putting hand down on Barry's desk. "I meant if you've figured out how come you lost your mind."

"Dude," Barry breathed, sending an imploring look at him. "I'm sorry, I'm just-"

"You're just trying to keep them safe, I know," Peter said. "I pretty much opened that phrase since I was fifteen."

"They're not ready to use Flashtime." Barry cried,. "Not like that."

"They _will_ be ready if you help train them," Cisco countered.

"It takes more than 10 hours to learn super speed!" Barry cried, leaning forward. "Okay? They could die in there! Then what would I do?"

"And if we don't take them, we'll die anyway!" Cisco cried. "Our brains get wiped, and that's it. That's the end of our world." He shook his head, frustrated.

"No!" Barry yelled, shooting to his feet. "Loosing both my best friends and it being my fault? That's the end of my world. You may think it's worth the risk, but I couldn't live with myself."

"Barry," Peter murmured. "You can't sideline them because of what happened to him." He raised a finger and pointed to the picture of Ralph they still had up on the whiteboard where headshots of each of the bus metas were tacked in rows.

Barry shook his head. "Alright," he said, getting to his feet. "I don't need this."

"Look, we all lost somebody, okay?" Peter said. "But that never gives anyone an excuse to shut each other out!"

"I said drop it, alright!" Barry cried.

"You think you're the only one who feels bad about Ralph dying?!" Peter shouted.

This was getting out of hand. "Guys..." Caitlin murmured, trying to get them to calm down.

"We made the bus metas," Peter said quietly. "We gave Ralph his powers. You wanna talk about burdens? I started this! I fixed that bazooka, I opened up the Speedforce! And I didn't do it so you could stand here and tell me you were gonna save the world alone, again!"

All the fight seemed to drain out of Barry. "I know that," he murmured. "And I know we're running out of time and I- I can't do this by myself. But everybody I have tried to teach has end up worse than how I found them!"

"What about Ralph?" Peter asked. "What about Crystal? Miles? Frankie? Were they worse? We taught them that when their backs are against the wall, and the world was ending around them, they could always make the choice, make the choice to be a hero! They deserve that same choice. All they need is someone to show them how," he finished.

Barry let out a long breath and wiped a hand over his face, looking between Cisco and Caitlin. "You guys really wanna do this?"

"It's not a burden if we shoulder it together." Caitlin tells him.

-

With Harry and Fox off investigating the Marlize angle of the DeVoe issue, Barry, Peter, Cisco, and Caitlin had to get to Argus. There was no more time to train, which was too bad, considering they hadn't gotten a solid run-through on the practice course yet.

But they were out of time. Fallout was almost at 12,000 rads, and DeVoe would be making his escape soon.

Using one of Cisco's breaches, they appeared inside Argus' grounds. Barry flashed up next to them.

"Perimeter's secure," he reported. "Once we're inside, we'll have less than a second. Me and Peter activate the plates, draw their charge-"

"I'll lay the breaches down," Cisco added.

"And I'll protect the Argus agents from the blast using this..." Caitlin finished, looking down at the ice-gauntlet she and Cisco had whipped up while waiting for Barry to come around. "Ice shooter."

She glanced at Cisco. "Ice shooter," he confirmed.

"Do I have to call it an ice shooter?" She wonders

"I thought Frostbite sounded better," Peter put in with a shrug.

"Guys," Cisco interrupted. "It solves the friction offset problem by shooting ice, therefore, it's an ice shooter. You call it an ice shooter."

"Relax," Barry told him, but Caitlin could tell he was teasing. Cisco pulled a face.

Behind them, there was a strange, deep noise from the Argus facility. "DeVoe must be shrinking Fallout's chamber," Caitlin theorized worriedly. She felt a sudden burst of nerves, realizing for the first time what Barry had known all along:

If they messed up, which, considering their practice runs, was likely...

They were going to die.

"We can do this," Barry said bracingly.

Peter put a hand on Caitlin's arm. "I love you."

"I love you, too," she replied, before smiling over at Cisco. "And you guys, too."

He grinned and punched her lightly in the shoulder. "Okay, love-squad, let's do this thing."

Barry put his hands on Caitlin and Cisco's shoulders and Peter activates Spider-Time and the next moment they were inside Argus.

Caitlin glanced down at the swirl of lightning around her midsection, and then Barry let go of her.

They were in Flashtime.

Surprisingly enough, their little plan was working. Barry absorbed the charges from the plates, Cisco opened a breachling just above them, and Caitlin made an ice formation just above the hostages.

Then Cisco opened a breach underneath himself and Caitlin and they slipped through, right before Flashtime stopped. Peter and Barry had made it through the pocket dimension.

-

When they came out on the other side, it was to see the satellites, glowing purple and rising into the air.

Not stopping for even a breath, the two shot off and sprinted up the side of a building, pulling the concussion bomb from Amunet out of its special satchel and passed to Peter who used a web like a sling before hurling it at one of the satellites.

It struck its mark, and the whole machine exploded.

Barry ran back down the building and stared at the debris drifting down from the sky as Peter did a backflip and landed to see the destruction.

"We did it!" Barry tells Peter.

"Yeah, we did!" Peter says when his senses go off as DeVoe came through a pocket dimension to stand in back of them.

"Once upon a time in some remote corner of that universe, there was a star on which clever beasts invented knowing," DeVoe began.

For someone whose genius plan had just been foiled, he didn't look upset. Instead, he stood placidly on the street with his hands folded behind his back, looking at them like a regular old professor.

"You're quoting Nietzsche at me?" Peter asks blankly.

"You destroyed the satellite!" DeVoe replied. "Top marks, Quick Boy. You can destroy a thousand more and you will still march closer to the Enlightenment."

Barry mock-hit himself in the forehead. "I forget what Nietzsche said about wiping minds...I must have skipped philosophy class-"

"Did I teach you nothing this year?!" DeVoe interrupted, his voice a bit more raised. "Has nothing pierced your thick cowls? Think of it! Or rather, don't. You'll just end up hurting yourself, so let me explain. A world enlightened. Within a day, all soldiers will lay down their arms. Every nuclear weapon will be gone within six months. Poverty, Famine, Disease, Eradicated. We will clean up the streets. People will put down they're idiot phones and become curious again! And I will be there to teach them. I, not you, will save this world."

That had been quite the speech, but Peter was ready with his counter argument. "No. You want to control it, you want to take away free will. Like all other psycho geniuses ever."

"A pittance for humanity to pay to know peace," DeVoe said, waving his hand as if his words were irrelevant.

"But we wouldn't know each other!" Barry cried. "Parents wouldn't remember their kids. Husbands wouldn't remember their wives."

DeVoe pointed at him. "Good. You hit upon precisely the point. The notion is the father of all error. Chemicals in our brains that destruct us, impede progress! And the most destructive and ridiculous imbalance of all is that thing you feebles call _love_. I learned this from experience, gentlemen," DeVoe declared darkly. "And soon.. you won't."

With that, he stepped back through a pocket dimension and left Barry alone on the street.

"Something doesn't feel right." Peter says and Barry agrees.

-

Back outside of Argus, Caitlin stopped Cisco before they could go home.

"I need your help," she admitted, feeling a knot growing in her stomach. "Back when we were training I had this fragment of a memory. I think it's something that I've been repressing for a long time. I don't remember much, just that I was young, and I was terrified."

Cisco put his hands on his hips. "Caitlin, are you sure you want me to vibe you there?" he asked. "I mean, maybe your brain kept this memory under lock and key for a reason."

That was a valid possibility. But Caitlin had tried cram the memory back down and it hadn't worked. This was her only option left. "I need to know what it was," she said. "I can handle it."

Cisco took a breath. "Okay," he agreed after a second. "Then focus on it. And hang on."

-

He took a sturdier stance as Caitlin closed her eyes, trying to recall every detail she could about the memory. She felt Cisco's hand land on her shoulder and a second later they were in a vibe.

"Caity!" someone was yelling. "Caity, are you okay? Say something!"

Caitlin, through the blurry blue haze, saw the black truck from earlier, one wheel half-crushing a little kid's pink bicycle.

"That's me," Caitlin breathed, staring in shock at the young girl lying on the ground. The male voice yelled at her to stop, but younger Caitlin still scrambled for the rearview mirror that had cracked off of the truck.

What she saw in the mirror made her scream, and Caitlin felt the shockwave of that horror ripple through her.

Her hair was white, her eyes a bright, electric blue.

She was Killer Frost.

-

"Crystal Frost. She was a part of you." Cisco says as they exit the vibe. "Even then."

"Fox was right. She didn't come from dark matter." Caitlin realizes but is confused. "How is that possible?"

-

Frankie and Miles were watching the news from Star labs and see they took down the satellite.

"They did it." Miles says when they all return.

"DeVoe didn't seem to care w destroyed his satellite." Barry says

"I'll try to see if I can track it." Cisco says when the alarms start going off.

"This says the Star balls satellite's been activated." Caitlin tells them.

"DeVoe's using our satellite to replace theirs." Peter says when the labs gets taken over by Killgore.

"He's here." Barry says and rushes to the time vault, that being the only place he can be and he can't get in.

There too late.

The Enlightenment has finally begun.


	90. In this together

"Cisco, we need power!" Barry yelled as he strode into the Cortex.

"Working on it," Cisco called back from who knew where.

"Nothing's working," Miles reported. "Not even phones."

Peter reached out and rubbed his hands through his hair. "This is what I was worried about," he muttered.

"It's happening, isn't it?" Joe said as he strode into the room, his arm around an incredibly pregnant Cecile.

"I don't...I mean, our plan didn't work!" Barry replied, on edge. "DeVoe replaced the satellite to set up the Enlightenment."

"Everything is going nuts out there," Joe said, jabbing a thumb towards the hallway and the outside world. "There's no power anywhere. Our car stopped working."

"Thank God we were close by. I mean, the hospitals another three miles away," Cecile added.

It was about then that everyone realized that Joe had his hospital bag draped over his shoulder. As if on cue, Cecile let out a cry of pain and doubled over. "Joe..."

"The sky turned purple, and she started having contractions," Joe said, wincing as he rubbed Cecile's back.

"Cisco, hurry!" Barry shouted.

"If we're not able to get her to the hospital, can you-"

"No," Caitlin said, cutting Joe off. "Barry can't run her. It's not safe for Cecile or the baby."

"Then what are we gonna do?" Joe asked, eyes a little wild.

Caitlin shrugged. "I have everything here you need to deliver a baby," she said.

The power flickered on. "Great!" she cried, as Cecile and Joe looked between them incredulously. "Uh...let's go see how dilated you are."

"Okay..." Cecile mumbled, looking a little alarmed as Caitlin took her arm and led her out of the room.

"You guys might wanna see this." Cisco tells the others.

Barry and Peter followed him into the Time vault.

"DeVoe must've predicted Harry would build his own thinking cap and power it with the dark matter that he collected and he siphoned like you thought before using it to infect the world." Cisco tells them.

"He was planning on rebooting Harry's brain." Peter sees.

"What about Gideon, can she take down the satellites?" Barry asks.

"Kilgore." They both tells him.

"What do we do?" Cisco asks.

"I have no idea." Barry admits.

"Well, it's a good thing we're here." Harrry says and they turn to see him, Fox, and Marlize.

-

They return to the cortex and see May has joined them now and Marlize tells them her plan.

"look, I love _Inception_ as much as the next guy, but sending Barry into DeVoe's mind?" Cisco asks.

"His mind is the only one fast enough to survive the linking process without any harm." Marlize explains.

"How does that help us stop them?" Peter wonders.

"If we can find the good left in Clifford, and help him retake control of his mind, that good could overpower the bad."

"You really think there's good left inside him?" Barry wonders.

"I know this is hard to imagine, but there was a time when Clifford was nothing but good. When he truly wanted to help the world. It's the dark matter he infused in his brain that changed him. So, yes, I do believe that there is some good in him. Someway we need to find it." Marlize says.

"Why don't we just call someone we trust?" Barry asks. "Kara, Iron-Spider, Oliver, Wally."

"You could bring a legion of your friends, but they would pose no challenge." Marlize informs him. "Clifford created the bus metas and the combination of the abilities to ensure that e could defeat anyone whose assistance you might enlist."

"Kilgore, Iron-Spider. Supergirl, weightlifter. Oliver, literally any of them. Besides, they're all dealing with their own problems." Peter tells them.

"How long until our minds are wiped?" Cisco asks.

"Once the permeation grid hits 100%." Marlize says and at the moment, it's at 24%.

"A couple of hours at best." Harry guesses.

"How would we get me insid his mind?" Barry asks.

"We need to find a way to transfer your consciousness into his." Marlize tells them.

"You know what happens every time I try to vibe him. I can't do it." Cisco warns.

"I do. But it's not your powers we need. It's hers." Marlize says and looks to Cecile who's with Caitlin and Joe.

-

This whole plan rode on finding the good left inside DeVoe's mind and bringing it out to overpower the bad.

It was far-fetched. It was crazy.

It was their only chance.

"Everything ready?" May asked as she, Barry, Joe and Cecile joined Caitlin, Cisco, Marlize and Harry in the Speed Lab. DeVoe's chair was set up in the center, and Barry was directed to take a seat in it while Cecile laid down on the gurney.

Marlize pressed the cerebral inhibitor, modified for their use, onto Cecile's forehead, and everyone walked over to the computer layout.

"Mr. Allen, put the cap on your head," Marlize instructed briskly, and Barry raised DeVoe's silver plating and put it on his head. Immediately, thick, arm-like cables reached up and connected to it.

"Once Cecile has locked onto DeVoe's brainwaves, we'll transfer your consciousness to his amygdala, that's the part of the brain that connects emotional significance to memories," Caitlin said.

"Where the good memories are," Marlize added. "We will find the good part of Clifford. Here we go, Miss Horton."

She pressed a button on her tablet, and Cecile and Barry's eyelids slipped shut in unison. After giving it a moment, Caitlin leaned toward the com. "Barry. Barry? Is everything okay?"

"Guys," Barry replied after a stiff second. "I'm in."

"Paint a picture," Cisco instructed. "What do you see? What's around you?"

"_For starters, the Thinker_," Barry said, his voice tight. "_I'm in the 405 bus in the middle of the street. I just came out of that same portal from before._"

"This is where it all began," Marlize said. "It is the Nexus of Clifford's brain. Once you find him, get him through it, and he can regain control of his mind."

"What does he need to look for?" Peter asked.

Marlize considered. "Our house," she said, glancing over at the rest of the group.

"_Alright_..." Barry breathed, and flashed out of the cover of the bus.

Barry reached the house with relative ease, only to find it completely empty. When he began to ask where to go next, the com connection glitched. At the same moment, Cecile let out a pained gasp and jolted forward on the bed.

"Cecile's powers are connected to her pregnancy," Caitlin realized with dawning horror. "Her contractions must be putting a strain on her transcranial link!"

If Cecile had her baby, Barry would be stranded in DeVoe's mind. So Caitlin used the terbutaline in the special inhaler she'd given Cecile to help her with her mind-jumping to slow down her contractions. It wasn't a permanent fix, but it would give Barry a little more time.

Hopefully, it would be enough.

But Cecile grabbed Caitlin's hand and talked about Thomas being _like this all the time_, whatever that means. But what's strange is she said it in Crystal's voice.

-

Turns out that Ralph is alive.

Unfortunately, the Team didn't have much time to celebrate that particular plot twist.

Cecile suddenly broke out of her mind-link with DeVoe. "He's coming," she gasped. "I-I read his thoughts. He's coming here."

"We need to leave," Marlize said, striding down the steps towards the bottom landing of the Speed Lab.

Joe looked at her incredulously. "And go where?"

Marlize bit her lip and grabbed for her tablet, there was a flash of light up the ramp on the first floor, and DeVoe slowly walked down. "Good!" he cried. "We are gathered here today to worship in song. I suggest Kumbaya."

He took another step and his hand hit a latticework red force field. "Ah," DeVoe sighed, effectively stopped by his own creation.

"Force field," Miles said. "Force fields sucker?"

"I should have never let you built this chair without my oversight," DeVoe said to Marlize. "It was my first miscalculation."

"You've made many miscalculations," Frankie replied, her voice hard.

"Really," DeVoe sighed idly. "And have you ever wondered why I never pursued the Flash? Never needed his speed or his mind? His connection to the Speed Force? Access to all of time- past, present, future True knowledge!" DeVoe yelled. "And now that you have placed him inside my mind, I'll have it all."

Marlize stepped forward, her jaw tight. "You'll have to find us first."

With that, she pressed a button on her tablet and all of them were sucked into a pocket dimension.

-

They ended up in a blue-tinted room with bands of futuristic, electric lights. Cisco took one look around and wheeled on Marlize. "DeVoe's lair? Are you crazy?"

"Could he find us in this pocket dimension?" Fox asked.

"I've bought us some time," Marlize sighed.

"Cecile," Iris said, stepping up the the gurney. "We need you to try and link up with Barry again."

Cecile swallowed nervously. "I'll try," she said.

A few moments later, they were regaining connection. "Barry?" Caitlin asked anxiously. "Barry, can you hear me?"

"_Yeah_," Barry replied, sounding subdued.

"What's wrong?" Peter asks, hearing his voice.

"_The good DeVoe, we found him_," Barry said. "_He's dead_."

Their plan was ruined.

What were they going to do now?

-

While the Team was desperately trying to come up with new ideas and getting more and more on edge, Barry had figured out his plan. Their only chance to stop everything was to get Ralph through the Nexus of DeVoe's mind. Without Ralph, DeVoe didn't have a body. Without a body...

Barry and Ralph found out pretty quickly that the multitude of DeVoe clones could read their minds. "We'll have to do this Dibny style," Ralph said.

Barry, who's back was currently against a pillar as they took cover, looked over at him in bewilderment. "What?"

"We don't think," Ralph said with a faint smirk. Barry raised an eyebrow. "Just...fill your mind with something else. Something you love."

To demonstrate, he got to his feet and strode towards the nearest DeVoe guard. "Shrimp buffet!" he cried, and threw a punch. Instead of DeVoe ducking, like the last time they had tried to attack, his fist connected and DeVoe stumbled backwards. Ralph turned around and grinned at Barry.

Barry took a deep breath, filling his mind with the only thing that could possible distract him at a time like this. "It's you and me, Iris," he whispered, and threw himself to his feet.

The new method took some time to get used to, but after Barry had landed half a dozen quick strikes on one of the DeVoes, he was feeling more confident. That was when a positive flood of DeVoe-clones came marching out from behind the Nexus portal, headed towards them.

Ralph and Barry exchanged glances and prepared themselves. They were going to have to fight their way out.

-

Meanwhile, Cecile had gone back into labor.

DeVoe had managed to find them, and now everyone was frozen on the ground besides Joe, who was being forced to hold his own gun to his head. "You should mind where you point your weapon, Detective West," DeVoe said softly, walking towards them with his hand behind his back.

Joe's face tensed, his gaze turning into a glower. Then, slowly, impossibly, he began to fight against the mind-control and turn his gun back towards DeVoe. "Stay away from my girls!" he growled.

DeVoe lifted a hand and threw him back against the wall. "Joe-!" Cecile cried, but DeVoe let his hand fall and Joe crashed to the ground again.

-

Barry and Ralph had a new plan. "Hey, attack of the clones," Ralph called to one of the many DeVoes patrolling the street. "Come and get me!"

As the DeVoes began to walk slowly towards Ralph, he stretched his arm around the pillar he was half-hidden behind. Barry, on the other side of the pillar, grabbed onto his wrist.

At just the right moment, with both of them filling their minds with things completely opposite to their plans, Barry tightened his grip on Ralph's wrist and used his arm to fling him into the DeVoes. They tumbled down like dominos and Barry kept spinning. Every DeVoe that tried to attack got knocked backward by Ralph, until they were all sprawled across the pavement.

Finally, Barry let go of Ralph's wrist and he rearranged his body. "That was awesome," he muttered, staring around at the spread of bodies.

Footsteps made them look up, and Barry saw a new wave of DeVoe clones headed towards them. Without waiting for another moment, Barry grabbed Ralph and shot forward, making for the Nexus. Even with his super speed, by the time they made it close the streets were thronged with clones. Barry broke through them, his eyes locked on their way out.

-

Back in the pocket dimension, DeVoe was slowly crushing Cecile's windpipe as the rest of the Team were completely unable to move.

Just as Cecile was losing consciousness, a frown line appeared between Barry's eyebrows, and he opened his eyes. If Caitlin hadn't been frozen, she would have gone limp with relief.

Barry took the helmet off of his head and slowly stepped towards DeVoe, who began to shake very oddly. He let out a scream of rage and pain in the same moment that everyone felt the hold release them. Cecile regained consciousness and gasped for air, and DeVoe collapsed and tried desperately to crawl to his chair.

Barry slowly strode towards him, his face expressionless. "HOW...DID...YOU...BEAT...ME?!" DeVoe yelled, confused as his voice coming out garbled as his legs thrashed and seized.

"I didn't," Barry replied calmly. "We did."

A moment later, Clifford was giving a last cry and Ralph was sitting in his place.

Marlize stopped the satellites, the Enlightenment stopped, and they were all returned to the Speed Lab. "There's no more dark energy anywhere in the city," Iris said, looking up from the computer monitor with a large smile on her face. "We did it."

-

While Caitlin was helping Cecile give birth, the rest of the team was repairing and rebooting everything.

"The power's back on everywhere," Cisco reported, striding purposefully across the room.

"The world can finally get back to normal," Peter said with a smile when his and Miles' senses go off.

"Oh, come on." They both complain as the next second, the Thinker's chair was appearing in the Cortex, DeVoe sitting sedately in it.

Barry ran forward but the image of DeVoe flickered.

"Another use of Mr. Deacon's powers," DeVoe explained calmly. "Technological reincarnation."

"Cisco?" Barry asked.

Cisco's face was drawn and grave. "He's taking over."

Marlize was able to destroy the hologram by ripping out a piece of technology from the back of the chair, but they still weren't safe yet.

"The satellite's in a decaying orbit," Cisco said, reading from his tablet after it gave off a warning blip.

"Wait, so Marlize deactivating him just triggered a literal Dead Man's switch?" Ralph asked incredulously.

"It's falling fast," Fox realized, eyes on the screen.

Marlize looked frantic. "Clifford must have increased its mass by a thousandfold! The impact of something that heavy and that fast-"

"We know," Barry said, gritting his teeth.

Frankie glanced over her shoulder. "How much time do we have?"

"Three minutes if we're lucky." Harry says.

"Okay," Ralph brainstormed. "How do we stop something that's gonna send us back to the Stone Age?"

Everyone stoped and realizes that the metal is completely metallic.

They all look over to Frankie.

It's time Metalla shows herself to the city.

-

Everyone is running away from the falling debris when a breach opens and Frankie steps through it in her costume.

It's a complete silver and blue outfit with an eye mask and she starts to slow down the falling debris from the satellite.

Everyone starts to slow down as they see her doing, but she can't stop the large debris.

"Guys, I can't stop the big one!" Frankie warns when the Flash passes her and is speeding towards the satellite.

Barry landed his eyes on the largest piece of satellite, gauged the distance, and then took off. While Cecile was lying in a gurney, Caitlin in front of her, giving her last giant push, Barry was using a building as a launch point and shooting towards the satellite. Using the surrounding buildings, he launched himself through the air and extended a fist.

Right before he made contact, a flash of purple caught in his sight. Everything was happening too quickly to concentrate, but Barry was almost positive there was another speedster beside him as his fist connected with the machine.

Then the satellite exploded, and Barry was sent hurting back down to Earth.

Before he could hit the ground however, Peter came in swinging and saved him.

As they make it to the ground, everyone stops and cheers for them and Metalla.

-

They return to the labs and see arrays suit got torn up and they start to hear baby cries coming from the labs.

Cecile was sitting up, holding a tiny bundled baby in her arms, Joe in back of her. Caitlin saw Peter and let out a relieved smile, and he put his arms around her in a hug. Not only had they managed to save the world yet again, but Joe had his new daughter now.

After that, everything took a bit to get settled. Marlize left the city, Joe and Cecile hosted a newborn baby party at their house and the gang reassembled where Wally returned after his time with the Legends, in a normal, happy setting for the first time in what seemed like awhile.

Caitlin found Peter in a chair in the corner. "Hi handsome," Caitlin said, sitting down on the arm. "How're you doing?"

"Pretty good," Peter said, smiling at Frankie from across the room. "It seems the city's already loving her."

"You trained a good hero." Caitlin says. "Both of them."

Peter smiled and looked up at her. "Listen, no matter how long it takes, we're going to get Crystal back. And when we do, we can have our family back together again. A _family_ of our own one day."

Caitlin smiled. "I like that thought."

There was a knock at the door. Frowning a little, Barry got up and opened it.

There, standing on the porch, was a girl in her late teens with long brown hair. "Hi," she said, pushing into the room. "We need to talk."

"What?" Barry asked, bewildered at her sudden entrance.

"Wow," the girl said, looking around her. "This house is _bitchin_."

Cisco and Peter almost spit out their drinks to that.

"I've seen you before," Caitlin realized. "Didn't you spill coffee all over Harry and me?"

"Weren't you the server at Barry and Caitlin's wedding?" Wally added confusedly.

"Wait, yeah," Barry realized. "You were. And...where did you get this jacket?"

"Ummm..." the girl bit her lip and looked at Iris, who had just come in with a drink. "From her."

"Uh." Iris blinked. "No...Mine is one of a kind."

"So was this, when you let me borrow it," the girl said, smiling slightly.

Barry blanched. "I'm sorry. Who're you?"

The girl turned back to him, her face grave. "I'm your daughter, Nora," she said, letting out a deep breath as she looked between Barry and Iris. "From the future. And I think I made a big, big mistake."

Everyone looks shocked by this knowledge and Peter looks down at the drink in his hand.

"Yeah, I'm gonna need something a lot stronger than this."


	91. Hate my life

This Nora person, named after Barry's mother, explained that she's from 30 years in the future and she is one of the new guardians of Central City.

"Yeah, I'm gonna definitely need something stronger." Peter says looking at his drink.

Nora then laughs at that. "Peter Parker, always cutting tension with a quip."

"You know our names?" Caitlin asks.

"Of course. I know all of you. Cisco Ramon, Ralph Dibny, Frankie Parker, also known as Metalla, papa Joe, Mama Cecile, little auntie Jenna. She's so cute. May Parker, Harrison "Harry" Wells, Lucius Fox, Uncle Wally, and Caitlin Parker." Nora lists and Peter spits his drink out of shock at that name.

"What?" Cisco asks, not surprised that his friends made it to marriage, it's just shocking to hear.

"I hate my life." Peter finally says as he coughs up the champagne that he gasped in.

"You okay?" Caitlin asks.

"No, I haven't been in the past four years." Peter confesses.

"And your nickname is XS?" Wally asks.

"Clearly not my doing." Cisco says, seeing it's a terrible name.

"No, it's a nickname that you gave me when I was a kid...Mom." Nora tells Iris. "You said I did everything in excess. Guess I've always been like that. Overdoing things, getting in way over my head. Like recently."

"The mistake you made?" Barry asks.

"Big mistake." Nora tells him.

"Which was...?"

"Helping you save the city by destroying the Star labs satellite last night." Nora tells them. "I just couldn't help myself from getting involved. But something happened when I did, because now, I can't seem to go fast enough to open the Speedforce."

"Ex-Excuse me. Are we talking about actual time travel here?" Ralph interrupts as if he doesn't know about the past few years.

"Do you just not pay attention when we have our briefings?" Harry asks.

"Y'all didn't teach him about the Legends?" Wally asks.

"Look, nobody said bubkes about time travel." Ralph says a little too loud as Jenna starts whimpering.

"Shh, Ralph, you're scaring the baby." Caitlin telling him.

"Yeah, you're scaring the baby." Cisco repeats while taking another glass of champagne.

"No, no. She's not scared. She just said she's hungry." Cecile tells them and that shocks them. "She said that...I heard her! I read her mind! I might not be loosing my powers!" She says as she carries Jenna away.

"I'm sorry. I know how bizarre this must seem, meeting your daughter from the future as an adult." Nora says, getting back to her problem. "This was not my plan at all, but I'm stuck here now and you're the only group of people that can help me. So, any ideas?" She asks the group.

-

The team returns to Star labs to see what they can figure out why and who she is and they see she has yellow and purple lightning as she runs around the room.

"Wow, the speed lab is archaic, huh?" Nora asks and they try to block her out to not mess with the timeline.

"All right, this is gonna link us up with your biometrics." Caitlin says as she injects her with the device.

"And thus scrunchy doohickey is gonna analysts ho connection to the..." Cisco says while trying to think straight.

"Speedforce." Peter finishes for him.

She then starts racing around again and the parents approach the others.

"What does it say?" Barry asks.

"Quick analysis of her DNA shows patterns similar to both of yours." Fox says looking over the results.

"What about her being stuck here?" Barry asks.

"She has the Speedforce in her cells, she just isn't going fast enough to get bac." Harry says looking at his own results.

"Yeah, hehehe." Cisco says from the chair.

"How much did you drink at Joe's?" Peter asks him.

"This is the first opportunity I have had to process my breakup with Gypsy, okay?" Cisco tells them. "How was I supposed to know that your future daughter was gonna show up and crash my pity party? How was I supposed to _ancitipate_ that?" He asks Barry and Iris while lying on the floor.

"Ramon's out." Harry says and Barry leaves for CCPD and he asks Wally to ask if the Legends can bring her home.

Fox waves a hand in front of Cisco to see if he's even awake, but he's completely hungover and is out cold.

"So...mrs. Parker." Peter says, seeing this is the first time they've been alone after the news.

"I kinda like the sound of that," Caitlin admits.

"I always thought you would wanna hyphenate." Peter tells her.

Caitlin looks around and bobs her head around while thinking. "Maybe I will, we can always change that tiny detail. The universe shouldn't explode or tear itself apart if we go by Parker-Snow."

"Ehh, I think Snow-Parker sounds better." Peter tells her.

"Mr and mrs Snow-Parker." Caitlin says and turns to him. "Are we actually planning on marriage now?"

"I guess we are, aren't we?" Peter realizes and looks to her. "You ever think about it?"

Caitlin smiles and kisses him on the lips. "I don't think I can spend my future with anyone else, other than you, Peter Parker."

"Same goes for you, Caitlin Snow." Peter says and pecks her when an alert goes off on a metahuman downtown.

"Duty call's, Spider-Man." Caitlin says and lets him go.

-

Peter makes it there and sees Barry isn't here yet since his suit was torn up and Miles has already started to fight the metahuman.

Miles sends a shocking punch to the masked man who's sparking electricity when Barry comes speeding in and saves the guards in his old original suit.

"Going old school today, Flash?" Peter asks him.

"Yeah, it's a little tighter than I remember, though." Barry says when the man gets up and sees the three of them.

He starts charging electricity again and approaches them.

"Now it's my turn, Spider-Man, Flash, Spider-Child." The new guy says.

"Hey! Who you calling child?" Miles asks when a flash of lightening interrupts their showdown.

"Gridlock _and_ the Ultimate Spider-Man?!" A voice asks and they look to Nora in her XS suit. "Schway!"

"Who's she?" Miles asks.

"What are you doing?" Barry asks her.

"No, no, I just wanted to-" Nora was explaining when the Spider's senses go off and the figure sends Barry flying through the air.

"Spider-Man, save Flash." Peter tells Miles who races into the air to catch him.

Peter races in and punches the figure in the face and he gets ready to retaliate when Peter leaps and wraps his legs around his throat and drops him into the ground.

But he's not down yet as he punches Peter in the face with all his strength and sends Peter slamming through several buildings.

-

Miles saved Barry who ended up speeding Peter back where Caitlin gave him a checkup and he has a serious concussion that will be healed in about half an hour.

"Oh, grife. You're mad at me." Nora can tell from her parents.

"No, Nora, we're not-"

"Please don't say disappointed, that's so much worse. I just didn't think it was a big deal. It was only Gridlock." Nora tells them.

"Ha! Gridlock. That's got Cisco writing all over it." Peter says as he holds a ice pack to his head.

"How'd you know him?" Frankie asks.

"The Spider-Flash museum." Nora explains and they all look surprised.

"I'm sorry, did you say Spider-Flash Museum?" Cisco asks.

"Yeah, it has all your first sightings and appearances of both heroes, the first time you teamed up, all the villains you've ever faced alone or together in chronological order. Even your allies and apprentices. I've studied everything from Batroc, the Leaper, to the defeat of Venom and more." Nora lists.

"So you know this guy's real name?" Iris asks.

"Mr. Myles, the curator, he scrubbed all the names for legal reasons. Spider-Man's villains have already gone by their normal names before giving themselves nicknames. Otto Octavius, Venom, Kraven the Hunter, Martian Li's mr. Negative just to name a few." Nora tells them. "But it really shouldn't matter. Gridlock was a one-and-done villain. You guys beat him in one try, or supposed to. Now because of me, he's on the run, and the timeline's all messed up again."

"Nora, hey, look, I've made way bigger mistakes than this time traveling." Barry assures her.

"Yeah. Like tearing apart the fabric of existence and creating a psycho demon god." Peter jokes referring to Flashpoint as he's on a lot of painkillers for his head and some seem to have slipped past his powers.

"Yeah, he's in a lot of pain." Miles says.

"Okay, with that in mind, we'll get this guy. You don't need to worry about that. But the longer you're here, the more the timeline changes. We need to get you home." Barry tells her.

"But I cast go fast enough to get home." Nora reminds him.

"What if we used the tachyon absorption enhancer?" Caitlin asks.

"That might work to give the cells in her body to boost them enough to get her back." Harry agrees as he's taking a sip of his coffee.

"Okay, finding Gridlock and getting Nora home need yo be our priorities." Barry says when Ralph returns with a whiteboard.

"No, no, no, no. Stop, stop, stop, stop. Wait!" Ralph says as the wheels make a lot of squeaks causing Peter's senses to hate the noise.

"Loud!" Peter shouts for his brain that is in agony.

"Okay, this needs to be our priority. Now, I realize that you're all way ahead of me on this time travel business but guys, I think I just discovered something. So if Nora can time travel, that means she can create new timelines, right? New timelines means that parallel timelines can exist." Ralph says, basically talking about the multiverse and they all look annoyed. "So, guys, I think that a whole other universe could exist. I know, I know, it sounds crazy, but there could be a earth where we're all bad guys, or another earth where there's no world hunger, or another earth where they never made that last _Indiana Jones _movie. Think of the possibilities. It's like some kind of manyverse."

He then turns to see all of their faces.

"And everybody knows about the manyverse." Ralph realizes.

"Multiverse." May corrects him.

"Where did you think my Iron-Spider-Man doppelgänger came from?" Peter asks him.

"Breacher, Gypsy, Harry. Even Miles' powers come from a different reality." Caitlin lists and looks to Miles. "What did you think we meant when we said Harry was from Earth-2?" She wonders and Harry waves his hand.

"That he was from earth _also_." Ralph states and everyone is annoyed by him not being caught up with them. "You guys really need to make a welcome pamphlet, or at least a PowerPoint or something." He says before banging his head against the board.

"Ralph, can we get off time travel, please? Let's focus on Gridlock, okay?" Barry asks him. "I'll head to CCPD, see what I can dig up. Peter, you rest. Miles, don't let him move. You have permission to shock him with your lightning fighters if needed." He tells Miles as he leaves.

"It's called a venom strike." Miles tells him.

"I'll stay with Nora." Iris offers as they leave. "You thirsty?" She asks Nora.

-

Later, they get everything set up to send her home and call the two back.

"I can't believe I'm wearing the same tachyon enhancer that my dad used to meet the Iron-Spider-Man and Supergirl for the first time." Nora giddies over as Cisco and Fox place it on her. "What happened to the second version? The smaller one that was inside the emblem of my dad's second suit? If he wore that one, he could harness tachyons and share them with me."

"Hey, fan girl, relax." Cisco says as he's holding the device. "We know."

With that, Barry comes in wearing his second suit with the white emblem. "Did all these suits shrink? And why does it smell so bad?"

"Because it's the one you used when you swam against King Shark." Nora tells him.

"You're telling me you haven't washed the suit in two years?" Peter asks him as he places the small enhancer under the emblem.

"We should get going." Barry says.

"Then this is goodbye. From your guys' perspectives, at least. I'll see you in a minute and 27 seconds, but when you see me again, I'll be a baby." Nora tells them.

"I'm sorry we didn't get to spend more time together." Iris apologizes and Nora didn't seem that phases as she hugs Barry and they speed off into the pipeline to start opening a portal.

As they ran, Wally shows up. "Did they leave already?" He asks.

"About to. Why?" Harry asks.

"We have to stop them." Wally warns when they open a portal that only exploded and sent the speedsters flying.

-

Turns out Nora has some sorta negative tachyons that won't allow her to travel to the future and she's trapped here until they can get them out of her system.

With Harry and Fox working on Nora, the others go to find a way to track Gridlock down without their satellite.

"How's the investigation?" Caitlin asks Ralph.

"It just doesn't add up. If Eddie wanted to erase Thawne from existence, why didn't he just have a vasectomy?" Ralph wonders. "But nobody's talking here."

"Probably because they think Gridlock will attack them." Peter guesses as he meets up with them.

"Right, but maybe if I had Crystal Frost or Spider-Man at my side, people will be more willing to tell us." Ralph asks them.

"Buddy, not right now." Peter says regarding him wearing the suit after having his face beat in and Caitlin leaves.

"What did I say?" Ralph wonders.

"When DeVoe took your body, he also made Crystal Frost disappear." Peter explains for her.

"Jeez Louise, no one tells me anything." Ralph complains. "Is she gone for good?"

"No, we know she's still a part of her, but the only lead we have is a memory of her when she was a kid and she was Crystal Frost." Peter informs him.

"How could she have been a meta since she was a kid?" Ralph asks.

"Fox learned she didn't come from dark matter like the rest of the metahumans we've faced and she came from some anomaly in her DNA. Like how I got my powers due to getting bit by a spider." Peter explains.

"She see anything else?" Ralph wonders.

"Her father was with her. Problem is that the man's been dead for years." Peter says.

"Hey, look at this." Cisco calls them over to where he's holding the dark matter scanner. "I present Gridlock. A mystery in five parts. Please note the dark matter levels. Act one, Gridlock attacks the cops before the team arrives."

"These dark matter levels are normal for a man his size." Caitlin says looking over the screen.

"Until act two. Ultimate Spider-Man attacks with a venom strike." Cisco says and drags them to the second place and they see different results.

"His dark matter increases?" Ralph asks.

"And onto act three, Gridlock hits back." Cisco says and they see it keeps multiplying. "Act four, Spider-Man attacks Gridlock. And then act five and final act, Gridlock pulverized Spider-Man."

"Don't remind me." Peter begs as they see they constantly increase.

"How is that possible?" Ralph asks.

"It isn't. Unless every time Gridlock got hit, his cells absorbed the kinetic energy. " Caitlin guesses.

"That would increase his dark matter quotient, thereby increasing his powers." Cisco says. "If this is true, then whatever movement he's exposed to, he's gonna get stronger."

"So if he keeps moving, he's gonna become unstoppable?" Ralph asks.

-

"I scanned the crime scene photos, and we've got a match." Fox says as the team returns to Star labs and Barry had a private conversation with Nora about her being here and pulls up William Lang. "This is not his first time as the CCPD has a warrant to arrest him after carjacking."

"And now he absorbs kinetic energy?" Barry asks.

"He only gets stronger of you punch him, shoot him, throw him into traffic." Caitlin lists.

"Hate to get stuck in that gridlock." Peter jokes.

Cisco lets out a gasp. "Gridlock. Wait...I came up with that name?! I am fortune's fool!"

"So how do we find this guy without Sally the satellite?" Wally asks.

"We don't need a satellite to hack his phone." Harry says as he does that and finds it. "He's at the airport, on a plane taking off. Central City Air, flight 5201."

"Why would he get on a plane?" Iris asks as if it wasn't obvious.

"Because he's gonna crash it." Barry and Peter guess at the same time.

Suddenly, the alarms say the engine has already lost its engine.

"Frankie, think you can stop the plane from plummeting?" Cisco asks her.

"I...I might, if I'm up high enough to watch it I can glide it down safely, I can't stop it." Frankie tells them.

"It's heading for downtown. If Gridlock takes out the other engine, the pilot won't be able to avoid the buildings." Caitlin tells them.

"Thousands of others will die." Peter states the obvious.

"Not if you phase the plane through the buildings." Nora offers as she comes into the cortex. "I read about you doing the same thing in the future when you were fighting Mob Rule."

"Can you do that?" May asks.

"Maybe if Wally helps." Barry says looking to Wally. "But we could use the extra hand." He looking to Nora.

"I can't phase anything." Nora says."I can't even phase myself, let alone at G-force."

Harry then snaps his hands at that. "That's it. Exile the plane is ascending, blows up the other engine, it will slow down before starting to ascend."

"Giving us 10 seconds of zero G's on the plane." Cisco adds.

"Meaning he won't have any kinetic energy, means Gridlock will have no powers." Caitlin finishes.

"Cisco, can you breach them there?" Caitlin asks Cisco.

"No, I'd have to be there in person." Cisco says.

"Then get going, Ramon." Harry tells him.

"I don't have a suit." Barry tells them.

"I actually have a backup." Nora says and hands him a ring with the Flash emblem on it. "I got more than just a list of metas from that museum."

Barry throws his fist out like Reverse Flash and the suit flies out and he places it on. The suit is all bright red with a helmet like cowl and a white emblem.

"Damn. I made that?" Cisco asks, looking over the future suit.

"Ryan Choi, actually." Nora breaks to him.

"Oh, this is a supersuit." Barry says looking over it. "No offense." He tells Cisco.

"None taken." Cisco assures him.

"Let's go." Peter tells them.

-

The second engine goes down and the speedsters all run as Cisco takes Frankie through a breach and they wait for the right moment to breach them into the plane and handcuff Gridlock.

Frankie then gets told to start using her powers and she starts to lift it slowly and it's up to the speedsters on the plane to stop it from crashing into the buildings.

They start to fear as the plane starts to go through the buildings and starts to safety glide into the river where it stops.

"Nice job, Metalla." Cisco congratulates her.

-

"Gridlock is now on his way to Iron Heights metahuman wing where he won't be seen for a while." Cisco reports.

"Thanks to your help." Barry tells Nora. "I'm glad we got to team up."

"Me, too." Nora agrees as Fox comes in with the tachyon enhancer.

"May I present to you, the tachyon absorption enhancer 2.5, a Cisco approved name." Fox says.

"Yes, it is." Cisco agrees.

"Now complete with recalibrated Time Bureau technology from the Waverider." Fox finishes.

"It hasn't been tested, but it should counterbalance the negative tachyons." Harry says and they hand the device to Nora.

"So I can run home now?" Nora asks.

"Or...maybe we hit pause on this thing." Barry says and takes the tachyon enhancer.

"You want Nora to stay?" Iris asks, and everyone isn't sure that's a good idea.

"Yeah, I thought getting her home was our priority." Cisco agrees.

"The longer she's here, the more damage to the timeline we cause." Harry reminds him.

"No, it's just...now I'm thinking maybe we should make sure her powers are working correctly before we send her home." Barry explains.

"And...the timeline?" Peter asks, that being the biggest thing. Even to the smallest of changes, the Speedforce likes to sends it's Time Demons after them and Peter doesn't wanna got through those guys again.

"It's risky, but I don't know. Wally and I were talking about it." Barry says and they face him.

"The Legends have a theory; there see some historical events that are soft. You change those, it's not gonna affect much else. Like catching gridlock late. Then there are those that are fixed. You mess with them, and all sorts of craziness starts to happen."

"Like the night my mom died. Changing that caused Flashpoint." Barry adds.

"Looks like Nora is gonna need a place to stay." Iris says, smiling.

"I'll stay in the lounge." Nora offers.

"What lounge?" Barry asks.

"You guys have never shown him the lounge?" Peter asks Cisco and Caitlin. "You've never seen the lounge?" He asks Barry.

They show the others the lounge of Star labs where Ralph finally rejoins them.

"If Barry can go back in time, why didn't he stop the Thinker from killing me?" Ralph asks them and the three look nervously. "Guys, I'm kidding. I realize that could upset the delicate balance of the universe."

"You talked with Fox, didn't you?" Peter guesses.

"I got a lecture from Fox on _everything_. Now I'm officially caught up on all the craziness. Besides, if he did that, who knows? He might've created a timeline where I died in that particle accelerator explosion." Ralph adds.

"Wishful thinking." Cisco says as he's fixing the coffee maker. "Kidding. I'm glad we didn't have to hold your hand through everything anymore."

"Well, while you guys were fighting Gridlock, I was running this down." Ralph says and holds an envelope in his hand and passes it to Caitlin.

"What's this?" Caitlin asks.

"An answer. And a lot more questions. Peter told me about your father's death." Ralph explains as they see it's his death certificate. "And Fox told me he found this during his search for a cure for you when you were Killer Frost. The M.E. who signed off on it, Cameron Mahkent? He doesn't exist."

Peter looks at it confused, "So the death certificate..."

"Is a fake." Caitlin finishes and she's seriously confused.


	92. How to move on Earth-1 addition

"So you're not stuck here." Iris clarifies after Nora finally told them the truth as they're all sitting at Joe's house.

"No, I'm not." Nora confesses.

"So the reverse tachyons in your system?" Caitlin asks.

"We're put there because of me." Nora explains.

"You kidding?" Cisco asks. "You know how many credit card points I just blew just trying to get rid of your negative tachyons? I just bought a brand new spectral tachymeter when I could have my Fiji get away."

"What are you complaining about? That was my credit card you were using." Peter reminds him.

Cisco takes a minute to remember if that's true or not. "Oh, yeah I did, didn't I? Well, it doesn't matter anyway now I have nobody to go with." Ralph turns to face him when Cisco stops him. "I'm not taking you to Fiji, Ralph."

"Why didn't you guys tell us about this before?" Harry asks, taking a sip from his coffee.

"Show them." Barry tells Nora and she pulls out a bracelet and a newspaper article similar to the one they saw in the time vault, except this is dated 25 years after the old paper and Barry hasn't returned.

"Barry never returns?" Cecile asks.

"That's why you came here." Joe understands. "To see your father, because you were raised without him."

Nora then shuts down the paper as the team process what they were just told.

"So what?" Iris asks and now everyone is confused about what she means by that. "So what that the article says that you never come back. So what if the other one says that you vanished? I mean, I said other things before, right?"

"Yeah, like Spider-Man vanishes in Crisis, you didn't write the article but it said the exact same thing." Peter reminds her and he has no plans on vanishing. "And changing the timeline never exactly worked in our favor. Savitar, Flashpoint, Alchemy, Reverse Flash, the singularity, these are just off the top of my head."

"He does have a point." Cisco agrees.

Peter lets out a quick sigh and knows that maybe this one time they can be like the Legends and mess things up for the better. "But if it comes to it, we'll find a way to save you, man."

"What he said." Caitlin agrees.

-

They return to Star labs as Peter and Caitlin walked in to see Cisco listening to one of Gypsy's message boxes and when they came in he quickly hid it.

"Hello there." Caitlin greets him.

"Hey!" Cisco greets them.

"What are you doing?" Peter wonders.

"I was just trying to get Barry's suit into this ring. On, it's...it's tiny." Cisco quickly lies.

"Yeah, you weren't watching old holograms of Gypsy." Caitlin says.

"Why would I be doing that?" Cisco asks.

"Because you miss her, man." Peter informs him.

"We just had something so special." Cisco finally breaks. "Shouldn't it have worked? Of course it's not so special anymore now she's just rattling around inside my head."

"I'm sorry this is so hard for you." Caitlin tells him. "But it's okay to still be thinking about her."

"I don't think you guys understand." Cisco tells them. "I mean, she's literally...inside my head. I can't vibe. Everything I vibe is connected to her. I put some music on, I hear her voice singing along. I'm painting my figurines, I see her face on Captain Kirk's body. shh...do you smell that?" He asks as he stands to face them.

"The realization that you're loosing it?" Peter asks.

"Of course not." Cisco sees. "Because that's her perfume and I'm only one smelling it."

"Of course." Caitlin says, trying to calm her friend down. "Your powers lined you guys over pan dimensional spacetime, so it makes complete sense that you vibe echos would still be connected-"

"Connecting us to each other. Yes, I know. Thank you for the diagnosis." Cisco says.

"I'm sorry. You don't need a doctor. You need a friend." Caitlin says.

"I'm sorry, I'm just...I'm a mess." Cisco apologizes when Ralph comes in.

"Oh, perfect. Been looking for you three." Ralph says. "We need to talk. I've hit a real wall trying to figure out who forged this death certificate, Fox says he's looking into it on the computer half but to speed up the process, I was thinking Cisco could give this a little bit of a...vibe."

"Cisco is not available right now." Cisco says as he drops back down in his seat. "Please leave a message."

"Oh, hey, Cisco, it's Ralph. Hope you're doing well. Just get back to me. I need you to vibe this as soon as possible." Ralph jokes.

"And then there were two verbal gestures on the team." Cisco says, referring to Ralph and Peter.

"Ralph, Cisco can't vibe right now, so we're just gonna have to deal with this a little later." Caitlin says, taking the certificate from Ralph, not wanting to talk about that.

"Why can't he vibe? What's going on?" Ralph asks.

"Because...we need to help him get over Gypsy." Caitlin explains. "Cisco gets his vibe back, we can crash this case."

"Please stop caring about me." Cisco pleads and curls up into a ball.

"Peter, you don't have any ways to get over heartbreak, do you?" Caitlin wonders.

"I never even heard a relationship for that long before you." Peter informs her. "I dated a Kitty Pride for maybe one date at Homecoming where I had to leave to fight the Vulture and I ended up resting the pain and broke her heart. Not even a coffee date with Harleen Quinn where she psychoanalyzed everything I did. Then maybe a few dates with Laurel Lance which ended because we both knew I couldn't stay in Star City."

"Ralph, how about you?" Caitlin asks him.

"I have plenty." Ralph says and kneels down to Cisco. "Cisco, you wanna know why I'm the perfect guy to help you to get over this? Because trust me, buddy, nobody and I mean nobody has been kicked out of that more than me."

Cisco knows he's in for a long day and he tries to find some way of getting out...and he has nothing.

-

The four of them go to Ralph's place and he shows them a book he wrote.

"The book of Ralph." Caitlin reads the cover.

"Yep, And we're gonna start with a page of Ralph 'cause he's nowhere near ready for this whole book." Ralph says and takes out one page that looks like it's worn down and written all over it.

Ralph Dibny's 27 steps to get over the love of your life.

"Are you kidding me with this?" Cisco asks them.

"We just want to help you get past Gipsy, man." Peter tells him. "And if this has worked for the Waistband-"

"Multiple times I will add." Ralph interrupts.

"Then it's worth a shot." Peter finishes.

"What's step one?" Caitlin asks Ralph.

"Shark Cage diving." Ralph says and now the couple is seriously confused.

"What's step two?" Peter asks.

"Affirmations." Ralph says.

As Cisco starts to do it and Peter looks over the other steps and they just get weirder. Going to Vegas, every time you think of your ex you have to give your friends 20 bucks.

"Okay, you know what, guys? I changed my mind, all right?" Cisco tells them. "I-I don't care about the Gipsy vibes. So let's muscle through them, let's just help Caitlin with her father thumb and get me the hell out of here, please?" He begs.

"Cisco, after Ronnie and Jay, I had Peter to help me get past them. Now we're going to help you." Caitlin says and takes the list. "We don't have time to find ourselves in Thailand."

"And we're definitely not watching _Beaches _while painting each other's toes." Peter tells Ralph, wondering where he got these steps from.

"That's a really important one." Ralph tells him.

"But step twelve isn't so bad." Caitlin says and shows him what that step is.

"Dear god, no." Cisco says.

"Come on, Cisco, change is good." Caitlin tells him.

"No, no. Change is pain." Cisco states.

"It's not as painful as seeing you all mopey like this." Peter tells him.

Cisco then stands up and gives up. "Whatever you say, doc."

-

The team later gets called in on a new metahuman that can create blocks out of thin air.

"Cisco, were you able to get the satellite up and running again?" Barry asks and Cisco is staring off into the abyss.

Peter and Caitlin wait a second for him to say something and he's just frozen.

"We weren't able to track Vanessa, but we did find a scientific anomaly that we've never seen before, right, Cisco?" Caitlin asks and he's still frozen.

"I got this." Peter assures her and approaches his friend. Cisco used to freeze up like this a lot back before the particle accelerator explosion, when he would think too hard and get lost in his own world. Ronnie and him later found the one phrase that breaks him out of the trance. "Han shot second."

Cisco immediately broke out and got up and pulls Peter close to his face. "That doesn't even make any sense!" He states before realizing what's happening. "You promised you wouldn't do that again."

"You promised you wouldn't freeze up again." Peter tells him. "We need your help here, man."

"Right." Cisco says and gets to work on the monitors and shows the footage of Vanessa using blocks. "Vanessa Jansen's concentrated air squares are dense, very dense, stupid dense. The kind of dense reserved for people who still believe...in love."

"I think what Ramon is trying to say is Vanessa can manipulate the movement of atoms to created concentrated air molecules in cube form." Harry tells them. "The space between the molecules is so compact that..."

"There isn't enough room for a speedster or about anything to vibrate through them." Peter finishes.

"And what do you all someone who can compress air molecules into solid blocks?" Barry winders as Cisco walks off.

"I don't know, Block." Cisco guesses as he leaves the room.

"So, I guess Cisco is taking the Gypsy thing pretty hard." Iris sees.

"We're working on it." Ralph tells her. "But you can't expect real progress until you hit step seventeen." That gets some confused glances from everyone in the room.

"Don't ask." Peter warns them.

"It's this thing we're working on with Cisco. You can do without us for a little while, right?" Caitlin asks.

"I mean, we are blind without our satellite so we're just gonna have to wait until Vanessa makes her next move anyway." Barry guesses and they leave to work on Cisco.

-

"All right, you're in for a treat. He initially said no, but after I told him that your cousin was John Stamos." Ralph says as he leads the three of them somewhere.

"My cousin is not John Stamos." Cisco states.

"He agreed to take you on." Ralph says as he stops in front of a door. "I proudly present my personal stylist, Bruce." He greets the, And then opens the door and the guy looks like if DeVoe placed a razor to his head and left it there and grew a goatee. "This guy does it all, hair, makeup. He picks everything I wear."

"That explains a lot." Peter mutters.

"Come on." Caitlin pushes Cisco inside. "Bruce is going to help us accomplish step twelve. Metamorphosis."

"Does that mean you think there's something wrong with me?" Cisco asks them.

"Buddy, we love you, and we want to help you." Peter says and Cisco decides to go with it.

After a while and a threat by Cisco when Bruce went to cut his hair, they're waiting as Cisco comes out with his hair combed back and he's wearing some half professional looking clothes.

"My work here is done." Bruce says as he leaves and Cisco looks over himself.

"So...I hate it." Cisco says. "I hate it all. Great, now that that's over and done with. Why don't we focus on the death certificate?" He asks them.

"We would need you to vibe it." Peter reminds him.

"Or we could ask Joe or Lucius to do their thing. Some old fashioned police work on Joe's end and Fox can look into it from his the computer end. Did you ever think of that?" Cisco questions.

"Let's not worry about it, okay?" Caitlin asks him.

"Well, it is a good idea." Peter agrees.

"Yeah, I agree." Ralph says and Ralph heads to his phone and Peter gets ready to call Fox and ask him.

"Guys, no. Seriously, cut it out!" Caitlin yells over their talking getting their attention. "Forget about the death certificate and let's just focus on helping our friend, okay?" She tells them and leaves.

"I'll go check on her." Peter says and leaves to find her.

-

He later finds her at Jitters after he had to take a detour to stop a robbery and a car theft.

"The sugar pastry." Peter comments on what she has and the thing is the size of the plate it's on. "I think as far as avoiding feelings go, cinnamon bun is a good way to go. Mind splitting that? Had a bit of a workout on my way here."

Caitlin smiles at his attempts to cheer her up as he takes a seat across from her. "So...why don't you want to search into your dad's death certificate?"

Caitlin immediately stops smiling and sighs. "Because...if it's true, and he has been alive this whole time...it just means he didn't want to see me."

Peter understands where she's going with this now and places a comforting hand over hers. "There is one thing that I don't think I told you...because I never told anyone." He tells her and Caitlin wonders what it is. "My parents, when they died, I looked into their deaths. The plane, the airport, the tickets, anything I could get my hands on at the time. I learned that they lied about where they were going. They weren't on the plane when they died. I don't know where they were, but the plane was a cover story. I looked into their pasts, looked for everything that could lead to the truth. And the truth was just as scary as the lie. They were government agents, never told anyone, lied about everything. I stopped looking into it after going that far. I spent a lot of time wondering why they never said anything to me, May, or Ben. Then I came up with the accusation that they wanted to protect us."

"So keeping secrets to keep others safe is coded on your DNA." Caitlin jokes and Peter laughs at that.

"Maybe your father did the same, he wanted to protect you, so he had to leave. I'm not Barry, I can't change the past. But there's a chance for you to get to know your father. It's not too late." Peter says as Caitlin starts to tear up.

"But what did he doesn't want anything to do with me?" Caitlin asks through her breaking voice.

"If he doesn't, wouldn't you want to face the truth then spend your life wondering?" Peter asks her.

-

They return to Star labs and learn Barry's in trouble and they go in to help him with Block.

Miles and Frankie come in with the others as they finished her off.

"Well, my work here is done." Cisco comments.

"Looks like she's a regular chip off the ol' Block." Ralph quips.

"Hey, I do the quips around here." Miles and Peter say at the same time.

Suddenly, their senses go off and a lightning shape dagger stabs Block.

Someone new comes out and he's wearing a dark cloth with a mask covering his face. His breathing sounds like a chirping Darth Vader.

"Who's this Sith Lord, Darth Vader knockoff?" Miles asks as Nora speeds Block to the hospital.

The man throws his dagger and it hits the ground before giving off an orange glow around half the team and their powers stop working.

"I just lost my speed." Barry says.

"A metal dagger?" Frankie smirks and goes to use her powers and the dagger doesn't move. "Okay..." She says and goes to use the metal surrounding them and nothing works. "I've got no powers."

"Guys, I know we're six against one, but something tells me this guy's got the advantage." Cisco says as Barry goes to fight the guy only to get beaten up followed by Ralph.

Cisco tries to lift up the dagger of his and Peter goes in and punches the man, still having his powers.

"Why can you still use yours?" Ralph questions.

"Don't know, kinda don't care right now." Peter says and the man gets up and calls his dagger back and cuts Cisco's hands in the process.

He swings the dagger at Peter and he easily dodges the attacks as Miles sneaks up and kicks the man in the back. The man then throws his dagger at Miles and Peter pushes him out of the way and it ends up cutting his shoulder.

The man walks up and punches Peter while he was weak, sending him toppling to the ground. He goes in for a final strike and Frankie interrupts.

"Dad!" Frankie yells and the man faces her and stares for a minute before getting up and leaving.

Miles tries followng him and he somehow vanishes into thin air.

-

Cisco's hands seem to be damaged so he can't use his powers for a while or his hands for a while longer.

But before he decided to stop using his powers, he used them for a quick second to see exactly what he could about the certificate and all they saw was her mother and someone else.

"This guy...is something else." Harry comments looking over the footage from Peter's mask Fox sent over.

"His dagger seems to have dark matter properties." Fox comments.

"And his breathing." Harry replies.

"It sounds like an insect." Caitlin says.

"Like a cicada." Nora says and they all face her.

"Who's Cicada?" Barry asks.


	93. Cicada

So, Cicada, a new threat that nobody knows anything about him, only that he sounds like a Cicada when he breathes.

Oh, and they never were able to catch him.

"We never catch him?" Barry repeats what Nora just told them.

"Supergirl, Iron-Spider, the Legends, even the League tried, but no one was successful." Nora confirmed.

"Probably 'cause he can dampen everybody's powers with that magic friggin' dagger." Ralph states.

"But the dagger didn't work on the Spider-Man's," Caitlin pointed out, "so what about-"

"Daredevil? Jessica Jones?" Nora interrupted. "The Defenders never got close enough to try."

"Yeah, and that dagger did something to my super-healing." Peter comments since usually cuts from knives and anything heals in no time, but this one from his shoulder hasn't yet. It's like it just dampened his powers while taking everyone else's.

"So we're dealing with a metahuman Jack the Ripper. Amazing." Cisco comments.

"What else do you know?" Harry asks.

"Just that he...he's early." Nora answers.

"What's that mean?" Fox asks.

"In my history, Cicada's first victim was a metahuman named Floyd Belkin. And he never killed Gridlock or Block. They're completely different victims." Nora explains.

"Probably due to when you changed the timeline." Peter muttered to himself.

"And now they're both dead." Nora adds.

"Okay, there's no telling the ripple effect of this change or what kind of future Nora's gonna return to, so we gotta catch this guy fast." Barry tells the others.

"Catch the guy that only me and Miles can get close to that future us couldn't stop?" Peter asks the speedster.

"Right, and I thought beating the Thinker was gonna be hard." Cisco agrees.

The computers bleep and Caitlin answers it. "Guys, it's Joe. CCPD needs help downtown."

"I got this." Miles offers and grabs his mask. "You guys deal with this psycho and I rethink my life choices." He says as he leaves.

"Okay. How do we start looking for this deranged lunatic who likes killing people with powers?" Peter wonders.

-

At the situation, there's a robbery at a store with a familiar face that most of the team has come across at least once.

"Now nobody try nothing funny." He warns the hostages while swinging his gun around. "This baby is solar with a zero carbon footprint. I spent a week in the sun charging with U, V, A B, and C!"

The lady in the cash register starts to open a bag to put the money in and that gets him angry. "I told you, I brought my own bags!" He says as he gives her the bags.

"Sorry." She apologizes.

"Apology accepted." He replies.

"Wow. You're the most polite criminal I've come across so far." Miles says and the man starts trying to find him and Miles goes visible for a second as he sneaks up behind him before charging a venom-strike and touches his back, taking him down. "And trust me, the last big bad I went up against was just creepy polite."

-

Harry is looking into the Cicada case and he thinks that there is more to this than at first glance.

Unknown to them, Cicada is looking into anything he can find on Spider-Man or ultimate Spider-Man, seeing that they're not affected by his dagger, and notices that every time they're with the police, Joe West isn't far behind them.

Peter and Caitlin took this as a good time while everything was quiet to talk to her mother about the death certificate.

"Mom, I know it sounds crazy, but we thing someone forged dad's death certificate." Caitlin tells Tannhauser.

"Have you any proof?" Tannhauser asks her looking over the death certificate.

"No. Well, yes, sort of. It's complicated." Caitlin says. "I just thought you should know."

"Unless I already knew." Tannhauser sees.

"I didn't say that." Caitlin replies.

"It's why you're here, isn't it? If this is some elaborate, possibly nefarious coverup, it must be mom's doing. It's not like she's ever had your best interests at heart."

"You always do this." Caitlin says as Peter looks around the office, not wanting to get in between them and what they're going through. "I just want to know the truth. I think I deserve to know that."

"Caitlin, your father is dead. And if you care about my feelings at all, you'll just let this be." Tannhauser asks of them.

"Thanks, Mom. Pleasure as always." Caitlin says and goes for the death certificate when her mom stops her.

"Don't become obsessed with the past. Your father had that flaw. It nearly lead to his ruin even before his death." Tannhauser warns her. "I trust you know the way out." She says as she leaves the room.

"I'm sorry we came all this way for no reason." Caitlin tells Peter.

"Well, I did finally get to meet your mother." Peter looks for a bright side before breaking the bad news. "And she's a pretty good liar."

"I know she forged this death certificate, I just...she's never gonna tell us why. We've hit a brick wall." Caitlin replies.

"Yes, but It's a good thing one of my extraordinary powers is to crawl over walls." Peter says with a smug smile and Caitlin's confused. "I know what we need to do and where to find it." He explains.

-

At Joe's house, he was reading a book when he hears breathing and looks to see Cicada is here.

"Detective Joseph west." Cicada greets.

"What do you want?" Joe asks him.

"To finish what I started." Cicada answers. "The metahumans called Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man. Call them here now." He commands him.

"I can't. I don't even know them." Joe lies to him.

Cicada drops the pictures of Peter and Miles with Joe in the background on the table for him to see.

"You were saying?" Cicada asks.

"Yes, I mean, they help CCPD, but it's not like I have some Spider-Phone to contact these...Web Warriors." Joe says, getting annoyed of constantly saying _Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man_. Web Warriors also sounds cool. "They're just masked do-gooders who's been doing this longer than the metahumans have been here and helped out at a few crime scenes." He defends Peter, knowing he's not a metahuman.

"This could be a crime scene." Cicada threatens as he raises his dagger.

-

Peter and Caitlin make it to the location and search through it.

"I didn't think you meant breaking and entering into my mother's company's files." Caitlin tells him.

"I didn't break in. The last person to enter this place came back again." Peter says. He used Drone-y to hack into the system and used the most recent passcode and keycard to unlock the doors.

They find the door to the file room and sees its locked. "Reinforced steel. It's at time like this I really miss Crystal." Caitlin says.

"Don't worry, I got it. Drone-y, think you can hack the code?" Peter asks his drone who's floating in the air as he attaches himself to the padlock and starts to decode the lock and gets the door open. "After you, my lady." He says and Caitlin smiles.

"Always the gentleman." Caitlin says as she walks into the file room.

"When am I not?" Peter asks as he enters after her.

After some time, they found a file on Thomas Snow and inside isn't exactly what they were looking for.

"What is that?" Peter asks as he looks at what's in Caitlin's hand that looks like a different drawn version of the periodic table.

"It's a game my dad and I used to play." Caitlin explains as she unfolds it. "He would teach me the periodic table, but...he would let me make up my own fictional compiynds and elements." She explains and Peter reads it.

"Nerd-odium?" Peter questions.

"He used to say it's what made us smart." Caitlin explains and Peter lightly chuckles at that. "We used to have so much fun together. Catching bugs in the backyard, looking at constellations through a telescope we built. He taught me so much in life."

Peter keeps looking through the file and finds a note addressed for Caitlin. "Maybe he's still trying to teach you something." He says as he hands the letter to her and she opens it.

"It's a letter from him...saying goodbye." Caitlin realizes. "It's a suicide note."

-

Back at Joe's place, he wakes up and sees he's now tied to a chair in his living room.

"You have a lovely family, detective West. By not giving me what I want, by putting your life in danger, you're gambling their future with you." Cicada warns Joe, looking over his pictures. "If you knew what I knew, you'd cherish them more."

"I'm not luring either Spider-Man into a death trap. You can threaten me all you want. I'm not afraid." Joe tells him.

"I believe you. But you should be." Cicada says as he uses his dagger to start shocking him.

-

Peter and Caitlin started driving back to Star labs in silence until Peter finally broke it.

"I'm sorry, Caitlin." Peter apologizes.

"For what?" Caitlin asks.

"That we didn't find the answers you were hoping for." Peter explains.

"Peter, you gave me something I haven't had for a while." Caitlin assures him.

"What's that?" Peter wonders.

"Closure." Caitlin explains to him. "It may not be the news I wanted, but I finally know the truth. And that's enough."

Peter remembers seeing what Drone-y typed in to unlock the door. "You see what the code was for the lock?"

"No, what was it?" Caitlin wonders.

"It was your birthday. Day, month, year." Peter tells her, knowing when her birthday is by heart.

-

Cecile wakes up and feels Joe is in pain.

"All of this and not even a scream." Cicada says as he stops shocking him. "You've experienced pain before, but not more than me."

Cecile sneaks downstairs and goes to hit the emergency contact on her phone when Joe pleads psychically not to do it.

"I didn't want to do this. Not to a family man. But I will." Cicada promises whirl holding the baby blanket. "Time to make a decision, Detective West. While there's still some of you left." He says and goes to strike Joe when Jenna starts crying and Cicada notices Cecile and she pushes the button on habitat.

-

At Star labs, Cisco and Miles were in the labs, working on refilling his web-canisters when they get the alert and Cisco uses a breach device to send Miles there fast.

A breach opens in the middle of the Joe household and Miles leaps in and he sees Cicada.

"Bad idea!" Miles states to himself before Cicada tackles him back through the breach.

The breach closes just as Barry makes it.

"He took Miles!" Cecile warns him.

"Guys, Cicada has Miles." Barry tells the team.

"_What do you mean took him?_" Harry asks.

"They jumped into a breach right when I got here." Barry explains.

"_Well, they're not here._" Cisco tells him. "_And if they went through a breach, they could be anywhere._"

-

"Miles, are you there?" Fox asks, pulling up the spider communicator.

"_Guys, can you hear me!?_" Miles asks as he sounds frightened and out of breath.

"Miles, do you know where you are?" Harry asks him.

"_I don't know. I stepped out of the breach, saw Cicada and froze. He took the opportunity to take me down and we ended up in some sort of forest_." Miles tells them.

"Can you get out?" Cisco asks.

"_No. I didn't bring the device_." Miles says before they hear him shriek at something before hearing the dagger flying through the air. "_Thank god I still have my powers. Now someone get me out of here!!_"

"Without the satellite, I can't find where he's at." Harry states in anger as he types on the council to try to get something up. "And in this city alone, there's over fourteen million acres of forest."

"Not to worry, I have something." Fox assures them as he brings up the Spider-Computer system and two blimps appear on the screen.

"What are those?" Ralph asks.

"The tracking devices that are in the Spider-Man suits. Every suit has one, and as soon as they exit the Spider-Cave, they're immediately activated. I can track Spider-Man from across the planet using our Parker Industries satellites." Fox explains and zooms in on the two blimps and sees one is near the labs and one is farther away. "Barry, he's at Kolins Woods."

"_On my way._" Barry says.

"_Not without me._" Peters voice states as Peter places his suit on and Barry picks him up.

-

Miles is looking around the forest as he's out in the open and his senses are going off in every direction.

"Come on, Jason, where are you?" Miles asks out loud, making a _Friday the Thirteenth_ reference when he's suddenly stabbed in the back by the dagger and is pulled towards Cicada.

Before he could do anything, Barry speeds up and loses his speed.

Peter goes running in and punches Cicada, spins and then kicks in in the face.

Cicada tried to fight back, but Peter kicks him in the chin, sending him flying and while he was in the air, Peter kicks his back and sends him flying through the forest.

"Get away from him!" Peter commands Cicada as he starts to get back up.

"Why are you doing this?" Barry asks.

"All these years, Central City has spent defending metas when they should have been ending them. Those days end now. Staring with you." Cicada promises looking to the Spider-Men.

"Technically, you already killed Block and Gridlock." Peter reminds him. "So let's get this over with."

He sends a web at Cicada and yanks him back and does a spin and kicks him across the face while Barry gets Miles out of here.

Cicada feels his chest and sees he's bleeding and starts to wheeze. Peter doesn't miss this and is confused as to why he's wheezing before he slams his dagger into the ground and creates a forcefield that pushes Peter away and Cicada takes off flying.

-

They make it back to Star labs where May and Caitlin patched up Miles and sees that just like Peter, his powers were dampened, so it's gonna take longer for his wound to heal.

"You sure you're gonna be all right with your folks?" Peter asks as Miles gets ready to go home.

"Yeah, I'll be all right. I'll tell them it was just a skateboarding accident, and a friend of mine patched me up." Miles promises and leaves the team.

"How we gonna catch this guy?" Cisco wonders.

"Not with our powers. We know that at least." Nora says.

"What I'm still curious by is why Parker's powers still work out there." Harry wonders.

"Maybe his powers can't dampen my radioactivity." Peter guesses.

"That might be one reason." Harry agrees.

"There's another thing. When I was fighting Cicada...he sounded like he had asthma." Peter says, not knowing how to describe it.

"That's worth looking into." Fox and Harry say before Harry takes his coffee.

"Ramon, let's go. To my workshop." Harry tells him.

"It's my workshop, Harry." Cisco tells him.

"Let's get going, Harry Head." Harry states as they leave.

-

Peter finds Caitlin back in her labs and leans against the doorway.

"Hey, Miles went home, he promises to lay low for a while, stick to the neighborhood to not run into Cicada again. Ready to head home?" Peter asks her before he notices her face. "Or...did you discover something?" He wonders as he approaches her.

"My dad wasn't really the letter writing type. I feel like he would have found some other way to tell me." Caitlin explains.

"Anything from his work notes?" Peter wonders.

"No, I mean, these molecular models are gibberish. There's gaps everywhere and some of these compounds don't even exist." Caitlin explains. "But maybe I should just listen to my mom and forget about the past."

"Didn't you say that you made up elements?" Peter asks as he hands the elemental table from the car she left.

Caitlin looks over the elements and realizes what he's saying. "They don't exist because they're not supposed to." She realizes and starts going over the work and finds its a message.

_Caitlin come find me_

"Does that mean...?" Peter starts, not know how to finish that thought.

"My father might be alive." Caitlin understands.

Unknown to them, someone's watching them through the cameras in the labs.

Harry was in the lounge reading area as Nora came in.

"Harry, hi, I was looking for my purse. I'm about to have dinner with my parents." Nora says and Harry raises his hand showing he found it. "Thanks." She says as she takes it.

"Nora." Harry stops her. "I've been wondering something. You've been traveling back into these certain points in your parents lives. Then you went in and punched a falling satellite, that is the moment to change history. That decision...did you make it on your own?" He wonders.

Nora looks to him with a smug smile. "It was."

"Okay." Harry says, happy with that answer. "Forgive me, I'm suspicious of everyone as you might know." He explains to her as she leaves.

Yeah, Harry knows she's hiding something.

What, he's going to figure out.


	94. Return of evil tech

The next day, everyone comes back to Star labs, minus Miles and Cisco.

"Where's Ramon and Morales?" Harry wonders.

"Cisco's laying low at his parents house while he heals up." Barry explains.

"Miles is gonna be laying low because his dad is in fact suspicious about how he got the cut caused by Cicada's dagger." Peter tells him.

"Right. Okay, team," Harry says and goes to a board with a marker, "we need to catch the homicidal maniac, Cicada. So what do we know so far?" He wonders.

"He's killed two people and almost a third." Iris says.

"Not just people." Harry reminds her. "Metahumans." He says as he writes it on the board.

"Joe said he got the feeling that Cicada's a dad." Barry adds and Harry writes that.

"His dagger dampens powers." Nora says.

"Not quite, it seems to be only metahumans powers." Harry corrects her. "And not only that, but he can control this weapon of his."

"Maybe they acquired their powers at the same time." Caitlin says.

"And I'm pretty sure that he has some sort of problem with his lungs, he was wheezing during the fight." Peter reminds them.

"We sure that wasn't because you were pummeling him?" Ralph asks.

"No, I've been doing this long enough to know the difference between damaged and beaten. He was wheezing at the beginning, but by the end he was gasping, trying to get air." Peter replies.

Harry writes it down along with everything. "Then there's another question that needs answering, how did his lungs get damaged?" He asks.

"Maybe when his lungs were damaged, that's how he got his powers." Frankie offers.

"I can check the hospital, see if I can find anything on anyone who has lung damage during the time of the accelerator explosion." May offers.

"Check for anything recent while you're at it." Peter asks of her. "I don't think this guy's has had his powers very long." He explains.

"I'm on it." May says as everyone leaves to do their thing.

-

Barry, Iris and Cecile went to the CCPD softball game when in the middle of it, Cecile reads someone's mind.

"Somethings not right." Cecile says as someone walks into the field carrying a bag.

"Is that Jonsey?" Barry wonders.

"Hey, somebody stop him!" Cecile yells.

"Everyone move!" Barry yells when suddenly Frankie comes flying in using her powers and throws the bag into the air and it explodes.

Everyone tackles the bomber and Frankie shakes her head before looking around in confusion. She looks down at herself and sees she's dressed as Metalla.

"What...what happened?" Frankie asks as Barry runs up to her.

"You saved everyone." Barry says and Frankie is seriously confused.

Peter and Caitlin met up with them and was wondering where she ran off to.

"Bomb squad finished their sweep. Said it's all clear." Barry tells them.

"Frankie, how did you know what was going on?" Caitlin wonders since they were getting lunch when she vanished.

"I'm...not entirely sure." Frankie admits. "I remember leaving Star labs, and the next thing I know I was out in the field."

"And you don't remember anything else?" Peter asks when Nora's phone goes off.

"What's that?" Iris asks.

"A notification from Spyn Zone." Nora explains.

"Spyn What?" Peter asks.

"It's a news notification app that tells you the second anything happens in the city." Frankie tells him.

Peter looks to Caitlin. "Between her and Miles, I'm starting to feel outmoded."

Caitlin laughs and pecks his cheek. "You're still in your prime in my book."

Nora opens the notification and sees that it's a new article titled _Metalla saved crowd from Bomb_.

"Already? That was fast." Iris comments when Singh calls Barry in for the CSI part of the bombing.

-

Harry and Fox take their car and drive up to the docks where Cicada killed Block.

"So what are we doing here, Lucius?" Harry asks as they both exit the car and Harry is carrying a coffe to-go cup.

"Well, everyone is looking into everything, Ralph is looking into the injury with May, Peter and Caitlin are looking over when he gained his powers, Miles and Cisco are on super-sabbatical, I thought we could focus on the lungs and mask like Peter mentioned."

"You think his lungs are damaged as well?" Harry guesses.

"You think he's allergic to something in the air?" Fox asks back. "That mask is worn for a reason, not just identification. The hood covers most of his face and his eyes aren't much help because of the lighting. His voice is disfigured but Oliver Queen does the exact same thing with a small device and doesn't need a mask."

"And Parker did mention the more he fought or was attacked, the heavier the breathing." Harry agrees while taking a sip of his coffee while Fox looks over the ground.

"Yes, and it's not the run of the mill version of breathing, so if one of those breaths was strong enough...we might find something." Fox explains.

"Allen did mention he found traces of fluoropolymer."

"Which are prone to flaking." Fox says as he finds something that might help. Specks, but enough to prove what he was thinking. "Industrial respirators use a protective courting around the nose that are made from it."

"And when exposed to another compound, fluoropolymers emit a distinct oder." Harry adds and Fox smells it. "Burned onions."

"We find where Cicada got his mask, we could learn more abwho might be under the mask." Fox says as he stands back up.

"How'd you know how to do this?" Harry wonders.

"My old job in Gotham might've also been added onto tracking down deranged maniacs. Came with helping Batman." Fox explains.

-

That night, Barry and Nora talked to Jonsey and he has no idea what happened, just like Frankie. That's how they were told about a fire at CCPN and the speedsters met up with the Spider-Man and Metalla.

"Buildings already been evacuated." Peter filled them in. "Fire trucks are across town, we can handle this."

"Yeah, I can use metal on the water towers in the area." Frankie says and Peter agrees as she starts to levitate herself to find them.

"Me and Nora will go in and put the fire out from the ground up." Barry tells him.

"Okay, I'll use the foaming from my shooters to stop the fire from spreading." Peter says and swings off.

As soon as Barry was filling Nora in on what they're gonna do he just took of running.

"Guys, where's he going?" Peter asks the crew.

"_His suit's GPS has him west, way west_." Caitlin answers and that confused everyone.

"Guys, what do I do?" Nora asks.

Peter swings around the building while shooting foam to keep the fire contained as Frankie drops water from the towers onto the buildings.

"Nora, you're going to need to do this yourself." Peter breaks to her. "Just get to the source of the fire and put it out from there." He says and she does that. "Spin your arms in tight rotations. Both of them in opposite directions of each other. Trust me, I've learned that from experience."

Nora does as he says and it seems to be working and the fire is extinguished.

Nora then speeds out as Peter and Frankie meet up with her as everyone cheers.

"So where'd Flash go?" Frankie finally asks.

Barry, for some reason, found himself all the way out in Las Vegas.

-

"So there was some weird activity with your scan, but everything looks fine." Caitlin says looking over everything back from Barry.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Iris asks.

"Standing outside with Nora, next thing I know I'm in Vegas." Barry answers.

"Same as Frankie and Officer Jones." Peter says.

"Maybe it was some sort of hypnotic induction?" Caitlin says.

"I don't know. I feel like one one of us would've noticed somebody trying to hypnotize me." Barry says.

"And why would someone force me to come in and save people?" Frankie asks.

"Publicity." Iris answers. "Spencer Young wants to get famous by making others famous."

"Who?" Peter asks.

"Creator of Spyn Zone." Frankie informs him.

"You don't know that." Nora tells her mother.

"She admitted it when we talked." Iris says.

"She admittedly said she was hypnotizing people?" Peter asks.

"No, but she did admit to using powered people to get viewers." Iris explains and Peter can see that.

"Why would you go talk to her?" Nora wonders as Iris shows the newest update from Spyn Zone is about Frankie, Peter, and Nora saving the building.

"Wait, look at the time stamp on the post." Barry says and they all look at it.

"7:52." Peter reads.

"Nora and I were still with Jonsey, and the fire at CCPN hadn't even been reported yet." Barry says.

"I guess you'll always be the first one to the scoop if you're the one scooping it." Ralph jokes.

"So she's some sort of early edition meta who creates stories?" Caitlin asks.

"Fake news taken to a whole new level." Iris says.

"Maybe she's some kind of meta psychic who predicts the news." Barry offers.

"But that doesn't explain why you ran all the way to the middle of the desert." Peter reminds him.

"Maybe it's not her, but someone else mind controlling us." Nora offers.

"Caitlin, Peter, think you guys can download the cortical boometrics from Frankie's suit and run it against my scans?" Barry asks them.

"We're on it, bolt." Peter says and they leave.

"We need to figure out if Spencer's responsible for this." Barry tells Nora and Iris.

-

Harry and Fox ran into a wall with the mask onto where they found out that they're used in a lot of facilities and are able to be bought off online.

Harry lended his meta watch to Barry and Iris for them to use to see if Spencer is a metahuman.

Fox decides to look over the list of people that May and Ralph were able to get them, see if any of them could be their Cicada.

Caitlin was in her labs working on the scans as Peter left to get Frankie home for the night, and she found something in them when someone appears behind her and she hears deep breathing.

"Dr. Snow." The voice says and Caitlin shrieks and spins to see it's just Harry wearing a mask like Cicada's.

"Harry, what are you doing?" Caitlin asks him. "Besides threaten to kill me."

Harry takes of the mask off for a minute. "If I wanted to murder anyone, Snow, Ramon would be the first to go." He informs her. "I am trying to prove Parker's theory on Cicada's damaged lungs. I need you to assist me in something."

"What is it?" Caitlin wonders.

"I need you to punch me right around the diaphragm. In the solar plexus, as hard as you can." Harry asks of her.

Caitlin looks at him like he's completely lost it. "Harry, I'm not punching you."

"Well, I can't ask anyone else, Parker and the kids are gone, Ramon is hiding, and the WestAllen family is all over the place at the moment." Harry explains why it has to be her. "On, you just don't have the courage. That's why you needed Frost. Probably couldn't hit me where I need you to."

Caitlin stands up and faces him. "For the record, I know what you just did."

"And?" Harry asks with a brow raised.

"It worked." Caitlin says before punching him and Harry places the mask on as he stumbled backwards. "Are you okay?" She asks him when he breaths through the mask and. "you sound just like..."

"Cicada." Harry confirmed as he removed the mask.

When Iris and Barry returned, they learned Nora finally confessed that Iris, Future Iris, lied to Nora for years and put a power dampening chip inside of her that took away her speed. It wasn't until recently that she learned she had abilities and that's why she doesn't like Iris.

They get an alert about an bombing reported at the central City stadium and the four heroes rush to find nothing.

"Was it a false alarm?" Peter wonders.

-

Caitlin looks over Spyn Zone's notifications and a new one pops up saying that Metalla and Spider-Man are stopping a robbery while XS kills Flash.

As if on command, Peter and Frankie leave the stadium to stop the robbery and the two speedsters start to fight to the death.

"Nora's been hypnotized." Barry says as he dodges one of her attacks. "Nora, you have to snap out of this."

"What I have to do is kill you." Nora says as the two speed around the stadium to fight.

At Central bank, some workers have robbed the place and started to get away when the car starts levitating when they're pulled out of the car and webbed to the wall.

Peter and Frankie finish stopping them when they snap out of it and realize what's happened.

"Great." Peter complains, getting sick of all psychics in the universe. Except J'onn, he gets a pass for saving his life during that whole musical thing. Plus, he's not a part of this universe.

Iris was able to stop Nora from killing Barry and Spencer was on her way out when Peter webbed the phone from her hands and Frankie handcuffed her.

"Don't worry. Your new cell will be much bigger than this one." Peter promises her looking at the phone.

-

They come back to Star labs and were able to clear the victims of Spencer from all charges.

Harry and Fox shared their findings and learned that because of Nora, the satellite hit someone and caused that person to become Cicada.

"DeVoe flooded the satellites with dark matter, maybe that's how he and the dagger acquired their powers." Caitlin says.

"So Cicada and the dagger were made during the Enlightenment?" Iris asks.

"What about you, Fox?" Peter asks.

"Now that we shortened the list to the people who were injured during the enlightenment, but there's still a large list." Fox answers.

"But how does the dagger work?" Iris asks. "Things can't become metas, right?"

Idea and looks at Spencer's phone and removes the case to see it's been flooded with dark matter. "Oh, boy." He says and everyone looks his way. "The satellite didn't create new metas. It created metahuman technology."

"That means anyone could have metahuman powers." Frankie guesses and that opens a whole worse door than just people with powers.

-

Iris went to check on Nora and believes that she was doing right about hiding her powers from her her entire life.

"What?" Nora asks.

"I know that you're upset and angry. And honestly, I...before today, I couldn't even imagine the situation where I would do something like that to you. But after seeing the choice that I just made...I know whatever reason I would have for keeping your powers a secret, it...it must have been a good one, Nora." Iris defends herself.

"No. What happened today...has nothing to do with what happens in the future." Nora informs her mother. "You didn't suppress my abilities my whole life because I was brain washed or attacking people. You did it to control me." She states while starting to tear up. "My whole life I felt like I was different than everyone else, but I didn't know why. Then Tommy showed me what I can do."

"Who's Tommy?" Iris asks, curious to who that is.

"A friend." Nora says while whipping tears away. "He was exactly like me. He had powers at birth, he's around my age, but he was given a choice to be the same as everyone else or to keep his powers. He chose to keep his powers and is a hero. You took that choice away from me that I didn't even know that I had. A choice to be a hero like him or his father, or even like my father."

Barry then walks in and sees Nora crying. "What's going on?" He asks.

"Nothing. We're just talking." Iris says.

"No." Nora says, stopping her from covering it up. "Mom thinks that she had a good reason to suppress my powers in the future, but she doesn't know what that reason is." She informs Barry.

"I'm sure it's a good one." Barry says, siding with Iris. "Look, I don't have to visit the future to know what kind of mother isis is going to be. She cares about family more than anyone I've ever met, Okay? I support her decisions."

Nora can't believe what she's hearing. Her mother took away a choice that was rightfully her own to make, and her father, the man she idolized sides with her.

"Then I guess I need to rethink what the meaning of family is." Nora says before she gets up and starts leaving before turning back to her parents. "Do you know what hurt the most about learning I had powers? Not hearing it from my mom like he did." She states referring to Tommy before speeding off.

-

Peter and Caitlin were getting ready to turn in after the long day when there's a knock on the door and they answer it to see Nora.

"Nora, hey. What's going on?" Caitlin asks her.

"It's kind of a long story," Nora says as she's wiping the tears from her eyes, "but can I stay here?" She asks, coming to the only people who would understand her. Caitlin looks over to Peter to see what he thinks and he's okay with it if she is.

"Yeah, sure." Peter agrees, wondering what happened between her and her parents and Caitlin let's her in and closes the door behind her.

"Are you sure it's not too much trouble?" Nora asks them.

"We've got an extra bedroom for guests, it's fine." Peter promises her. "And maybe you can tell us what happened later."

"Thanks, guys." Nora says and Caitlin leads her to the guest room.


	95. Finding answers

**_Guest - I have nothing against Sherloque, i actually like the guy, it's just I like Harry more and there was really no reason to make him stupid other than show there are a dozen more Harrison Wells'. And in the end, it didn't make much of a difference because of Thawne killing them all._**

————————

Nora stayed at Peter and Caitlin's place that night and they didn't push her into explaining exactly what happened and Harry has an idea on where to find the shard of the satellite where the dagger could've come from and they've hit another dead end with finding Thomas.

"There's no more hidden messages we could use." Caitlin explains. "A satellite to run DNA recognition patterns could be helpful but...I though losing him when I was ten was hard, but, the idea that he's out there and I might not be able to find him.."

"Maybe I can help you." Cisco offers.

"Thought your powers don't work with your hands ripped." Peter reminds him.

"No, not fully, but this I can do." Cisco tells them and places his hands on Caitlin's elemental table and gets a vibe of Caitlin's father and sees a valentines party invitation dated '99 and him writing something on a board before exiting his vibe abruptly.

"You okay?" Caitlin asks.

"I saw him." Cisco tells her. "I saw your dad in...in an office, sketching something in a notebook. I couldn't quite make out what it was."

"You see anything else?" Peter asks.

"Equations on a chalkboard." Cisco answers.

"We didn't have a chalkboard in our home office." Caitlin replies.

"Tell us everything." Fox asks, been researching Caitlin's family half of last year.

"He had an ID. It was like, yellow logo, like a yellow state building." Cisco says.

"Not a state building. University." Fox corrects him. "Hudson University."

Everyone looks shocked as they know someone else who went there. "Professor Stein."

"I knew he admired him, I didn't realize they were friends." Caitlin says.

"Wonder why Stein never mentioned that." Peter says since they've met the professor multiple times, he even was a part of their team for a few months before leaving with the Legends.

"Let's get going." Fox says and leads them off.

-

They make it to Hudson and to Stein's old office and are wondering what Thomas was doing here.

"Cisco think you could vibe the chalkboard?" Ralph asks and Cisco gives it a shot.

Cisco vibes some equations and quickly writes them down.

"Hydrogen chains bonded over and over." Peter tells from the equation.

"Two oxygen at absolute zero." Cisco adds. "It's like it's making heavy water."

"Close, but not quite." Fox says. "It's creating ice."

"It's also another one of my father's hidden messages." Caitlin says and quickly deciphers it.

K H I O Ne

"Khione?" Caitlin questions.

"What kind of message is Khione?" Cisco wonders.

"One I'm familiar with." Fox says and quickly draws something he got from his foundings. "That sketch you saw Thomas drawing, did it look like this?" He asks and shows his drawing to them and it looks like a woman with long hair and something on her head.

"Are you a speedster?" Ralph asks, looking at how fast he drew that.

"You get into the habit of writing fast when you write the books for Wayne Enterprise." Fox jokes and shows the picture to Caitlin and to her it looks like her.

"My father was drawing me?" She asks.

"No, that's Khione. While trying to learn about Killer Frost, when she was Killer Frost, I discovered Khione. The Greek goddess. Child of the North Wind, whose realm was all ice and snow." Fox explains as Caitlin and Peter are shocked at that.

"That would mean whatever your father was doing here, he knew that there was two of you." Peter realizes.

"It stands to reason that Thomas was there when Crystal first appeared." Fox says.

Caitlin looks down at the picture and wonders how far this pit of secrets go. "So, he knew the truth about Crystal Frost? He knew who I really am?"

"Possibly." Fox says.

"Did I scare him away?" Caitlin wonders.

"No, come on, Cait. This wasn't your fault. We will find where he is, he wouldn't ask you to find him if you scared him." Peter says and Cisco takes the picture to vibe it and sees something called Viera chemicals. He got a few quick vibes about Caitlin, Crystal and a few from their past experiences as is hit out of the vibe.

"You okay?" Caitlin asks.

"Yeah, just lost my footing for a second." Cisco says as he leans on them for support.

"You see anything?" Fox wonders.

"You ever hear of Viera Chemicals?" Cisco asks.

"It's an old chem lab out in the Bareens, but it's been shut down for years." Caitlin tells him.

"Well, we know our next stop." Peter guesses as they leave.

-

When they made it to Viera chemicals, they see it was burned down and that's why it was closed down.

"When did this happen?" Caitlin wonders.

"The same night your father vanished." Fox says and Peter finds a lot of the same thing.

"This is a lot of liquid nitrogen." Peter says. "If this place is filled with it, this place would've gone sky high."

"So, all my father's work is completely gone?" Caitlin asks.

"Not necessarily." Ralph says. "Police listed this fire as accidental, but they didn't know about the connection to Caitlin's father, so..."

"Ralph, my father told me to come find him." Caitlin says.

"Yeah, I know that, but a guy who disappears on the night of a warehouse fire and who's hard to find?" Ralph questions.

"Well, if you're thinking this was arson, that Thomas did this, he would need some help covering his tracks." Fox says and Ralph finds a Tannhauser box.

"Listen, my mom may not be the best person, but there's no way she'd be party to something like this." Caitlin says.

"There's one way to find out." Ralph says and looks to Cisco.

Cisco takes the box and instead of fibbing, he starts spazzing out and his nose starts bleeding.

"Cisco?" Caitlin asks when he falls and Peter catches him.

-

They brought him back to Star labs and learned that his wounds are worse than they thought.

"While you were unconscious, I scanned your wounds." Caitlin tells Cisco. "There are still trace amounts of aluminum beryllium alloy fused within your hands. It's remnants of Cicada's dagger."

"See, this is what I needed. I just need rest." Cisco says.

"Cisco, rest isn't gonna be enough, pal." Peter interrupts his friend. "Every time you use your powers, the dark matter is going to affect your central nervous system, causing you more and more pain."

"Which you must have been experiencing all day today." Caitlin states. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Cisco lays down on the med bed. "Because you're my friend and you needed my help." Cisco tells her.

"Okay, But I would never ask you to hurt yourself. Every time you vibe, you are going to have more and more seizures." Caitlin tells him.

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Cisco asks as he jumps up. "I remember when these powers were a curse. Seeing Thawne kill me lever and over. The darkness, I didn't want it. These powers were a part of me. I had to learn that. And when I did, they showed me everything. I could give every clue, breach us wherever we needed to go. Bring my value to the team. If I can't take the pain, Cicada wins."

"Cisco, your powers aren't what gives you purpose." Peter informs his friend.

"I understand, okay?" Caitlin tells Cisco. "When DeVoe took Crystal away, I was destroyed. But you know what? I'm still here. And so are you. Because you're Cisco Ramon."

"One of the best engineers I know." Peter adds.

"A prodigy hacker." Caitlin lists.

"Not to mention you built a weapon that could stop a speedster." Peter states and Cisco laughs at that.

"And you're our friend." Caitlin says. "You're my friend who went out there and hurt himself today. Just to help me find my dad. And that wasn't Vibe. That was Cisco, and that's the guy I need."

"That cold gun was pretty amazing." Cisco agreed.

"It was stolen almost immediately..." Caitlin reminds him. "But it was pretty great."

"It's painful to get hit with." Peter comments, feeling his stomach where Snart hit him and Barry the first time.

-

Nora was still at Peter's place and was with Frankie as they were just hanging out.

"This is the life." Nora comments. "Seriously, I could stay here forever. No worries, no schrap from Mom."

"Schrap?" Frankie asks, not knowing what that is.

"You know, like all the nagging that someone does." Nora explains its meaning to her. "It's...a future thing. I mean, she acts like she supports me, but what she wants is a boring, quiet daughter who just wants to stay inside all day instead of going out and do anything that might be the least bit dangerous."

"You do know you're describing a parent, right?" Frankie informs her.

"Yeah, except your parents don't keep you away from danger. They encourage you to run into the fight." Nora reminds her.

"Yeah, a decision I or they didn't make easily." Frankie says. "I didn't want these powers at first until I learned there were others struggling like me. That's when I decided to use these powers as a gift."

"And that's what everyone wants to be in the future." Nora tells her. "Every girl in the future wants to be Metalla. You can bend the strongest of steels, you have metal on your suit that you can manipulate to help you fly, a speck of metal is all you need to take down a gang of criminals. You've even rebuilt houses that are destroyed during battles, and even make some people metal origami from leftover parts. Everyone wants to be like you."

Frankie is shocked to how much she has accomplished in the future.

"Even I looked up to you whenever you defeated the newest threat. A bomb in Central City, Metalla can easily find it. A getaway car? Metalla can stop them. Everyone remembers Spider-Man, but you're-"

"Wait, did you just say _remember Spider-Man_?" Frankie interrupts, hoping she heard that wrong and Nora sees she revealed something big.

"Nora, what's going to happen to my dad?" Frankie asks.

-

Later, everyone is in the cortex when Iris comes in running. They were filled in on a new metahuman who was basically a living rag doll.

Another one of Peter's worst nightmares coming to life.

"Guys, Merkel kidnapped Barry." Iris tells them.

"What?" Harry asks.

"How's that even possible?" Caitlin asks.

"He's got Barry's meta cuffs." Iris explains.

"For the fastest man alive, he's pretty slow." Peter admits. Darts, cold, and and now dolls.

"Who are you calling?" Ralph asks as Iris is calling Nora who's probably back at Peter's place with Frankie.

"I'll ping Barry's cell, see if I can get a location." Cisco says and quickly gets it. "He's in Eaglesham apartments on Simone Ave."

"I don't think he's in the apartment so much as on it." Caitlin comments seeing the blip is coming from the roof.

"Okay, we don't have a speedster, Cisco can't breach, and Crystal Frost is out of commission. We need to come up with a plan to rescue Barry now." Iris commands them.

"Hey, cool it!" Peter tells her, not liking how she phrased Crystal Frost like she's some sort of tool to be used. Not to mention they can sort this out without her yelling at them and bossing them around. "Cisco, think we can use an extrapolator?"

"It's broken." Harry informs them.

"How?" Caitlin asks.

"Long story." Ralph chuckles. "It's not user friendly."

"You're not user friendly!" Cisco yells. "That's plan is a no go."

"Okay, I'll take the Velocity-Spider, Ralph suit up." Peter tells the waistband as he goes to the manikin holding the spider speedster suit.

-

Later, they're all suited up and Peter speeds them off while Ralph screams as they run.

They make it to the roof and see the freakish metahuman walking like he came from the _Exorcist_ movies.

"God, my nightmares are a reality." Peter comments. "Let him go, you living Ragdoll."

"Spider-Man. Not who I wanted." Ragdoll says.

"Sorry to disappoint." Peter says and raises his web shooters. "Now let him go, or you're in for a super whooping."

"Let him go? Very poor choice of words." Ragdoll says and pushes Barry off the edge of the building and Peter leaped down the side of the building to catch him while Ralph got Ragdoll.

Peter Webber the speedster and pulled himself to Barry and used his suit to speed the two to the ground and gets him out of the meta cuffs.

"Whoo. That was a rush." Peter says.

"Wait, what about Ralph?" Barry asks and they look towards the building and see something falling.

"I hope I don't land on my keys!" They hear Ralph scream as he lands and crushed a car.

Peter and Barry flinch, feeling that pain and wonder where the guy is.

"Where's Ragdoll?" Peter asks when they see the man trying to escape his stomach.

"You guys still have those meta cuffs?" Ralph asks them.

-

With Ragdoll locked up in the pipeline, Fox and Harry put their minds together and learned Thomas Snow might be in a Tannhauser black ops site somewhere.

Cisco even had the idea to hack into all of DeVoe's satellites to replace their satellite he destroyed.

"I give you HAL, Robbie, Data, and Colossus." Cisco name's all the satellites.

"Those names are stupid." Harry says.

"You're stupid." Cisco replies.

"But nonetheless, these will be able to help us track the shards of the satellite easily." Harry says.

"This means we can find your father." Peter says with a smile and Caitlin looks hesitant. "Isn't this what you wanted?"

"It is...I..." Caitlin starts and doesn't know what to say.


	96. Snow patrol

Cisco tells the rest of the team about the new satellites and now they have to look for the core of the satellite to find where Cicada got his dagger and they split up.

Fox and Ralph take the job to go looking for the core, Harry and May go to check with FEMA about any father's who got injured during the Enlightenment, (while Peter got more suspicious about the two) leaving the OG members of team Spider-Flash left and they all look to Caitlin.

"I have a feeling that it's not a coincidence that we're left here with nothing to do for the next few hours." Caitlin guesses.

"I know we agreed to wait until you were ready to locate your dad." Peter says and looks to Cisco.

"But I had the satellites track down all the decommissioned Tannhauser sites your dad can be hiding in. And then...I hacked their security systems." Cisco adds.

"He was the last one to enter one of them. The footage was a week after he had died." Peter explains.

"And he never left." Cisco finishes.

Caitlin gives it some thought and comes to a conclusion. "Where is he?"

They're all set to head off to the black ops site wearing heavy winter gear.

"Coordinates are set for the North Pole." Cisco says as he holds the extrapolater.

"Thank you guys for coming with me." Caitlin tells them.

"You think we'd let you go alone?" Peter asks her.

"Ready when you are." Cisco says as he raises his hood and opens a breach and they can already feel the cold.

"Here we go." Barry tells them as they run through the portal.

-

They exit at the North Pole and see nothing but darkness and their flashlights.

"I can't see anything!" Cisco tells through the snow. "My face just went full Weeknd!"

"Wait, I think I see something. Over here!" Caitlin says as they walk ahead.

"What?" Barry asks, not hearing what she said as he follows their lights.

"I think it's a building." Caitlin says as she wipes off the snow and sees steel.

"Is there a door?" Peter asks, looking for a way in.

"We don't need one." Barry says as he grabs them and phases through the wall.

Now they're in complete darkness and can't see anything.

"Hello? Anyone here?" Caitlin asks as they see a door through the dark corridor and open it to see light.

They see one giant tube glowing.

"You doing okay?" Peter asks Caitlin.

"When my father entered this facility nearly 20 years ago, he had severe ALS." Caitlin says. "Maybe the reason he never left is 'cause he couldn't."

"Whatever we find in here, we'll be right with you." Cisco promises as they make it down the stairs and see a lot of dead lizards.

"It smells like science down here." Cisco comments.

"What kind of research does your mom's lab do, exactly?" Barry wonders, confused to what he's seeing.

"I honestly don't even know anymore." Caitlin says.

"This stuff looks like Conner's old laboratory." Peter says as he raises one of the containers holding a dead lizard remembering wen Conner was researching their DNA to regrow limbs. Suddenly, his senses go off and he spins in a defense mode and sees someone in the shadows.

"Caity?" A elder male asks as he comes into the light and Caitlin recognized him.

"Dad? Is that you?" Caitlin asks as she approaches him.

"Is this really happening?" Thomas asks approaching her.

"You're alive." Caitlin says.

"You're real?" Thomas asks.

"Yeah, dad, it's me. I'm real." Caitlin says as the father and daughter hug, happy to be reunited.

Later, they're all together and in some seats.

"You got my message." Thomas sees.

"I did in the periodic table we made together." Caitlin says. "It took me 20 years to find it, but it lead me to you."

"I knew you would come." Thomas says. "Thank you. All of you." He says, looking at the boys who are just looking around the place.

"Dad, these are my friends." Caitlin greets them. "This is-"

"Peter Parker, Barry Allen, and Cisco Ramon. I know." Thomas answers.

"Wait, how do you know us?" Peter asks.

"When I first came here, I stayed in contact with scientists. Curt Conners, Louise Lincoln, Victor Fries, and Harrison Wells." Thomas says and while Barry focused on Wells, Peter was concerned to hear about mr. Freeze. "Dr. Wells was able to give me access to Star labs video uplink." He explains while pointing to the monitors.

"You've had video link to Star labs this whole time?" Peter asks.

"Well, it hasn't worked until recently." Thomas tells them. "And since it's been rebooted, its capabilities is only a one way video, so I could see you but I couldn't reach you."

"Well, looks like you had plenty of toys around here to keep you company." Cisco says as he looks at the glowing blue tube. "This neat little incubator. What's it for?"

"That was here when I got here." Thomas tells him. "Never had any use for the thing."

"I don't understand. Why are you here?" Caitlin asks. "How are you still alive?"

"ALS is a horrible disease, and I grew desperate, and I began experimenting with therapies using cryogenics." Thomas explains.

"Something went wrong." Peter guesses.

"The experiments became more and more dangerous. And I quarantined myself for the sake of everyone's safety. I did manage to freeze the progression of the disease. Not before the site was closed down and I have been here ever since." Thomas explains to them.

"They shut down the site while you were still in it and locked you in." Cisco guesss.

"It was my mother, wasn't it?" Caitlin asks. "She's the only one with an authority to shut down a Tannhauser site."

"Your mother thought it'd be easier for you not to see me. But I always had the faith t hat I could cure this thing. That's why I sent you the note." Thomas explains.

"How did you survive here this whole time?" Barry wonders.

"Water. Rations. Spending months at a time in that cryogenic chamber." Thomas explains.

"Well, you never have to do that again." Caitlin promises. "Because we can get you out of here. We're gonna give you your life back."

-

A breach opens in Star labs and the five of them exit with their snow gear off in the middle of the lounge.

"Oh, that was a...new mode of travel." Thomas comments.

"That is an interdimensional space time breach." Peter tells him.

"It takes a little while to get used to it." Caitlin tells her father.

"So, this is star labs, IRL." Cisco tells him as he looks out the balcony.

"Look at that view." Thomas says as he looks out into the city.

"I want to run some tests. Make sure everything is all right with you." Caitlin tells him.

"This city is so beautiful." Thomas says. "The sunsets here. I used to think about them all the time."

Peter walks over to Caitlin casually. "Maybe you guys should go for a walk around the city or something. Try reconnecting before going full dr. Snow on him." He suggests and Caitlin agrees.

"Wait, full dr. Snow?" Caitlin asks.

"You know, when you get professional and a bit uptight." Peter explains and he knows he's gonna pay for that later.

"You just wanna know if he knows about us and what he thinks, hm?" Caitlin mocks.

"You can't blame me for wanting to know if your father likes me." Peter defends and Caitlin pecks his cheek and looks to Thomas.

"Why don't we go for a walk? Get some fresh air. We can do the tests later." Caitlin asks her father.

"I like that plan." Thomas says and the two leave.

As they leave, Barry and Peter notice Cisco looking at Thomas suspicious.

"What's up with you?" Barry asks.

"Dude, this story is full of holes. I'm just trying to fill them." Cisco tells them.

"Nora's story had holes in them, and she was only lying because she wanted to meet me." Barry tells him and looks to Peter. "Your Spidey senses saying something's wrong?"

Peter shrugs his shoulders. "They were a bit freaked when we first met him, but that was just them warning me he was there. They're also sometimes blind. When we first met Hunter, they knew something was wrong. Harry, he was hiding something. HR, they didn't even flinch. Thomas...it's like they don't know if he's dangerous or not."

-

Thomas and Caitlin were on a stroll through the park and were talking about their past and Thomas wanted to make up for everything when he suddenly dropped and Caitlin watched his arm turned into ice.

She brought him back to Star labs were he rested until waking up.

"You saw my disease?" Thomas asks looking at his arm.

"Yeah, the dermis is crystallizing. And spreading." Caitlin tells him. "I ran some tests while you were unconscious. You have a cryogenic malignancy and a somatic mutation. It's not contagious but.."

"It's rewriting my genetic code." Thomas finishes.

"And if it continues, you could.."

"Die." Thomas ends her thought as he sits up. "Well, I cured my ALS, But I created something even more deadly. Every time my emotions spike, my malignancy spreads."

"Like when you're angry or scared?" Caitlin asks.

"I wish I had just left well enough alone. For both of us." Thomas tells Caitlin.

"Wait, did I have the genetic marker for ALS too and you tried to cure me?" Caitlin questions and sees that's where Crystal came from. "So my powers came from you? Crystal Frost is my cure?"

"Crystal Frost?" Thomas asks.

"You might know her by a different name." Peter guesses. "Khione."

"Dad, what did you do to me?" Caitlin asks.

"I wasn't gonna let the ALS manifest in you like it did in me." Thomas explains.

"So you used experiments with cryogenic gene therapy on your own daughter?" Cisco asks.

"I had already down it on myself." Thomas clarifies to them meaning he already knew it would work...slightly. "Caity, I made alterations to the treatment. I tried to make it safe for you, and you started to exhibit dual personality soon after I treated you. So is...Khione or Crystal Frost...is she still around?"

"She's been gone for a while, but she's still a part of me." Caitlin tells him.

"So do you have a dual personality?" Peter asks Thomas. "If you and Cait carry the same markers, shouldn't that mean you got one?"

"I actually didn't." Thomas tells him. "That's probably why I'm dying and you're not." He says to Caitlin as he takes a seat in a chair.

"Okay, what if we use my cells to create a serum that can stabilize your body?" Caitlin offers. "We have to stop your atoms from oscillating. So get your body to a temperature of absolute zero."

"Caitlin, that could kill him." Barry interjects.

"My cells can theoretically withstand subzero temperatures because of my cryogenic gene therapy. But the problem is getting to absolute zero." Thomas tells them.

"We could use a laser cooling array. I know there's one stored somewhere at Parker Industries." Peter tells her.

"Okay, great. I'll get started on the serum." Caitlin says when Cisco stops them.

"Wait, wait, hold on. We can't just take something from somewhere like Parker Industries. Right?" Cisco asks Peter.

"You remember I own the place, right?" Peter reminds him.

"Cisco. I just got my dad back. I can't let him die." Caitlin says and Cisco gives in.

-

Nora finally revealed what she meant by _remembering Spider-Man _to Frankie and showed another newspaper article from the future.

**Central City's spectacular Spider-Man dies during crisis**

Frankie looks over the article and can't believe what it's saying. The same year and day that the Flash dies, during the same crisis, Spider-Man is going to die.

"What happened?" Frankie asks Nora.

"Nobody really knows." Nora admits. "The skies were red, all the heroes came together, and after the Crisis was over, Spider-Man was confirmed dead by the survivors."

"Is there a way to avoid this from happening?" Frankie asks her.

"I don't know." Nora tells her and that doesn't give her confidence.

-

Caitlin and Thomas were working on the serum when Peter comes into the room.

"Got into contact with Fox, he's gonna get the device moved from the Industries storage and have it brought over." Peter tells her.

"Great. I just need to finish this serum and we should be good to go." Caitlin replies.

"Thank you for this, Caity." Thomas tells her. "What you're doing is beyond the call."

"Of course, you're my dad. I'd do anything for you." Caitlin tells him when Cisco and Barry walk in.

"He's not your dad." Cisco says and they look at him as he holds a container that looks like frozen skin. "Look familiar?"

"Cisco, What are you talking about?" Caitlin asks as she approaches him. "This is my father."

"I went back to the Tannhauser black ops site, and I picked up a vibe." Cisco explains. "I saw him working in the lab-"

"Cisco, Buddy, your vibes have been a bit loosey lately." Peter reminds him.

"I know what I saw." Cisco stops him. "I saw him standing over the incubator, the one he claimed he had no use for, and he was working on this."

"Skin graphs?" Caitlin asks. "What dies this have to do with anything?"

"This is gonna sound whacked-out, but what if when your dad tried to cure his ALS, it didn't just give him crystallized skin? What if it did in fact give him a dual personality? His own Crystal Frost?"

"That's who you think this is?" Barry asks, looking at Thomas. "Thomas' alter ego wearing a copy of his face made out of his skin graphs?"

"I know it sounds..." Cisco agrees, trying to find the words.

"It sounds absurd, but I can see where mr. Ramon is getting his hypothesis." Thomas agrees as he approaches them. "My cryo-malignancy spread further than I admitted," he says as he shows it's all over his chest, "and it's afflicted my face, my hands, my arms, and chest. And I created those skin graphs from stem cells that I found in the lab in order to cover any further outbreaks."

"You're lying." Cisco states.

"Cisco..." Caitlin says.

"Caitlin, you have to see-"

"No, you need to leave us alone. Now!" Caitlin tells him and he leaves and Barry leaves to talk with him and Peter decides to give her some time with her father alone.

"Dude. Hey, we need to talk." Peter says as he catches up to them.

"Why? I thought that dramatic confronts worked perfectly." Cisco says.

"We all want to help Caitlin." Barry says. "We all want Caitlin to have a chance to be with her father."

"Just like Nora got the chance to be with you?" Cisco asks. "See, this is your problem. You think this is just some perfect father-daughter pairing, reunited."

"I'm not blinded by my feelings." Barry says.

"Well, they're not helping you see any clearer." Cisco states.

"Peter's senses said that he's an okay guy." Barry defends and looks to Peter who looks hesitant. "What? What's wrong?"

"My...my senses can be blinded by my emotions at times. They didn't go off when Otto was creating himself into Doc Ock. He was my friend, and I thought it was a good thing he was doing. By the time I listened...it was too late." Peter confesses and knows he needs to keep an opened mind on this.

-

Caitlin was back in her lab while Thomas was reading a magazine in the med lab.

Peter walks up to her and Caitlin can immediately read his expression.

"If you came to defend Cisco, please don't bother." Caitlin begs of him.

"You know Cisco just cares about you." Peter says.

"Come on, don't you think I wouldn't know if that wasn't my dad in there?" Caitlin asks and Peter raises a brow. "You too? Really?"

"Listen, I've been helping you look for him, so you know that I want to believe that's him and that he's a good guy, because I want you to be happy. But...I don't know. I've been blinded by that. Hoping you get what you've wanted, your father back. But there is a lot about his story that isn't adding up." Peter tells her.

"Peter, he's my father. He's the man who helped me when I had chickenpox. Who told me I could be anything I wanted to and made me believe it. So please don't treat him like he's a criminal." Caitlin pleads to her boyfriend. "You of all people know how estranged I am from my mother and how empty I felt without Crystal. He is the only family I have left."

"What about us?" Peter asks, fleeing a little hurt by that comment. "Me, Frankie, May, Barry, Cisco. We're you're family too. And I'm only asking you to keep an open mind because I love you."

Caitlin starts to understand where es coming through when the serum is completed. "If you're that concerned, you can ask him some questions, but after I give him the serum." She compromises and starts to think of something. "Oh, my god."

"What?" Peter asks.

"If I give this serum to a human, it will suppress their malignant side. If I give it to a cryogenic metahuman, it will permanently suppress their human side." Caitlin explains.

"If that's your father's alter ego..."

"He's trying to wipe out my dad." Caitlin finishes his thought.

"He needed your cells to make the serum. His cells weren't enough." Peter puts together and remembers what Cisco found and she puts the serum down.

"_Caitlin, come find me_." Caitlin quotes and now understands and they enter the room and Thomas stops reading.

"Caity. What's going on?" He asks them as Barry and Cisco are already there.

"Dad, why?" Caitlin asks.

"Well...I guess, as you're all here..." Thomas says as his hair goes white and his face shows his veins. "You have such smart friends, Caity." He says as his voice sounds echoey like Crystal's.

He then breaths snow at them and they all start gasping for air.

"That frozen liquid in your lungs is gonna be turning into tiny icicles. Making it very difficult for you to breathe. No worries, you'll pass out soon." He tells them as they fall unconscious and he takes the serum before leaving.

-

They later wake back up and now need to find him and the others already returned to help after Fox found them all unconscious and called them.

"Guys, I found him." Fox tells them as they come into the cortex. "He's at the Parker Industries storage where the device is being held."

"The building is 7 below?" Barry asks.

"And look, the temperature is dropping." Harry says.

"He initiated the negative array but didn't seal it. The room is -7, But the array is -100." Cisco adds.

"That things so freaking cold, it's freezing the whole building." Ralph adds.

"At this rate, in five minutes, the temperature will be -406 degrees, absolute zero. At which point, he can inject himself with the serum." Caitlin finishes,

"And turn himself into a full on Icicle." Peter says when he and Cisco smile at each other.

"Icicle." They both say, naming her father's double.

"We gotta go." Barry says and everyone leaves to stop him, leaving Harry and Fox to work behind the scenes.

-

They make it to the Industries storage only for Barry and Nora to be knocked down by it being so cold they can't run.

"Ugh...Flash." Icicle complains. "Don't you realize that speed and cold don't mix? This machine is capable of producing isotopes that can freeze carbon dioxide. You can't run in here."

A breach opens and Caitlin, Cisco, Miles, Frankie, Peter and Ralph appear as Peter took the time to grab the Future Foundation suit that he used to fight Killer Frost last year.

"More superheroes to freeze." Icicle says as everyone drops and Peter's suit begins to freeze in place. Caitlin tries using the Frostbite device and it's frozen.

"_The array's at -220. You have one minute left._" Harry warns them.

"You people are not as smart as I thought." Icicle says.

"_What's happening_?" Fox asks.

"The temperature is dropping rapidly in here. Everyone's so cold, their atoms are hitting near stasis and Peter's suit is freezing over." Caitlin tells them as she feels fine.

"What do we do?" Barry asks.

"_Try to use your lightning to counter the cold and warm yourself up to stop him_." Harry offers.

"We've been trying, it's too cold." Barry says.

"I'm literally free-freezing." Miles says, feeling himself freeze over.

"_Caitlin, you seem to be the only one immune to what's happening._" Fox tells her, meaning she needs to stop it.

"But Crystal Frost is gone." Caitlin says.

"_Clearly, she's not_." Harry says.

"Caitlin...you can do it." Peter says through his frozen suit. "Just concentrate." He tells her and Caitlin faces her father.

"Dad! Please, I know you're in there. Don't do this." Caitlin pleads as she approaches him.

"Do you think Thomas can hear you, Caitlin? Thomas hasn't been able to hear anything for a very long time." Icicle says as the room reaches absolute zero and goes to use the serum.

"_No!_" Caitlin yells as suddenly her eyes go white and a blast of mist leaves her hands and shoots Icicle across the room and drops the serum. Everyone looks and sees Crystal is back.

"My daughter. You've returned!" Icicle cheers.

"You're not my family. They are." Crystal says, looking to the freezing heroes. "You only gave a damn about me because you wanted that serum."

"But I-I-I can share it with you." Icicle offers. "Just imagine. The two of us, feee to be ourselves without fear. You are strong. We can be even stronger together."

"I'm stronger because I have people in my life who actually care about me." Crystal states.

"Do you?" Icicle asks and goes to shoot a blast at Peter and Crystal stops him and steps on the serum.

She then creates a ice fist around her fist and uses it to punch Icicle until he becomes Thomas again.

"Caity?" Thomas asks and Caitlin takes over for a second.

"Dad?" Caitlin asks.

"You found me." Thomas says happy when Icicle takes control again and shoots Crystal away and leaving through the ceiling and Crystal destroys the machine to save everyone.

Everyone starts to wake back up as Barry and Nora use their powers to wake everyone up.

Peter walks up to Crystal and removed his mask.

"My dad. Our dad...he was here, but...I lost him." Crystal tells him.

"We'll get him back. Together." Peter promises her as she changes back into Caitlin. "Welcome back."

-

They tried tracking Icicle again, but he seems to have left the city now while Fox and Peter bring Caitlin to the workshop with an explanation.

"We've been trying to figure out exactly what DeVoe did to you, and we finally understand." Fox says as he pulls up the footage of that day.

"We thought he used Melting Point's powers on you, changing your DNA and removed her. But DeVoe used someone else's powers." Peter explains.

"Brainstorm." Caitlin realizes.

"All that he did was create a mental block. Tonight, you broke through it." Fox explains and holds up the device that Harry used to help Cecile control her powers. "I refigured this so that now you can actually talk with Crystal. The more you do it, the theory is, you won't need it eventually."

"Thank you." Caitlin says when Harry calls them to the speed lab.

They leave Caitlin to have her talk with Crystal.

"_Hey, stranger._" Crystal greets her.

"Hey." Caitlin greets.

"_Well, we sure have a lot to talk about._"

They find that Fox and Ralph did in fact find the core of the satellite and see a dagger shape hole in the side, proving that's where Cicada's dagger came from.

Harry and May didn't find anyone that matched Cicada's description, but they found a child that was hit by shrapnel from the satellite that Frankie couldn't stop.

Grace Gibbons.

Meaning she could possibly be Cicada's daughter, proving Joe's theory.


	97. A day without the Flash

Peter and Caitlin were at their place in the middle of a crucial time. Peter is carefully following Caitlin's instructions as she guides him through it.

"Careful." She tells him as he's being as careful as he possibly could.

"I know. I know." Peter whispers.

"This is a critical time." She states as Peter continues. "Steady hands." She says, as she keeps trying to guide him as Peter failed.

"Call time and death." Peter tells her while looking at the thanksgiving pie.

"It's okay. It's a pie, it's not supposed to be a piece of cake." Caitlin quips and Peter looks to her with a brow raised.

"You're making quips? You're the one making the quips?!" Peter questions as Caitlin laughs.

"Well, I have a boyfriend who is getting me into some stupid habits." Caitlin replies as Peter pulled her in for a kiss and they get back to it.

"It's nice that Cicada is still hiding after his beating in the woods for trying to hurt Miles. It gives us some time to prepare for our first Thanksgiving together." Peter says as he cuts the ingredients for more food.

"What about May, she stopping by?" Caitlin asks.

"She promises to be here around eight, that's the earliest she can get off her shift. And I offered Harry and Cisco to join us as Barry and the West's are spending it together with Cecile's family and Nora is going to try talking to them again. Fox is gonna be held up with Parker Industries paperwork and promised if he can make it, he will." Peter explains to her.

"You still don't think that May and Harry are...dating, do you?" Caitlin asks.

"So you have noticed them recently?" Peter sees she sees what he's seeing. "I don't know what to think about it. If she wants to date Harry, it's her decision...and then there's me thinking about her dating Harry. It's weird." He confesses what he feeling. "But, yeah, it's gonna be the six of us, if Fox makes it."

Caitlin's eyes suddenly go white for a second as Crystal talks to her.

"_I'm down._" Crystal says and her eyes return to normal.

"Seven, actually." Caitlin tells Peter. "Crystal just RSVP'd."

"Wait, you guys can talk now, without the dampener?" Peter asks.

"Today's the first time, actually." Caitlin says.

"Has Frankie been acting strange to you recently?" Peter wonders.

"Yeah, she's been kinda jumpy and nervous recently. I mean, she knows she can tell us anything, so she will tell us what's bothering her soon." Caitlin promises as they both know Frankie won't keep secrets from them when they get alerts on their phones.

"A massive electrical surge at the downtown power station." Peter says as Caitlin sends a alert to Frankie and he rushes to get his suit on and leaves.

-

Peter and Miles come in swinging as Peter said he can help out more now he's all healed up.

Frankie comes in flying and lands on her feet.

"Guys, what's the problem here?" Peter asks when their senses go off and lightening nearly hits them.

"It's lightning." Miles says.

"_Skies were clear a moment ago. That storm seems to have come out of nowhere_." Caitlin tells them.

"_We got a bigger problem._" Cisco says. "_There's a experimental cold fusion core from Parker Industries in the plant, and if it blows..._"

"It can take out the block." Peter knows, since he's the one who authorized this and makes it to the core and lightning nearly hits it.

"Miles, Frankie, you guys get the workers evacuated, I'll get the core out." Peter tells them as he knows how to get it out.

"Wait, wait, something doesn't feel right." Frankie tells him.

"It's gonna be fine, go get the workers out of here." Peter tells them and they leave when Peter sees another bolt is about to come in. He sends a web at the core and manages to web the core before it could get struck, but Peter's web did and it sends the power of the bolt down back at Peter and sends him flying back.

"_Peter? Peter!_" Caitlin yells as Peter can't hear her.

Miles and Frankie evacuate everyone and make it to see him unconscious.

"Dad!" Frankie yells as the two of them run over to him and can't feel a pulse.

"Guys, what do we do?" Miles asks, completely lost at what they can do.

"_He's going into cardiac arrest._" Caitlin says.

"_Morales, strike him._" Harry tells them.

"Wha-what do you mean?" Miles asks.

"_Charge up a venom strike, and strike him with it while giving him a chest compression._" Harry explains and Miles quickly starts to charge up and slams his chest and nothing happens.

"Do it again." Frankie tells him and Miles is one step ahead of her and charges another strike.

"It's not working!" Miles yells when Peter flatlines.

"_We lost him_." Caitlin says in shock.

"No, no!" Frankie pleads and Miles charges up his biggest venom strike and slams Peter hard in the chest and he gasps for air and wakes up.

Everyone sighs in relief seeing he's gonna be okay.

-

"I promise you, I'm okay." Peter promises Frankie as they make it to Star labs and Miles went back to his family.

"Caitlin?" Frankie asks.

"His vitals are stable. Spider healing to the rescue." Caitlin assures her.

"He shouldn't have needed to be saved." Frankie states.

"Frankie, it's fine. I'm fine. If that core detonated, a lot more people would've died." Peter tells her.

"You almost died! How can you take that so casually?" Frankie asks.

"I'm almost killed every week, I kinda get used to it. I know I'll always find a way, and if I can't, I have you and Caitlin to help me." Peter explains.

"Yeah, but someday we might not be there and you'll die." Frankie states as she marches out of the room.

"What..was that about?" Cisco wonders.

"She's been acting off recently. We don't know why." Peter says.

"I mean, she's right. You did die for a second, maybe she's just on edge." Caitlin defends, not knowing the truth.

"So, what about this storm? Where'd it come from?" Peter asks them.

"A storm like that coming and going, disappearing and reappearing in the matter of minutes, it should be impossible." Cisco says.

"Unless somebody is making it possible." Harry says, sipping his coffee.

"Well, we've seen it before with Weather Wizard." Caitlin agrees.

"Yeah, except Oliver said that after Lian Yu blew up, all the metas we sent there were either released or killed and Mardon was one of the few who died, confirmed." Peter says.

"What about Electro?" Cisco asks.

"They moved him and a few of the less dangerous mutants back to Iron Heights after some of the inmates planned a breakout. I'll grab Fox and stop by." Peter agrees and leaves with Frankie.

-

The three of them make it to Iron Heights and to the metahuman wing.

"You have to excuse the dim lighting." The warden tells them. "Today's storm at the power plant knocked out the main generator. So we're working for a backup for the time being."

"Does that mean you can't dampen the powers?" Peter asks.

"The dampers are down, but we got them in power dampening cuffs incident free." She tells him and they walk into the meta wing. "After the corruption of the last warden, I am eager to assure the public and others that their safety is in good hands. So which inmate did you want to see?"

"Max Dillon? Or commonly known as Electro." Peter explains and they are lead to his cell that is a complete plastic cell and door.

"We weren't taking any chances for him to escape again." The warden explains the new cell he's in.

"And he's been here all day?" Peter wonders.

"Never once left our sight." She assures him.

"Mind if I were to look over the security tapes? We believe he might've been involved in some way." Fox asks her.

"Anything for our friends making our jobs easier." She agrees and brings Fox to the tapes.

"Well, this was a dead end." Peter tells Frankie.

"Looks like you almost died for nothing." Frankie comments as she leaves.

"Frankie." Peter called after and catches up to her. "Is something bothering you?" He finally asks. "We've been living together for almost a year, you know how I work and was okay with it until recently."

Frankie was about to respond when they got word on who could be behind it.

-

"Weather Wizard has a daughter?" Peter asks.

"Meet Joslyn Jackum." Caitlin says as she pulls up a file on the new girl. "She was born while Mardon and her mother was in high school and has reportedly ran away after some fall out. She is a delinquent teen turned amateur storm chaser. A self taught expert in theoretical meteorology."

"How do we know she's a storm chaser?" Cisco sarcastically asks. "'Cause Helen Hunt here has a blog."

"She lost her grant from the Science Center for soing too many dangerous experiments on the weather." Caitlin says and starts to think for a second. "Ooh, Weather Witch?"

"I'll allow it." Cisco says.

"Any idea what she's after?" Peter wonders.

"Oh, I don't know. Revenge?" Harry guesses. "Is there anything else that a criminals spawn want on the man that had a hand in their parents death?"

"That could explain the attack on the power plant, get Spider-Man's attention...and finish him off." Caitlin says and sees that would mean she might strike again.

"Well, anything to help us track her?" Peter asks.

"Well, we found this." Harry says as he pulls up a photo of her holding some weather equipment and zooms in to show its glowing.

"It's a shard from the satellite. She has meta technology." Caitlin sees. "She has instant lightning on command. There's no way you're gonna be able to get close to her without a speedster. And the metal it's made out of is non metallic, so Frankie can't swip it from her. She's gonna have to give it up willingly."

They then get an alert on a severe weather approaching the city.

"We've got a problem."

-

Peter goes in solo and his senses go off to see Weather Witch come in on a bolt of lightning.

"Nice entrance. Solid seven out of ten. Points taken away for lack of originality." Peter tells her while clapping. "I see the rottenness of the apple spreaded all down the branch."

"You're a quipper just like everyone says. Awesome. Now I can get revenge on what you did to my dad." Joss tells him.

"I did nothing to him, I wasn't there when that prison exploded and had no control over the people who did it." Peter informs her.

She just keeps approaching and swings the staff around. "Yeah, but you put him there."

"He was a maniac who was hurting people." Peter defends his actions.

"Okay. Now it's time to get this over with." She says as she swings her staff and Peter feels lightning coming from him as he gets shot across the park. "This city will drown, crumble, burn, starting with you!" She promises.

Before she could do anything, dozens of cars come flying at her and she gets smacked by one of them and quickly escapes and Peter sees Frankie approaching.

"Thanks." Peter says as he gets up and groans. "I gotta follow her."

"Wait, are you serious right now?" Frankie asks. "You were just struck by lightning, again! And you don't seem to care. If you die, what's gonna happen to this city? To me?!"

"Okay, where is this coming from?" Peter asks. "You know how dangerous my job is."

"And I don't want to lose you, but it seems that I can't do anything, you can lose me, Caitlin, all for your job! I can't loose you! I wish I could stop it!" Frankie tells him.

"Stop what?" Peter asks as Frankie flies off, leaving Peter confused.

-

Peter leans on the balcony of Star labs as Caitlin approaches him.

"Nora told her something about the future." Peter tells her.

"What could she have told Frankie to cause her to act this way?" Caitlin wonders as she joins him.

"I think...based off the data so far, I think I die." Peter guesses and now Caitlin understands and she places her hand on his. "She's worried that she might loose me, might go back to the foster system maybe. I remember after loosing my parents, when I went to live with Ben and he would constantly go to his job and I'd pray for his safety."

"I forget, what did Ben do again?" Caitlin asks.

"He was police officer." Peter answers. "I would pray that he would come home safely and I would sometimes ask him why he would keep putting his life on the line. Guess what his response was."

"_With great power, comes great responsibility_." Caitlin guesses.

"Word for word. It became the word of the house. Then...my powers came, and I didn't have the responsibility. And he died." Peter says. "When I first started this, I never imagined that I would come this far in life. A daughter who looks up to me, a amazing girlfriend, and incredible friends."

"Is there anything we can do?" Caitlin wonders.

"Not unless we can stop this crisis." Peter tells her.

Caitlin tries to think of anything that can work around this and she just pulls him into a hug, not wanting to loose him in eight years.

Peter was the one person she could always rely on, she doesn't want to keep loosing the people she loves.

"Why does Spider-Man bring you so much?" Caitlin wonders.

"It's my gift, and my curse. If I were to die doing anything, it would be to keep you all safe." Peter knows. If it were for any other reason, he would happily die protecting his family.

"I might have an idea on something to start with." Caitlin offers.

"What?" Peter wonders.

-

They find Joss at the airport and Peter takes Crystal with him this time to be prepared.

"So, you got an idea to fight the weather?" Crystal asks him.

"Don't have to fight the weather. But this should help." Peter says as he hands her the Weather Wand. "It'll enhance your powers if you focus, counteract her weather. She wants me, she has to catch me first."

Joss notices him and starts to create a tornado out of lightning.

Crystal looks to him and looks down at the wand. "If we absorb that, it'll flood through your veins." He says and looks for a second option when suddenly the airplane comes apart and starts to surround Weather Witch and they look to see Frankie on the terminal.

"She's using the metal to attract the lightning." Crystal says.

"Giving us time to stop her." Peter adds.

Joss notices Frankie after some time and goes in to strike her with lightning when she slips from ice on the floor and Peter webbed the staff away from her and Crystal freezes her wrists as makeshift cuffs.

"Well, wether you're ready or not, you're out." Peter quips and Crystal raises a brow at him. "I know, it wasn't good." He assures her.

-

Peter places the staff inside the pipeline and closes it with Caitlin behind him.

"Better safe than sorry." Peter gestured to the staff closing the doors. "Now that we're done with the crazies, why don't we tell Frankie the news?"

"Let's do it." Caitlin agrees and they leave.

-

Frankie makes it to the living room and sees they have a paper in front of them.

"What's happening?" Frankie asks.

"Well, we remember your talk about me putting my life on the line constantly...and we came up with a solution for in case I were to never die so you never need to go back into foster care." Peter tells her and hands her the paperwork and she sees its adoption papers and Caitlin added herself to it.

"Really?" Frankie asks Caitlin.

"Frankie, I love you and would be proud to be your adopted mother." Caitlin says and walks into a hug by her.

"But there's something else..." Peter says and Frankie looks to him. "Whatever Nora told you, we kinda figured it out, but she said something about me dying, didn't she?" Frankie confirms by nodding and that confirmed their fears. "Look, whatever Crisis is coming we'll deal with it together when it comes." She promises her. "I will never leave you or Caitlin if I can avoid it. But if I can't avoid it, it's because there's no way around it. I will always return to my girls."

With that, they all come in for a hug and stay for a while when people started showing up.

Later, Harry and Cisco show up and Peter is wondering where May is when she comes in.

"Hey, May. What's up?" Peter asks and notices her face. "What's wrong?"

May approaches him with the most disturbing news. "I know who Cicada is."


	98. Gonna be back in time

May found that Grace Gibbons has one constant visitor, despite the hospital records saying she has no visitors and has no next of kin.

Orlin Dwyer.

May was on her way out of the hospital when she overheard one of the hospital staffs that hates metahumans talking to someone about _finishing the job_.

"Orlin Dwyer. From what it says here, he grew up in the Midwest. He's been in and out of juvie, been off the map for a few years and returned to Central City a few years ago." Cisco says.

"Part time employee for Schrekz chemicles for the last two years." Harry adds. "Gave a fake address, took custody of his niece, Grace Gibbons after her parents were murdered by a metahuman."

"That explains why Dwyer hates metas." Barry sees.

"Once he gets his powers, he starts targeting them." Peter adds. "Powers he must've gotten the night of the Enlightenment, and was struck with a shard from the satellite."

"Which was also the same night that grace went into a coma. Where Dwyer visits her every day for the last three weeks." May finishes after she was able to get the truth out from the hospital.

"Then lets go get him." Barry says.

"I'm sorry, Cicada has a dagger that dampens our powers, remember?" Miles asks.

"Morales is right, Allen. As long as he has the dagger, Parker is the only one that can actually give him a beating." Harry agrees.

"Then let's destroy his dagger." Barry says.

"How are we gonna do that Unless we have some kind of power dampening dagger power dampener hidden away in storage?" Ralph asks.

"We don't, but if we did we'd come up with a much better way of saying it." Cisco tells him.

"Yeah, like dagger-dampener..." Peter says.

"That's actually...that'd descent." Cisco agrees. "'Cause, you know, you're running into..."

"Just abbreviate. P-D-P-D." Caitlin offers when everyone just comes up with their own way of saying it.

"Guys." Nora interrupts them while looking into a book of hers. "What if we could make one? A weapon more powerful than his weapon. Cicada can control his dagger, so what we would need would be something more powerful than his connection to it."

"Like a supercharged magnet?" Frankie asks.

"I don't think we have anything like that around here." Fox says.

"And even if we could get our hands on the dagger, we'd still have to figure out how to take the dark matter out to negate its powers." Caitlin says.

"And we would need to find some indestructible alloy that has super-magnetic properties but also has the ability to negate dark matter. I mean, where are you gonna find something like that?" Harry questions.

"The past." Nora says and everyone is confused.

"The past?" Peter asks.

"You've already come across everything we need. A strong alloy with magnetic properties." Nora tells them and they all know something like that.

"Savitar's suit." Cisco says.

"Something to remove dark matter." Nora continues.

"The Speedforce transmitter Hunter used to steel Berry's speed." Caitlin says.

"Would that work since that was the Speedforce?" Cisco asks.

"They're made of exotic particles, same as dark energy. We would need some of that to recalibrate it." Harry tells him. "Meaning you'd have to infuse the transmitter with the same kind of dark matter."

"Like the DeVoe kind?" Ralph asks.

"More like the Particle accelerator kind." Peter corrects him.

"Wait, you wanna blow up Star labs again?" Ralph questions.

"No, not again. We just need to go back to the first time that it happened." Nora explains, meaning she wants to go back five years.

"This is gonna mess with the timeline too much." Barry says.

"No, Savitar's suit, the transmitter, these are all just discarded objects in time, so if we steal them, it won't affect anything." Nora promises.

"Even if we did all that, we can't waltz into the hospital with our dampening device." Ralph says. "He can smell us coming, and then he's gonna be gone."

"Then we do a time hack." Nora says and now Harry's starting to get suspicious about where she's getting her ideas.

"A time hack?" Peter asks.

"That's when you plant something in the past so it's available in the future." Harry explains to him.

"You go back, take the device and hide it near the hospital. Somewhere it won't be discovered for five years." Cisco tells Barry.

"You guys just need to work out the best dates to go back to." Barry agrees to it.

"On it." Cisco agrees and everyone leaves and Harry looks at the book Nora left.

-

"Okay, these are the best of times." Cisco says as they write down the best times Barry and Nora will be able to travel to the past.

"Incidentally, they're also the worst days in our history." Peter says.

"True, but they're the best times for Barry to travel back to; Savitar. When we defeated him and you phased into his suit, epic by the way, and then destroyed it while sending pieces of it flying so if they went for one of the farther pieces, our past selves wouldn't notice." Cisco says.

"Barry would just need to get back into the Speedforce before the timeline catches up and the suit gets erased from existence." Caitlin agrees.

"What about the Speedforce transmitter thing?" Ralph asks.

Fox slaps a marker onto a date that's also a week or two before he joined their team. "The night that Zoom injected the Speedforce into him after stealing the Flash's speed, it was left in the viewing room."

"Barry would need to make sure that nobody's in there when he takes it." Cisco agrees.

"What about the particle accelerator explosion?" Ralph asks.

"Well, right before everything went sideways, Wells was in the cortex, and we..." Peter was saying when the memory of that day comes back. "I was in the pipeline while Cisco and Caitlin were in the cortex."

Caitlin and Peter have a quick flashback to that day. The day they lost someone important to them.

"That's...the best time for Barry to go into the time vault. Put a piece of Savitar's suit in the plinth, and when it explodes it should infuse it with dark matter." Caitlin says.

"Once that's done, we'll have all the pieces we need to make the device. We plant it at the hospital, the rest is history." Cisco says.

"Great, let's show Barry. See what he thinks." Ralph says as they start dragging it off.

"Right behind you." Peter says as he looks for something near the computers when his senses go off and he turns to see Harry holding Nora's book open. "Ahh! Don't do that." He warns Harry.

"Recognize this?" Harry asks and Peter looks to see symbols in Nora's book that look exactly like what Barry was writing when he came out of the Speedforce.

"What is that? Nora's journal?" Peter asks, looking closely. "How on earth does Nora know that?" He questions while turning the pages of the book and sees it's filled with the symbols.

"You know how to decipher it?" Harry asks him.

"Well...Cisco wrote an algorithm last year, but it was only about to decrypt one sentence." Peter says as he pulls it up for him.

"Of course it only could. Ramon wrote it." Harry mocks and pulls up the algorithm to try and decrypt it for good.

"Here's a million dollar question; why do you care so much?" Peter wonders and then puts the pieces together. "You don't trust Nora, do you?"

"No." Harry says honestly. "You saw what she said in there, Parker. In the time she's been here, would you think she could come up with that herself?"

Peter thinks about it and doesn't see Nora as much of a scientist, more like her father CSI, and definitely not like them, and she doesn't have the experience like them. "No."

"Someone's helping her. Someone giving her information. And I want to know who it is." Harry says as they go to the cortex as the speedsters leave and Ralph plays _Back in Time_.

-

Barry and Nora travel back and come out during Savitar as their first stop.

They look around and they're in the forest where they fought Savitar for the last time when said Savitar leaps into the air followed by Barry, Jay, Wally, and Harry dressed in the Velocity-Spider as they get hit by his lightning and almost spot the travelers.

Later in the fight, they hang back as it's wrapping up.

Before Savitar could kill Peter, he gets blasted by a giant mist of cold and Peter looks to see Frost saved him as she walks up to Peter and helps him stand back up.

"_**I knew you didn't have it in you, Caitlin**_." Savitar says as the speedsters return and Barry quickly changes Peter into the Velocity suit. "_**I only have a few minutes left. I can feel it. But before I go, I'm gonna kill Joe. And Wally. And Iris. If I am going to die, then everything the two of you love is going to die too.**_" He promises and turns to Cisco, Miles and Caitlin.

Peter speeds at him and with all of the power his suit could give him, he was able to go inside the Savitar armor and pushes Savitar out of his own armor.

Before anyone could realize what happened, Peter starts using his own super strength and webbing to destroy the suit from the inside and the suit explodes.

"No!" Savitar cries.

"How does it feel to come so close, just to end up on the ground!?" Peter asks of the false god. "You let the pain and the darkness determine who you became!"

"But we won't let the pain decide our destinies." Barry promises and the two of them then combine their speed and send two upper cut's to Savitar's chin, sending him flying before tumbling to the ground.

Barry and Nora have a run in with a time wraith, but they were able to get a shard from the suit and race off before it had the chance to catch up to them.

-

Next stop, the night that Hunter stole Barry's speed.

Hunter takes the speed and gains even more speed and becomes even faster.

Nora and Barry sneak in and watch from the cortex doorway the sene play out.

As soon as Hunter gets it under control, he speeds in and grabs Peter by the neck and throws him against the wall.

"Now there's only one more pest I need to deal with." Hunter states and starts choking Peter who's trying to pry himself free.

Harry raises his gun to Hunter, but they all know it's useless. It couldn't stop him before he got faster. "Jay, please, you have to let him go." Caitlin pleads to him not wanting Peter to die.

"I know some piece of you cared for the team, so if you have any humanity left, then please, let him go." She begs and Hunter drops Peter, while he was gasping for air, Hunter took the opportunity to kidnapp Caitlin.

Barry and Nora hide as he speeds past them.

"CAITLIN!!" Cisco shouts as Zoom speeds off with Caitlin.

"We...g-gotta...get Caitlin back..." Peter states as he tries to regain his breath from nearly being choked. Barry tells Nora to stay as he sneaks in for the device.

"Peter, you can't take on Zoom alone." Past Barry tells Peter as he tries to stand up.

"Try and stop me!" Peter yells as Barry sneaks into the viewing room and sees the transmitter is gone.

A device charges up behind him and he turns to see Harry holding the speedster gun in him.

"You got changed fast." Harry comments, dropping the gun, believing he's past Barry.

"Yeah, it was, jut to weird being in it without my speed." Barry plays along.

"Well, that's your own damn fault, isn't it?" Harry informs him.

"I guess so." Barry agrees.

"I know so." Harry corrects him while looking around the room.

"What are you looking for?" Barry asks.

"I'm looking for anything that can help me find my daughter. All right, just..." Harry says as he throws everything off the counter and drops his gun. "I don't have my daughter. You don't have your speed. Zoom took Caitlin as leverage on Parker, and this whole thing," he says as he swings the transmitter around, "this whole thing has going to hell and a half!" He goes to break it.

"No, wait!" Barry yells at him to stop and Harry notices his Flash ring on his hand. "Her frequency."

"What?" Harry asks, putting the pieces together.

"Jesse's frequency. People from Earth-2 vibrate at a different frequency. Maybe you can find her that way." Barry offers remembering that's how he did it in his timeline.

"Figure out how to find Snow." Harry says as he walks off and hands it to Barry, thinking he needs it for something.

Zoom returned and chased the two of them through the timeline and was attacked by a Time Wraith and ended up breaking the device.

-

They learned they landed in the time where Barry traveled back to help from Eobard.

The two enter his time vault and see the other Barry (making three Barry's in one day) is handcuffed to the wheelchair.

"Well...things just got a lot more complicated, didn't they?" Thawne-Wells asks as he stands up and faces the two of them. "Barry Allen. But which Barry Allen? Clearly you're...from a lot later than this one."

"Way later." Barry answers.

"Way later." Thawne-Wells repeats and looks to Nora. "Who's your friend? Let me guess. Jesse Chambers? No. Maybe Lawrence. Wait. Danica Williams."

"It doesn't matter who she is." Barry stops him from guessing.

Sadly, that confirmed exactly who she is for Thawne-Wells. "Your daughter. You've brought me your daughter. It's Dawn, if I'm not mistaken."

"Nora." She corrects him.

"Nora. Oh, that's nice. Well, at least it's a lot better than that arachnids kids." Thawne-Wells complains. "Mayday Parker. Yet again, she is better then Miguel O'Hara." He then watches as both of their faces are confused. "Yet again, maybe the timelines changed. Mayday was Parker and Watson's kid after all. Time travel is so weird. What do you want?"

"I need you to fix this for me." Barry says as he holds up the broken transmitter.

"No..." Thawne-Wells says as he looks between them. "No, if you're here...and he's here...that means..."

"You don't get home." Barry tells him.

"I get home!" Thawne-Wells yells as he spins to face him. "I get home. I go home! I get everything-"

"You don't go home, Thawne! Unless you help me." Barry says and Thawne-Wells looks over his options.

"What do you want?" He asks.

"Like I said, you're gonna fix this." Barry says.

"To do what?" He asks.

"Drain dark matter."

"Who's dark matter?"

"None of your business."

"It is my business."

"No, it's not."

"There's no chance..."

The two of them then start overlapping one another yelling back and forth when Nora interrupts.

"Cicada's!" Nora finally says.

"The one who got away." Thawne-Wells understands. "You want to destroy Cicada's dagger, don't you?" He guesses.

"I want to save lives."

"I bet you do. I bet you do. Especially your own, right, Barry Allen?"

"Look, that me, he's gonna wake up soon." Barry looks to his younger self. "He sees me, standing here, your whole timeline is messed up. You're never gonna get home, you know that's true!"

"I know! I know!" Thawne yells and sees he has no other option. "Where are my manners? Can I get you a cup of water?" He asks Nora.

Late, Thawne is looking over the device and is fixing it.

"So, who made this?" Thawne asks.

"Someone smarter than you." Barry answers.

Thawne laughs at that. "I doubt that. You know, Allen, for your plan to work, you're gonna actually gonna have to have his dagger in your possession."

"We've got that covered."

"How's that?"

"With this." Nora says, showing the piece of Savitar's suit and Thawne looks at it as Barry takes it.

"Is that-"

"A piece of Savitar's suit, yeah." Barry answers.

"You know what's funny about your dad, Nora, is he hates me. Hates me with a passion, and yet a version of him, this Savitar, is a much bigger jerk than I ever was. Did you see the face? Did you.." Thawne asks as he laughs. "I think Parker called it a pizza face."

"Can you hurry up?" Barry asks him.

"Yeah, I'll hurry up." Thawne says and gets back to work. "I gotta tell you, Allen, using Savitar's suit, it's a smart idea."

"It was hers." Barry says and Thawne looks to Nora.

"Clever girl." Thawne comments and finishes up the device when the other Barry wakes up. "Oops. Gotta go." He says and hands it to Barry. "I still look forward to seeing how this all pans out." He then speeds off back into the time vault.

They then leave with the final destination in mind.

The night it all began.

-

Barry and Nora sneak into Star labs while the press conference was still going on and ride the elevator down to the main floor.

"Why are we going this way? Why don't we just speed into the vault?" Nora asks.

"Because it's a big moment, Nora. Thawne's been planning this night for 14 years. If we use our speed, he'll feel it. Also, Peter's here. If we make the wrong move, his spider senses will tingle." Barry explains.

"Feel a disturbance in the Speedforce." Nora says as she looks at Grodd who's still in his cage.

"I wouldn't do that." Barry warns her as they pass him.

"Dr. Wells, the accelerator is primed and ready for particle injection." Cisco says from inside the cortex.

"I feel like I should say something profound like, _one small step for man_." Wells says.

"What's happening?" Nora asks.

"Wells is about to blow up the city." Barry tells her.

"All I can think of to say is I feel like I've waited for this day for centuries." Wells says as he finally gets ready to turn on the accelerator when Peter's senses go off and he looks around the room.

Barry sees Peter looking for them and Wells also feels something wrong and he walks into the hallway just when Barry and Nora vibe into the vault.

Wells walks towards the vault when the others follows.

"Dr. Wells?" Peter calls out. "Everything Okay?"

"Yeah, I'm great." Wells assures him. "Caitlin, do you think you could have Ronnie run the particle accelerator parameter numbers just one more time? Just for good measure." He asks.

"Sure." Caitlin says as she goes to do so.

"And Caitlin? The bottle of Dom we've been saving."

"Is today the day?" Caitlin asks.

"I think today might be the day." Wells says and she goes for it.

Peter chuckles at his cautiousness. "You've got everyone on pins and needles here, Dr. Wells. I'm sure Cisco is sweating in excitement."

"Exciting, isn't it, Parker?" Wells says with a smile. "Glad to see you came."

"The biggest thing in science in recent years. If I turned down the invite to have a front row seat, I'd be insane." Peter tells him.

"You have a good heart and a great mind, Peter. Not many people have both." Wells informs him.

"Thanks, dr. Wells." Peter says with a smile.

"I know you will have a spectacular life. Maybe one day you'll have your own laboratory named after you." Wells says.

Peter laughs at that. "Yeah, I don't know. Science is my life. If I didn't do it, I'd have a lot of free time...wouldn't know what I'd do with all that free time."

"Maybe find a girl?" Wells offers.

"Yeah, I don't think there's anyone out there for me." Peter sighs.

"There's someone out there for everyone, Peter. It's just the matter of how long you're willing to wait for that person." Wells replies with a smile on his face.

"You ever consider writing poetry?" Peter quips and Wells laughs at that as they leave back to the cortex to turn on the accelerator.

Inside the vault, Barry and Nora were listening to everything, waiting for them to leave and then gets to work on collecting the dark matter as it's activated.

The explosion goes off and Ronnie gets trapped inside the pipeline and Peter comforts Caitlin.

Stein and Ronnie gets merged together.

DeVoe gets hit with his Thinking Cap and becomes the Thinker.

Barry gets struck and becomes the Flash.

The Mardon brothers plane gets hit and they become metahumans.

They go to the hospital and watch as both Wells and Barry are brought inside along with the nurse that May saw and even May herself.

Barry hides the device inside one of the pillars of the hospital and they return to the future.

-

They return and hear _Back in Time_ is still playing.

"Did you even go?" Ralph asks them.

"Told you time travel was weird." Cisco says.

"Did it work?" Peter asks.

"Yeah. Is he still at the hospital?" Barry asks.

"Hasn't left her side." Caitlin confirms.

"Let's go get Cicada." Barry tells them.

-

Barry and Peter are all in their suits as they have everyone on standby. Ralph, Frankie, Harry, Miles, Cisco, Caitlin, are all waiting as Cicada exits with his cloak, mask and dagger.

Doesn't that mean he was wearing that in the hospital?

You'd think someone would report a scary looking man marching out of the hospital like that.

"Cicada." Peter and Barry greet him.

"Is that what you call me?" Cicada asks as his dagger sparks.

"Not all metahumans are responsible for what happened to Grace." Peter tells him.

"Yes, they are." Cicada states. "The destruction they cause, the death, the pain."

"We know more about pain and death more than anyone." Barry says to him. "Taking it out on the world, that's not gonna help. Think about Grace."

"She's all I think about, Flash. And I'm making the world safe for her." Cicada tells them. "Every metahuman must go."

"What about you?" Peter asks, trying to appeal to the father side of him. "You're a metahuman, too."

"I am, and after you're gone, I'll join you." Cicada promises.

"And what about Grace? What's going to happen to her?" Peter asks.

That seems to have only made him angry, sounding like a threat, as he throws the dagger and it goes right to the pillar where the device is, stopping the dagger.

Everyone then gets their powers back and they see its working.

"Let's see how you like it." Barry says as he goes in speeding and beats Cicada as Cisco takes the dagger and throws it into a breach.

"We gotcha, now!" Miles cheers.

"Oh, man. You look like you're having a day." Cisco mocks. "Hope you weren't attached to that thing, because now it's floating through space."

"We stopped you." Nora says.

"You stopped nothing." Cicada says as he raises his hands and screams.

Caitlin warns them the dagger s coming back and it slams into the ground, sending everyone flying.

Caitlin and Harry come out to help and Cicada throws the dagger and knocks them backwards.

Peter quickly gets up and raises his fists. "Mano y Mano it is." He runs in and ducks to dodge a swing and punches Cicada, sending him flying.

Cicada gets up and throws his dagger, Peter dodges the dagger and Cicada punches him while he was distracted by it. He calls the dagger back as Peter tries getting back up with his head feeling fuzzy after that punch.

"This ends now." Cicada says as he goes in to strike him.

"NO!" Caitlin yells and they all look to see she's become Crystal and she shoots Cicada into the side of a car.

They all start getting back up, surprised that Caitlin can also still use her powers.

"Let's dance, cricket freak." Crystal dares Cicada as he takes to the sky to avoid her.

-

They return to Star labs and sees he's disappeared from the map again.

"I'm still confused. How could Crystal come out?" Miles asks.

"Just the same as Parker's and your abilities came from radioactivity and not dark matter, same goes for Snow. She's immune to te dagger as well. She saw Parker in danger, Crystal took it from there.

"So that means there's three of us who can stop Cicada." Peter says with a smile on his face. "And cricket freak?"

"It just came out." Caitlin shrugs.

-

Everyone started to go home and Harry returned the book before anyone could notice it was missing and Cisco's algorithm was able to translate one message.

The timeline is malleable 

Peter finds Harry and sees the translation.

"You think she's hiding something?" Peter asks.

"She's definitely hiding something." Harry knows.

"I think we know someone who can help us decrypt the rest of this." Peter reminds him.

They go to the time vault and activate Gideon.

"**Good evening, Peter Parker. Dr. Wells.**"

"Hello again, Gideon." Harry greets, now seeing Peter's plan. "I would like you to access the files from Nora West Allen."

"**I'm sorry, Dr. Wells, but all entries have been permanently deleted by Nora West-Allen.**"

"She's definitely hiding something." Peter says.

"Well, Gideon, I want you to translate something for me." Harry decides and they hope she can decrypt the language.

-

Earth-90

The Monitor has just recollected his Book of Destiny after testing this world and it's heroes and they've failed him.

This universes Barry Allen crawled towards him and the book as he picks it up.

"You've failed." Monitor tells Barry.

"Why are you doing this?" Barry asks him.

"You did this to yourself. And now all of you will perish." Monitor says as he reopens the book and Barry speeds off.


	99. Elseworlds

Earth-1

"Peter, you up? Breakfast is ready!" Caitlin calls out as Barry Allen wakes up and looks around completely confused as to where he is as he hears Caitlin downstairs.

"What?" Barry asks, looking around the room and is wondering what he's doing at Peter's place when he looks down at his clothes and realizes he's wearing Peter's Spider-Man suit. "What the...what?" He keeps questioning and walks off down to the kitchen and sees Frankie and Caitlin at the table.

"Morning sleepyhead." Caitlin mocks as she gets Frankie some eggs and Barry looks around the room to pictures of Peter's life were replaced with him. Caitlin drags Barry over to the table as she pecks his lips.

Barry looks to Caitlin shocked and has no idea what to think. "What if...Peter walked in? What if he saw that? See...where's Peter?"

"Dad, you get enough sleep?" Frankie asks him and Barry gets more confused.

"Yeah, you were at the labs late working on a way to stop Cicada with Harry, but you really should be taking more care of yourself." Caitlin says as she places the rest of breakfast on the table. "Now come on, Pete, this food isn't going to eat itself."

"I'm Peter?" Barry asks, completely lost and takes a seat with the girls looking at him confused. "I did not get enough sleep." He lies as he sees their faces.

"You know, the team is looking into Cicada, maybe while it's quiet, we can do something together. Give you some time to relax and rest." Caitlin offers to Barry.

Barry smiles not knowing what to say when their phones go off.

"I jinxed us." Caitlin says. "Break in at Ivo labs. I'll take Frankie with me, we'll meet you back at Star labs." She says and hands Barry his Spider-Man mask.

The girls leave and Barry feels the gloves in his jacket pocket and looks at himself in the mirror completely in the Spider-Man suit.

"Barry, what have you done to deserve this?" Barry wonders, getting serious flashbacks to DeVoe last year and looks to the window. "It's okay. You've seen Peter do this a dozen times. Your turn." He tells himself and leaps out the window and goes to shoot a web.

Only to learn the canisters weren't refilled and he crashes into the ground.

"Ow, my back." Barry complains as he gets up.

"_Peter, you there?_" Cisco asks.

"Yeah, I'm here." Barry says, knowing he's talking to him. If this is one of Cisco's pranks, this is one of his biggest.

"_We've got two armed men going after diamonds, the ones they use for conductors, and Barry's on his way already._" Cisco says and now Barry's confused.

"Wait, Barry?" Barry asks.

-

Oliver has had a strange morning, waking up in his friend's bed, Iris kissing him and calling him Barry, and he has Barry's powers, he speeds to the break in and sees the armed men as Spider-Man comes crashing through the ceiling.

"I'm good." Barry promises as he stands up.

"Forget it, heroes." One of the men say holding a man hostage. "We're leaving with the diamonds, or this guy dies. I said back off!"

Barry tries to think of what to do as Oliver is reaching for nonexistent arrows.

"_What are you guys doing? Peter, web the gun, Barry speedpunch him._" Cisco gives them a plan.

"You have failed this city!" Oliver says in a scruff voice and Barry looks at him confused.

"_Pretty sure that's not your line_." Cisco and Barry says as he shoots a web, which turned to be a splitter web as one hits a box and he rips the gun and one of the boxes open.

Oliver knocks the guy down only for his partner to open fire.

Barry looks and sees as everything slows down in slow motion as his senses take full affect as Barry dodges them and Oliver moves his out of the way and tosses a lightning bolt that knocks everything in the room.

"_Overkill much_?" Cisco asks. "_Cops are on their way. Maybe let them take over from here._" He tells them.

"Wait, if you're...?" Oliver looks to Barry who removes his mask to show who he is. "Barry?"

"Oliver, what te hell is going on? Wait, you're Oliver right?" Barry asks.

"What? Of course I'm Oliver!" Oliver tells him. "But if you're Peter, and I'm you..." he is trying to wrap his mind around this and they decide to go to Star labs.

-

Caitlin did a scan on the two and they're perfectly fine.

"You're in perfect condition, Peter." Caitlin assures Barry.

"Really?" Oliver asks. "No anomalies? I don't...we don't have a brain tumor? Nothing?"

"Barry, you guys are in perfect shape." Caitlin assures them as Iris starts getting flirty with Oliver, making Barry get mad.

"Okay, maybe we could lay off the public display of affection, just at work, you know?" Oliver asks Iris.

"Since when?" Ralph asks. "You guys are worse than Peter and Caitlin over here." He gestures at the two and Barry is blushing.

"I just feel like I'm being incentive." Oliver lies.

"Man, we've talked about this. I'm over Gypsy, okay?" Cisco tells him. "But I appreciate the thought." He says as he hugs Oliver and it's just...weird.

"I'm gonna go...train, I'm taking ba- Peter with me." Oliver says as the two walk off.

The two take a few steps in the hallway when Barry's senses go off and they turn to see everyone watching them.

"What are you guys doing?" Barry asks, acting like Peter best I can.

"Following you ito the hallway." Caitlin answers.

"Because somethings definitely up." Ralph says.

"You need to talk about it?" Cisco asks them.

"We're fine." Oliver assures.

"We just think we should go talk to someone who might understand better." Barry says.

"Were gonna go see Oliver Queen." Oliver says and speeds him and Barry off.

-

In Star City, Peter gets punched in the face and drops to the ground on a mat as he looks to see he's in one of the ARGUS facilities.

"How'd...when'd I get here?" Peter asks as he looks and sees John Diggle standing over him. "Dig, what's happening?"

"I'm kicking your butt. Now get up, come on." Dig tells Peter and he does so and he swings at Peter and he dodges it when without his senses.

"This place is new." Peter comments looking around.

"Oliver, it's ARGUS. Nothing new." Dig says and swings some more and Peter blocks his attacks.

"Oliver?" Peter asks, completely confused and then sends a few punches at Dig, taking him down when Peter starts putting the pieces together. "I'm the Green Arrow."

"Yeah, you could say that again." Dig agrees.

"I'm Oliver Queen." Peter says with a smile on a face when he starts to realize something is wrong. "Oh, my god. I'm Oliver Queen." He then raises his shirt and sees that he has all of Oliver's scars from Lian Yu and further. "Wow, I've been hanging around the wrong crowd."

"Yeah, you think?" Dig asks as he wipes the sweat off his head.

"Look, I need to make a call to someone." Peter says when an alert goes off.

"Later." Dig says as he checks on the alert.

"What is it?"

"We've got Brathas fighting over in old Dias weapons cache in the Glades." Dig tells him. "I could use some backup, Oliver."

Peter looks and knows he's gotta help. Sometimes his heart is a curse. Especially in Star city. "Yeah, sure."

"Good." Dig says as he hands the Green Arrow suit to Peter. "Suit up." He then walks off to get his suit on.

Peter looks at Oliver's suit and wonders how he gets his suit on in time.

-

At the location, Peter accidentally shot a grapple arrow to their car and slides down and kicks one of the men.

"_What are you doing? I thought you were going to fire an incendiary arrow._" Diggle says.

"So did I." Peter says as some raise their guns and Peter instinctively shot two arrows and hits them in the chest. More come in and Peter kicks one of them and smacks the other with his bow. He ducks as someone comes runninga den trips over Peter, he spins and kicks one of the others and throws them agains the car.

One was about to shoot him in the back when Dig comes in and kicks him.

"Did you freakin' see that!?" Peter asks him.

"Stop fooling around and get the driver." Dig tells him and Peter quickly pulls out another arrow and shoots the getaway car as it crashes.

"Damn." Peter comments on himself. He never knew he had something like this in him. Maybe in another life, he could be the Green Arrow.

Someone comes up behind Diggle but gets smacked by lightning as the two of them are taken out of the warehouse and as soon as they stop, Peter looks and sees it's Barry and Oliver.

"Oh thank god. I'm glad to see you guys." Peter sighs as Diggle goes to the nearest container and vomits inside of it. "That outfit makes your beard stand out more." He comments on Oliver. He was amazed nobody knew who he was when he immediately started, but with him being Flash, he should've been identified easily.

"You look good in that outfit." Barry comments on Peter.

"My face feels naked with this eye mask." Peter tells them while rubbing his cheeks.

-

They return to the Spider Cave with Fox not in, meaning they have the place to figure on what's going on on their own.

Barry is doing some fighting moves to thin air amazed by how his muscle reflexes knows exactly what he wants and sees Peter's been holding back. That's only because if he didn't, he could kill someone.

"This can't be a coincidence. There-there has to be a reason behind this, which means that someone is responsible. And we need to know who and why." Oliver tells them.

"This is like a total _Freaky Friday _situation." Barry tells them.

"That's only work if the three of us switched bodies." Peter corrects him. "It'd be more like _Quantum Leap_."

"Well, there's a way to check that. Where's a mirror?" Barry says and looks around the cave and Oliver is getting annoyed.

"Can-can the two of you focus, for a second, and take this seriously? Because all of us have had our lives altered, and I would really like to know why." Oliver tells the two of them.

"Sorry." The two of them reply.

"Thank you." Oliver says as Peter goes through the archives of the past few years to see how far this goes.

The first thing they find is a photo of Barry/Iris wedding and Barry's been replaced with Oliver.

"Weird." Barry comments as the next thing is a newspaper of the Mayor is Green Arrow and it shows Peter.

"Okay, that's cool. I'm mayor." Peter laughs.

"Peter, please, if you could...just for 90 seconds of seriousness." Oliver pleads with them.

"Come on, you gotta admit, this is a little cool." Barry tells him.

"I'd find it a lot cooler when I wake up in my own bed tomorrow." Oliver says when a thought came to Peter's mind.

"Wait...did you wake up in bed with Caitlin?" Peter asks Barry.

Barry stays quiet and has no idea how to respond when Peter stands up more serious than ever.

"We have to fix reality, now!" Peter tells them.

-

"So let me get this straight. You believe you're Parker, you're Allen, and you're Queen?" Harry asks the three of them.

"Barry, did you time travel again?" Caitlin asks.

"No, I didn't." Barry answers.

"She was talking to Barry." Fox says.

"I was talking to Barry, Peter." Caitlin repeats.

"_I_ am Barry." Barry tells them.

"Yeah, and I'm Wild Dog." Cisco jokes.

"Easy, Poodle Dog." Harry mocks.

Caitlin walks over and grabs a device and walks over to Peter.

"Do you mind if I..?"

"No, of course not." Peter answers and they all run checks on each of the boys.

"Oliver's brain scan is perfectly normal, no signs of hypnosis or psychic interference." Caitlin says.

"Peter seems perfectly healthy." Fox reports.

"Tachyon meters are clear." Cisco says scanning Oliver. "No ones screwing with the timeline."

"Guys, come on, this is crazy." Iris tells them. "I mean, there's no way that I'm married to Spider-Man."

"Trust me, that's a blessing." Peter mutters to himself now leaning against the wall.

"Sorry, but, babe, you know he's not my type, right?" Iris asks Oliver.

"Iris, you really don't believe me?" Barry asks.

Oliver scoffs at the them. "We're telling the truth. Something is very wrong with reality."

"All right. Team Spider-Flash, meeting." Harry tells them as they all leave.

The three of them head to the lounge to come up with a plan.

"If your team's not gonna help, then we have to keep moving." Oliver tells them.

"Moving where?" Peter asks. "We have no clues, Lyla says Mysterio is still in his cell, so it's not an illusion, I checked."

"They'll help us, we just gotta get Iris on board first." Barry tells them.

Peter and Oliver look at him completely lost as to how that would be helpful.

"Why?" They both ask, seeing no help coming from her.

"Look, I'll talk to Fox or Caitlin, get them to try and help us." Peter says as he walks off to find them.

"Okay, you know what? Let's see what your way is." Oliver decides to amuse this idea. "How do we convince her?"

"I'm not, you are." Barry tells him.

"She's _your_ wife." Oliver tells him.

"I know, man. I don't like this anymore than you do. You just gotta tell her how much you care about her. Tell her...she's your lightning rod." Barry says and Oliver laughs at how cheesy that is.

Then he sees that Barry is serious and is seriously confused. "I'm...I'm not saying that." He peomises.

"Just say it. Trust me." Barry says as he walks off. "It works every time."

Yeah, it didn't work.

-

Iris made it seem with the two leaders out of commission, they needed to be locked up with Oliver.

Luckily Peter was able to avoid capture as Barry and Oliver wake up in the pipeline.

"Guys, come on. Let us out of here!" Barry yells at the cameras.

"Why are we in your secret prison?" Oliver asks.

"It's not a prison." Barry tells him. "It's a Tesla conductor tube that dampens meta powers. Okay, it's a prison. We just need to convince everyone that we're not crazy!"

"How? How do we suggest we do that?" Oliver asks as he gets up. "Because everyone on earth thinks that we're each other."

Barry then gets an idea. "That's it. Maybe it's just Earth-1 that's been affected. If we can get an extrapolator and breach to Earth-38, find Kara and Peter's doppelgänger. If they remember us, they can help fix whatever's happening."

"You skipped the part where we escape." Oliver says.

"Let's hope Peter has a way of getting us out." Barry guesses.

-

Cisco and Caitlin were talking about what could be happening to the people they care about and leaves as Cisco gets a strange vibe.

He looks and sees the younger Peter Parker they met two years ago fighting that Green Goblin and he's beside someone with a flaming skull.

The next thing he sees is a black tall man with mutton chops and a metal armor with a cape.

"Who the frak is that?" Cisco asks.

Caitlin walks the halls when she spots Peter.

"Oliver." She greets him.

"Cait, I'm not Oliver." Peter tells her. "Please. I know how crazy this all sounds, but do I look or act anything like the Green Arrow should?" He asks while gesturing to himself and approaching her. "Caitlin, you have to believe me. I know a part of you sees I'm telling the truth, and it's me, Peter. The man who held you as you cried when Ronnie died. The man who healed your hair back as you threw up after we went to that bar and sang together, even though you don't have the best voice. Who helped you move on and we learned we needed to get a life. Who helped you when you escaped Zoom. The man you saved when that evil version of me that tried to kill me. The man who put his life in your hands because he knew to trust you. And you did the same for me, remember? The man who would stop at nothing until he found his journey back to you."

Peter cups her face in his hands as Caitlin knows there's no way this is Oliver Queen. There's no way he could possibly know all that personal information...but the man she loves would know all of that.

"Peter?" Caitlin asks as she looks up and down him. "How...What happened? How did this happen?"

"We'll figure everything out, but I need Barry and Oliver. The real Barry and Oliver. I need you to unlock the pipeline." Peter promises and explains as Caitlin heads to the pipeline and opens the doors for the two of them.

"Thank god, Peter." Barry says as they get out.

"Okay, we need to get to Earth-38." Oliver says.

"Why?" Caitlin asks.

"If we can get there, the Peter there and Kara remember it's us, they can help us learn what's going on here." Barry explains.

"Cait, did Cisco ever fix the extrapolator?" Peter asks her.

"Yeah, sure. It's in his workshop." Caitlin says and they all head to his workshop and find it.

"Thank you, Caitlin." Peter asks and kisses her as Barry opens a breach. "We'll find a way to fix this, I promise." He tells her and they leap into the portal.

-

Earth-38

Kara's apartment.

Peter had to stop by Kara's place and pick up some of his things he left there.

He opens her door, but was surprised to see her there.

"Skirt?" Peter asks, confused to why she's here. "I thought I was gonna meet you in Smallville."

"Hey...Peter. Yeah, right, I..."

"Skirt, you okay?" Peter wonders, seeing she's acting nervously when he senses something wrong. "Is there something going on?"

"No. I just...I forgot my journal." Kara says and picks it off of the table. "Silly writer, without her journal."

"Okay. But...look, I know with Lane everything is going crazy, but we know President Olivia won't make us tell the world our identities. Morgan and Gwenyth won't tell anyone either. I mean, she's supposed to be dead, so it's not like anyone will believe her." Peter says. "But...I guess I'll see you in Smallville. I'm gonna stop by my place for a few more things." He says and quickly pecks her lips and notices how confused she gets as he leaves.

Once Peter left a safe distance, Lex Luther revealed himself.

"Who was that?" The Kara lookalike asks him and she now has a Russian accent.

"Peter Parker, also known as Spider-Man." Lex tells her. "Kara Danvers' I guess now boyfriend. Field trip's over. I have to go back to-"

"To prison." She interrupts.

"Yes. Go back to Kaznia. Make sure you weren't seen. No one can know you exist. It's a miracle his six sense didn't pick up you're not really her." Lex tells her and leaves the apartment.

-

Smallville, Kent farm, Lois and Clark are working on their truck and are talking about their visit to Argo city.

"Break time, boss?" Kara asks Clark as they sit and drink. "I've never been challenged like that before just to my face: tell us your identities. I mean, Peter almost had his identity released to the public if it weren't for Brainy."

"Well, and I'm sure it was harder when it's general Lane doing the threatening." Clark comments.

"Cat was scarier." Kara tells him. "You think we did the right thing?"

"Peter has been keeping this identity thing longer than me, and he will tell you they keep the ones we love safe from being threatened. Nothing is more important than that." Clark tells her.

"I just can't believe after all the good Peter's done for them, they don't think we can be trusted." Kara says. "And then there's Morg'Ann, still fighting with Gwenyth."

"I still can't believe Gwen's alive and has no memories of anything." Clark replies.

"Trust me, we're all still trying to find out how she's alive. Peter's taking it well all things considered."

"Probably because you were there for him." Clark says and smiles at her. "I've never seen Peter as broken as he was when Gwen died. But I was happy you were able to help him. He's been through a lot, loosing everyone. With that in mind, there's something I've been needing to tell you guys."

Their talk gets interrupted by Lois screaming inside the barn.

The Earth-1 heroes appear in the barn with Lois.

"Whoa, Whoa! Wait!" Barry pleads as Lois is holding a hammer up to them.

"Who are you?" Lois asks and notices Peter. "Peter?"

"Yeah. Do I know you?" Peter-1 asks when the Super's come speeding in.

"Whoa, Lois, wait. These are Barry, Oliver, and Peter. Not the Peter we know. But they're friends." Kara tells her,

"So you know who we all are?" Oliver asks her.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I?" Kara asks.

"Thank god." Peter-1 says.

"Okay. Guys, this is my cousin, Clark. I'm so happy you guys get to meet." Kara introduces them.

"Your cousin? The...super cousin?" Peter asks, remembering what he said about him during their musical event.

"Please, call me Clark." Clark says as he shows Peter's hand. "I already know who you are. And welcome to our farm." He tells them.

"Oliver, are you puffing out your chest?" Barry asks him.

"Yes." Oliver admits.

"Lois Lane, _Daily Planet_." Lois greets.

"Why did you guys think I wouldn't recognize you?" Kara asks them.

"Well..." Oliver says and vibrates his hands as Barry leaps onto the ceiling and sticks to it.

"Well, that's new." Kara comments.

"We could use your help." Peter tells her.

-

Earth-1

Crystal, Miles and Ralph answered a distress call at Ivo labs and ended up fighting a robot that ended up copying their powers.

They returned to Star labs to figure out what it was.

"Anti-Metahuman-Adaptive Zootomic Organism." Cisco reads off the screen. "A-M-A-Z-O. Amazo. Sometimes these names just fall into your lap."

"It says Ivo labs was contracted by ARGUS to build a unit capable of identifying meta powers." Fox says.

"And it isn't just scan powers. He's pumping a nano-adaptive hybrid of the Mirakuru serum." Cisco tells him.

"Is that how he stole our powers?" Ralph asks.

"Possibly. Scanned your mutant genes, used the Mirakuru hybrid to copy them." Fox explains.

"So an evil copycat Grot is coming to klaatu barada kick to our asses, and we can't let out Flash, original Spider-Man, or Green Arrow to fight it?" Ralph asks when Harry and Caitlin stroll into the cortex.

"We don't exactly have that choice." Harry says and nods to Caitlin.

"You let them out?" Ralph asks her.

"Oliver...he was talking to me when me and Cisco finished talking. Guys, the things he said, they were personal. Things that only Peter can know. He knew things, the details, it was as if he experienced them. I felt like I was talking to Peter." Caitlin explains why she did it.

"I believe you." Cisco says and they all look to him. "It is weird out there. These red skies, our main heroes going crazy. That and I vibe someone in the speed lab. Some guy with ridges on his head, these big muttonchops."

"You think the red skies, the heroes' identity disorders, and this guy are connected?" Harry asks.

"They were all mind swapped by a guy with muttonchops?" Frankie asks.

"Man, it's not even Tuesday." Ralph says when the computers alert them Amazo is here.

-

Earth-38

Peter-38 just arrived and sees the three heroes are here and they just finished talking.

"Why is it when something bad is going on, it's always you three?" Peter-38 asks them.

"Trust me, I've been asking myself the same question for the past five years." Peter-1 tells him.

Suddenly, a breach opens and Cisco appears.

"Hey, Iron-Spider, Supergirl, Barry...Oliver...Peter" Cisco greets them correctly.

"You believe us now." Barry guesses.

"Yeah, we all do. Sorry we locked you up. But if you feel like forgiving us, and coming back to Earth-1, we've got a little bit of a sitch back home. Like a killer robot with our powers destroying the city." Cisco tells them.

"Let's do it." Oliver agrees.

"Wanna tag along?" Kara asks Peter-38.

"Sure. What about you, big man?" Peter-38 asks Clark.

"If you don't, I will, Smallville." Lois warns him.

"Cool. Who are you?" Cisco wonders.

"A friend." Clark says and rips his shirt to reveal his suit.

"Don't you ever get hot with that thing on?" Peter-38 asks him.

"Not all of us can wear nanotechnology." Clark comments.

"Point taken."

-

Earth-1

Amazo is attacking the people outside the city hall when a breach opened up.

Kara and Clark come flying out followed by Peter-38, Barry swinging in, Oliver speeding in and Peter-1 riding a motorcycle.

Oliver shrikes Amazo with a lightning toss, Kara uses her ice breath, Clark flies into the sky, and Peter-1 ditches the motorcycle before it could get hit by ice.

Peter-1 shoots a explosive arrow that sends Amazo backwards. Kara and Peter-38 fly in and uses heat on him. Barry uses his web shooters and rapidly shoots Amazo to the point where he can't move.

"Finish him." Peter-1 tells Clark who slams the robot into the ground before flying up himself.

"_No sign of movement._" Cisco tells them.

"Nice work." Oliver says.

Both Peter's' senses go off as they feel the ground rumble.

"We're not done yet." Peter-38 says as his suit is picking up Amazo flying back up.

Amazo comes back using Crystal's powers and lands. Before the heroes could do anything, Amazo copies the six of them.

His chest shows the Super symbol, Arrow, Flash, Iron-Spider, and Spider-Man.

"What the hell is he doing?" Oliver asks.

"Exactly what we wanted to avoid." Kara tells him as Clark goes in to punch him only for Amazo to phase him.

Peter-1 shoots an arrow at him, but Amazo blocks it with Iron-Spider's holo-shield.

"That's not great." Clark says as Amazo uses extra metallic arms from his back to punch Clark speeds to Peter and punches him, uses Ralph's powers to punch Iron-Spider, freezes Barry, and punches Peter-1 before speeding off.

"Great. He now has all of our abilities and gadgets." Peter-38 complains as he stands up.

"Cisco, you have any ideas?" Barry asks.

"_How do you stop a T-3000 that kills for break?_" Cisco asks.

"_It's just a computer, so all we need to do is turn it off._" Harry tells him.

"_I hate it when you're right_." Cisco complains.

"_Only because you're always wrong_." Harry tells him.

"I've got an idea." Peter-1 says. "Flash, bring him back here."

"No problem." Oliver says and speeds off.

"When he comes back, Iron-Spider and Spider-Man, keep him down. He won't be able to phase through the webbing." Peter tells the Spider's. "Supers, keep him still. He can't run and phase at once." He then spins and shoots an arrow to give him a distance between them and he flies off.

Oliver chases Amazo around the city, dodging his attacks and gets him back to the others.

Once they had some distance between the two, Peter-38 and Barry started webbing up the street to slow down the two of them.

"Gang, where are we at?" Peter-1 asks the group.

"_I think we got it. We reverse engineered Amazon's operating system and whipped up a virus to wipe the CPU_." Cisco tells him.

"_Except it's a robot that has replaced their powers and is now impenetrable with the Supers strength it hijacked, so you can't get the virus inside_." Harry tells them.

"_If he copied everything from them, doesn't that include weaknesses?_" Frankie asks.

"_She might be into something_." Fox says. "_We could use kryptonite._"

"Oliver. When the time comes, you're gonna have to counteract the phasing from Amazo." Peter-1 warns him as the Spider's keep webbing the street to keep the two down. "I'm only getting one shot at this. Now get me that virus."

Cisco opens a breach and hands the virus and kryptonite to Peter-1.

Oliver moves out of the way, the supers hold down Amazo as the spiders swing around him and keep it so he can't move anywhere. While they do that, Oliver grabs onto his neck and keeps him from phasing free.

"Don't miss." Cisco tells Peter-1.

"I never miss." Peter-1 says and has a bigger smile on his face than he should in this situation. "I've always wanted to say this...Amazo, you have failed this city!"

With that, he shoots the kryptonite arrow and virus and it destroys Amazo, sending him to pieces and heroes flying.

"Well, that was fun." Peter-38 comments as he gets back on his feet.

-

"Amazo has been dismantled and every piece locked up in a Star labs vault except for this one." Cisco says as he waves a piece of Amazo in his arms. "This is my souvenir."

"Yeah, like your last souvenir did us any favors." Harry comments, remembering what happened with the Samuroid.

"It was one mistake." Cisco tells him.

"Maybe we should stick with this whole body swap thing for a while." Ralph says. "Seems to be working okay."

"Well, I do know now that I look good in green. But, no, I want my life and my cloth back." Peter-1 tells them. "We need to get reality back to the way it was."

"Caitlin, any thoughts?" Oliver asks her.

"I haven't figured it out yet, but until so, I am confident that Central City and Star City are in good hands." Caitlin tells them with a smile.

"Speaking of which, I need to head back to Metropolis and Lois." Clark says. "If anything were to happen, her entire world's unprotected."

"I'll come with you." Peter-38 says.

"What. You're not gonna stay this time?" Kara asks him.

"Well, between the _Freaky Friday_ and _Body Double_ situation we have, I'm better off keeping our world safe with everything going on. But if you need me, you know how to find me." Peter-38 promises and pecks Kara on the lips.

"Yeah, that's still weird." Peter-1 says.

"See ya around." Peter-38 bids them farewell as the two of them leave.

-

Cisco told them about his vibe and vibes them to see a clearer vibe and sees someone with the man he's been seeing.

"I can see everything." Someone says to the man with a cape and muttonchops.

What was weirder, he noticed Cisco.

"Fascinating. I wouldn't have thought the men of this Earth had this capacity. But it won't avail you. None of you can stop what's been set into motion. You're best off giving off now, because nothing you can do can alter what's about to happen." He warns Cisco.

Cisco gets a few glimpses of a red headed woman wearing red shades and wearing an all red body suit with some white.

He exits the vibe and leaves and they Oliver draws what they saw.

"We know where we're going next." Oliver says and points to a Wayne tower building.

"Looks like we're going to Gotham." Peter says.


	100. Elseworlds ll

Earth-1

The four of the heroes stopped by ARGUS to let them know what's happening and what they need to do.

"So, you're not Oliver, you're not Peter, and you're not Barry?" Curtis asks while Diggle is wrapping his mind around it all.

"An immortal Egyptian, radioactive spider bites, Spider-Kid's, an unkillable mercenary, aliens, vampires, parallel earth Nazis. I have no idea why I'm even surprised by this point." Diggle admits.

"Hey, that's almost exactly what my doppelgänger said." Peter says with a smile.

"Yeah, you're not Oliver Queen." Curtis tells Peter.

"We think the red skies and red lightning strikes have to be related to whatever happened to these guys somehow." Kara tells them.

"We need you to solve the somehow while we're in Gotham." Oliver tells them their part.

"No problem." Curtis promises. "I mean, ARGUS has all the best analytic toys, but what we really need is a pattern recognition algorithm, and unfortunately, Felicity-"

"I called Felicity." Oliver tells him.

"Wait, you called Felicity?" Diggle asks. "Okay. Right. Well, I guess that makes sense because technically, you are her husband. I'm confused." He admits, wrapping his mind around this.

"I've been summoned?" Felicity asks as she enters the room and looks to Peter and looks away.

Peter looks to the others and sees them nodding towards Felicity.

Right, he is Oliver, meaning Felicity is his...wife. Yeah, now he's confused.

"Yes. Thank you for coming." Peter says to her.

"Of course. I mean, things might be fraught between us, Oliver, that doesn't mean I'm not gonna show up." Felicity replies.

"They are?" Peter asks and looks to Oliver. "Which is...sad."

Barry rubs his head, seeing his friend can't pull off Oliver Queen at all.

"So, this lightning thing. Could you help me out with that?" Curtis asks Felicity. "Can I kind of show you kind of what I'm thinking?"

"Yeah." Felicity says and gives Peter an odd look as she leaves.

"Okay, so why didn't you tell Felicity?" Diggle asks.

"Because when we tried telling everyone at Star labs, they locked us up." Barry tells him.

"Felicity and I have enough problems as it is without introducing body swapping." Oliver adds.

"Reality altercations." Peter corrects him.

"Stop talking." Oliver tells him. "We thought we'd just let her think everything's normal and that we're solving another problem."

"If you find out how this lightning thing relates to whatever it is that we're dealing with here, can you please tell us? And if you need help, you can contact my Peter." Kara tells him.

"Copy that. This isn't gonna be permanent, is it?" Diggle asks.

"I hope not." All three of them say.

"Jinx." Peter and Barry says and they start leaving.

"Peter, there's something I'd like to discuss before we go." Oliver says as he runs up to them.

"What's that?" Peter asks.

"That you probably shouldn't go." Oliver tells him. "Oliver Queen is a public figure and an infamous vigilante. If you're in Gotham City, you're attracting the type of attention we don't want."

"And you think Spider-Man isn't gonna attract attention there?" Peter asks while pointing to Barry since Spider-Man doesn't exactly belong in Gotham.

"Come on, Oliver, if Gotham can handle the Batman, it can handle the Green Arrow." Barry says.

"The Batman's an urban legend." Oliver tells him and Peter looks at him, confused.

"You don't believe in the Dark Knight?" Peter asks with a brow raised.

"He's not real. He's an urban legend concocted by the Gotham police department to scare criminals. Come on, Peter, you were the original vigilante." Oliver informs them.

"Batman was the second vigilante." Peter tells him. "Fox used to work for the guy."

"Okay, if you guys are done fooling around..." Kara says.

"Actually, could you put that thing on?" Barry asks, referring to Oliver's Flash mask. "Because, unlike you, our identidies aren't public, and I'd like to keep it that way."

"This isn't your real face!" Oliver says.

"It might end up being my real face if we don't sort this out, so could you?" Barry asks and Oliver places the cowl back on.

"Happy?" Oliver asks.

"Ecstatic." Barry says.

"Apparently, you guys aren't done fooling around." Kara sees, already missing her Peter as she speeds off with Peter and Barry.

"Well, I guess I'm running alone." Oliver says as he speeds off.

-

Gotham City

Kara lands on a rooftop with Peter and Barry and they look around.

"So this is Gotham." Barry says. "Doesn't look so tough to me."

"Yeah, because you have a sixth sense, super strength, and can take whatever this city can dish out." Peter says. "I should know, I visited here a few times."

"Where's Oliver?" Kara wonders.

"I don't know." Barry says when his senses go off and Oliver speeds up and off the roof.

"Guess he's still getting the hang of it." Peter says and Oliver speeds back up and Barry laughs.

"I'm still getting the hang of it!" Oliver defends.

"So how do we find two people in a city of 1.6 million?" Kara asks.

"There is a radio personality named Vesper Fairchild. She knows everyone in Gotham, and I know her. She was doing an exposé on white collar crime back in the day, and I wanted to persuade her that Queen Consolidated was above board." Oliver tells them.

"Meaning you slept with her." Peter guesses.

"No. I...I don't know." Oliver confesses.

"You really got around back in the day, didn't you?" Kara asks.

"One time, Oliver cheated on his girlfriend with her sister." Barry says.

"Oh, no!" Kara complains.

"Barry!" Oliver yells.

"You did it!" Peter complains and looks at himself. "Wait, I did...I'm ashamed of myself." He tells himself now realizing everything Oliver once did is now everything he did. "Yeah, I'm not a good ex-billionaire, playboy, philanthropist...Wait, where have I heard that before?" He wonders, feeling like he should know someone like that.

"So depending on this past relationship with this woman, we might have to come up with a Plan B." Kara says when Barry spots something on the roof.

"Guys!" Barry calls them over and rips off a cloth to reveal the Bat-Signal.

"You still think he's a myth?" Peter asks Oliver.

"Yeah! Let's go." Oliver says and walks off.

"Batman's real." Barry says as they leave.

Unknowingly, they're being watch from a distance from an old friend.

-

The sun began to rise, but Gotham doesn't exactly change between day and night like most cities.

"If I remember right, the radio station is this way." Oliver says as they walk the streets without their costumes.

"I'm surprised they put it in the bad part of town." Barry says.

"It's cute how you think there's a good part of town." Kara quips as they move out of the way of a armored truck with men with grocery bags.

"Looks like the one percenters bring the good part with them." Barry comments.

"This is why nobody talks about Gotham, Okay?" Oliver tells them. "City might as well be dead."

That's when Barry's senses go off and a gang of armed men approaches them.

"Sounds like you guys aren't from around here." Their leader says. "Probably don't know, but Gotham tourism bureau collects a tax on out of towners, So phones, wallets, watches now."

"You know what, fellas? We don't want any trouble, so maybe we could just ask this out, okay?" Oliver asks their leader.

"Talk it out." He repeats and pulls a gun on him. "Okay. I'll talk first."

He shoots and Kara worked fast and caught the bullet while nobody was looking.

Barry got to work and used Peter's abilities and skills to disarm them when the police arrived and surround them and arrests them.

-

ARGUS

"You realize this may not work, right? Like, there may not be a pattern to recognize." Felicity tells Curtis as they work.

"Is there a suggestion bound within that dose of pessimism?" Curtis asks.

"Doesn't the discharge of lightning energy look familiar to you?" Felicity says and shows him it.

"Quantum amplitude is consistent with a dimensional breach." Curtis says.

"Exactly. We're gonna need Cisco's help on this one." Felicity says when the Star labs team arrived as if on que.

"I've been summoned!" Cisco shouts as he and the team enter the room.

"Okay. That was a disturbingly coincidental entrance." Curtis comments at their timing.

"It wasn't coincidental." Fox tells him.

"We've been getting the same red skies and freaky lightning in Central City. And I'll tell you this much, it wasn't Speedforce." Cisco says.

"We've been? Wasn't? Past tense?" Felicity asks.

"Interestingly, the atmospheric phenomenon ceased the moment the boy's left Central City." Caitlin explains.

"It's like it packed up it's bags and followed them here." Cisco adds. "That's why we came."

"The phenomenon has to be related to the boy's..."

"Caitlin, Caitlin." Diggle tries to stop her.

"Body swap?" Caitlin finishes, confused.

"I'm sorry. Body what?" Felicity asks.

"You didn't tell her?" Cisco asks Diggle.

"Again...tell me what?" Felicity asks.

-

Gotham

The four of them are inside a cell at the GCPD and Peter was able to get a phone call out to a friend of his in the city.

"Don't worry, we won't be in here for long if my friend picked up the phone." Peter promises.

"Who's your friend that we don't know about?" Barry asks, as it seems Peter has more contacts than anybody.

"A few years back, I was chasing Morbius, wound up in Gotham. They confused him for a guy they call Man-Bat. Made a friend or two while I was here who has friends in high places." Peter explains when the officer lets them out.

"Somebody posted your bail." She says and they start making their way out and Oliver flashed something on their way out.

Outside the prescient, they see a car is out with the driver waiting for them.

"I'm guessing this belongs to whoever you had bail us out?" Barry asks Peter.

"Could be helpful." Peter tells him.

They all get in the car and end up being dropped off outside Wayne Enterprises.

"Bruce Wayne bailed us out?" Kara asks.

"No, he isn't in town anymore." Peter tells them.

"Why? To go where?" Barry asks.

"Nobody knows. I never heard from him since he left, even before he left. He just packed up and left. But I know who's working the shop." Peter tells them and they enter and see the place is run down.

"An abandoned building didn't bail us out." Barry says when they look up and see someone.

"That's definitely not Bruce Wayne." Kara says as they see Kate Kane.

"Peter Parker. Been a while since I saw you around here." Kate tells Barry.

Peter nudges his friend and nods to him.

"Right. Yeah. I've been a bit busy." Barry lies, not knowing what to say.

"And you are?" Oliver asks.

"The rain on our parade. If you're visiting Gotham or compare grappling hooks with Batman, you're out of luck." Kate tells Peter. Green Arrow.

"Told you." Barry tells Oliver.

"Myth." Oliver replies and Peter decides to have some fun with his friend.

"I would never compare myself to a badass like Batman." Peter says and gives Oliver a smirk smile as he gives Peter a death stare in return.

"What I think Oliver is trying to say is thank you for getting us out of jail." Kara says.

"What Oliver is actually trying to say is who exactly are you, and why did you help us?" Oliver asks.

"Well, I owed Peter a favor, and Gotham has enough problems without a guy in green leather showing off his arrows to everyone, so the faster you find what you're looking for, the faster you can get the hell out of my city." Kate explains.

"What should we call you, rain, ms. Parade?" Kara asks.

"Kane. Kate Kane. Surprised Peter never mentioned me." Kate says and leaves.

"Well, you made it clear not to tell anyone about you." Peter mumbled to himself. "Your cousin was more flexible." He says as they enter the elevator.

-

ARGUS

"You didn't tell her?!" Caitlin asks them.

"Oliver, the actual Oliver, thought that they had enough problems with Felicity already." Curtis tells them.

"And you didn't think to loop us in on the fact that you were keeping the _Freaky Friday_ situation a secret?" Cisco asks.

"I was thinking it was more like _Quantum Leap_." Curtis says.

"Well, if this was like _Quantum Leap_, they'd only look like themselves in the mirror." Fox adds.

"Well it depends on what type of _Quantum Leap_." Curtis replies when a Diggle stops them.

"Shouldn't we concentrate on what this lightning came from?" Diggle asks when Felicity approaches them.

"You guys don't need to tiptoe around me. Is just a lot to process. Not every day that your friend is your husband, your husband is your ex, and in vice versa." Felicity tells them.

"Yeah, Caitlin was pretty freaked out when she sussed it out." Cisco nods to Caitlin.

"Wait. Caitlin?" Felicity asks and looks to Caitlin.

"You know, John, before you came in-" Curtis was trying to change the subject.

"You were able to tell something was off with Peter?" Felicity asks her.

"No." Caitlin says. "Well, not exactly."

"Oh, totally. I mean, it was like lover's intuition." Cisco says and Caitlin tries to shut him up. "That's how you can tell these two were-"

"Felicity, there's something very strange going on here, so I wouldn't take this as a commentary on you and Oliver's marriage." Diggle tells her.

"No. My marriage with Oliver is strained by the fact that we've become different people. Quite literally in Oliver's case." Felicity says and gets back on topic. "If the lightning strikes are attempting dimensional breaches, there might be a way to stabilize the quantum flux to allow whatever's trying to get through to get through, right?"

-

Gotham

"You guys try facial recognition?" Kate asks, looking at the photo Oliver drew. "One of Bruce's RD Guys still works in the building. I can give this to him.

"We tried it at Parker Industries, but no luck, thank you." Oliver tells her. "Besides, I'd think I'd Wayne's RD's in the same shape as his building, it's not gonna relay do is any good."

"Seems strange, doesn't it? Bruce and Batman disappear around the same time." Kara says.

"Well, when batman left, the city went to five different types of hell. Which for Gotham us really saying something. Took a toll on Bruce." Kate tells her.

"Is that why he left?" Kara asks.

"Still trying to figure that out." Kate admits.

"Right, but you work for him, and you don't know why he left?" Oliver asks.

"She's his cousin, doesn't work for the man." Peter says as he returns.

"How'd it go with Vesper?" Barry asks him.

"She hung up on me. Apparently, I did sleep with her." Peter says as a disgusting look comes to his face. "I feel dirty being an ex playboy."

"Okay. The building is under renovation, so this is the best place for you guys to work out of." Kate says and leaves them. "Oh, the WiFi password is _Alfred_."

"Of course it is." Peter whispers, knowing exactly why.

"So if Vesper's not gonna help us, we're just back to square one." Kara says.

"Well, I lifted this off a computer at the prescient." Oliver says and shows the drive he stole. "It should have the entire GCPD database."

"You stole from the police?" Barry asks.

"Of course not. The Flash did it." Oliver says.

-

ARGUS

Caitlin goes searching and finds Felicity in a room by herself.

"Did you lose the coin flip on who has to come talk to me?" Felicity asks.

"We didn't flip coins. We drew straws." Caitlin quips and Felicity laughs. "Sorry. You know who I'm dating, he's getting me to quip a lot more than I should. But I wanted to talk to you because I think I've got a little more experience with alternate realities than you do."

"What words of wisdom do you have for me?" Felicity asks.

"We've been dealing with a lot of alternative realities a lot more than most, meaning we were able to see things you didn't. As for Oliver keeping you in the dark, when he, Barry and Peter tried to tell us what was going on...we knocked them unconscious and locked them in the pipeline."

"Seriously?" Felicity asks.

"Wasn't our best moment. But Peter was able to avoid capture and told me things...things I knew only Peter would know. I'm sure that's the reason that Oliver didn't want to take any chances with you." Caitlin tells her.

"I appreciate you saying that...but it's just another excuse in a long list of excuses for Oliver's behavior."

"Oliver does love you, Felicity."

"What's love without respect or trust?"

"I don't know, but as long as there is love, you can't give up on it. That's the one thing I do know after everything I've been through, everything I've suffered."

"Thank you. Well, one good thing about what's going on is that I have something to distract me." Felicity says and shows Caitlin the device to stabilize a breach.

"A quantum flux anchor."

"I'm pretty sure if we build it, whoever's trying to break through will come." Felicity says.

They made it as fast as they could and made it up to the roof.

"Okay, what the hell is this?" Diggle asks.

"No offense, but you'd need like 5 Ph.D.s for the dumbed down version." Felicity says.

"How about the very dumbed down version?" Diggle asks.

"It's a Quantum flux anchor that utilizes wave theory to fire nano-particulates across an Einstein-Rosen bridge to create a secure claxln field." Fox tells him.

"How about the very, very dumbed down version?" Diggle asks again.

"It's a magnet that will draw whoever's trying to breach through to us." Caitlin tells him.

"You could have just said that." Diggle says as they fire it up and a breach forms in front of them.

"Ca-you...hear me?" The figure asks and they look to see an alternative Flash. "You've got...to...get...book."

"Jay?" Caitlin asks, recognizing him.

"Only...the...book...make...right. If...you...get...the...book...you can fix this!" He tries telling them as the breach closes on them.

"Am I the only one who thought that was very cool?" Curtis asks.

-

Gotham

The gang found their man, John Deegan...and he works at Arkham Asylum.

"And were sure he works here?" Peter asks.

"Well, it's probably too late for him to still be at work, but if we find his office, maybe we can find his home address or something." Kara says.

"Do you think you have enough of a grip on the powers for a super speed reconnaissance?" Barry asks Oliver.

"I don't think we should risk it if I don't." Oliver answers.

"Okay, we break in, do some old fashioned snooping." Kara tells them.

"That would be where I come in." Peter says and looks to Barry who is technically him.

Before Barry could protest, a breach opens as Cisco, Caitlin and Diggle appear.

"We got new intel." Diggle tells them.

"Those lightning strikes, they were a flash from another dimension trying to breach to us." Caitlin says.

"We think it was jay Garrick. Or a jay Garrick." Cisco adds. "He said to fix the situation, we need to _get the book_."

"John Deegan was reading a book in the drawing Oliver drew." Kara remembers.

"Okay. So we find the book in there or we find Deegan, and make him tell us where it is." Oliver tells them the plan.

"Wait, a Flash from a parallel universe just lightnings in and tells us to jump, we just ask how high?" Barry asks.

"Got any better ideas?" Peter asks and faces the facility. "Our biggest problem is getting inside. How do you break into a mental asylum?"

"I have some ideas." Kara says.

-

Kara brings in Caitlin through the front as a new patient transfer.

Oliver and Diggle go in as if under an operation and pass a few prisoner doors until they find John Deegan's office.

"John Deegan." Oliver calls him out.

Deegan faces the men and is delighted. "Oliver Queen! It's a genuine pleasure to meet you, sir."

"He knows who you really are." Diggle says.

"Gentlemen, I was thinking. Why didn't I become the Flash?" Deegan asks. "Why didn't I become Spider-Man? And it seems changing reality itself, it's got a bit of a learning curve, so, yeah. This actually expains a lot."

"You did this? You can undo it." Oliver says.

"That is true, but I think the question is, why would I want to?" Deegan asks and reaches for a button and while they were distracted, he ran.

Outside the office, all of the cells start opening.

Everyone quickly get their suits on and started taking everyone down.

Barry uses his Spider-Man abilities and runs down a hallway, running off the walls and ceilings while taking down a whole group at once like they were nothing.

Caitlin finds someone in the evidence room searching for something.

"Are you okay?" Caitlin asks her.

"My cryostasis shut off when the locks did. I...I need to be cold." The woman says while messing with liquid nitrogen. "196 below zero. 196, he said."

"Okay, maybe you should just take a step back." Caitlin says when she blows the nitrogen and shoots Caitlin. "You cold bitch." She says when Crystal takes control.

-

Peter was outside using his arrows to stop the inmates from getting away as Oliver speeds around and puts them back in the cells while Kara searches for the book.

Peter continues to stop the inmates when a grapple hook comes in and takes down several of them.

Someone comes up behind Peter and smacks him while he was distracted and Cisco sees an inmate wearing a golden mask.

"Who the hell you suppose to be?" Cisco asks when he gets hit by a truck.

They try getting away when someone lands on top of the car and they run for it, but they're stoped.

A batterang is thrown around and the two look to see...the new dark knight.

"Who's this badass?" Cisco asks.

Peter gets back up to his feet and smiles at the old friend. "Batwoman."

"Kate Kane told you to get out of Gotham. You should have listened." Kate says.

-

Crystal shoots ice at the Girl when she dodges it and grabs a cold gun used by Mr. Freeze and gets ready to fire.

"Guys, I could use a little backup." Crystal tells them.

The heroes are on their way to her while Kara is on Deegan.

Deegan easily lead her straight to the book and she took it from him, but he got away in the process.

-

Crystal took a hit from the cold gun and was thrown across the room.

"Cait!" Peter yells as he was the first to arrive.

Barry comes in next and sees the girl with the cold gun.

Changing the webbing setting, Barry shot her with a taser web, taking her down.

"Cait, you okay?" Peter asks as Caitlin wakes up.

"Yeah. I'm fine, Oliver...I'm mean, Peter." Caitlin promises and stands back up where she sees Kate. "Who the hell are you?"

"Cait, Batwoman. Batwoman, Cait." Peter introduces them.

"You have any other super friends we don't know about?" Caitlin wonders.

"Does a giant colossal metal man and a half vampire count?" Peter asks thinking of his friend's Colossus and Blade.

-

"So how does a book make people change bodies?" Caitlin wonders.

"He said he used it to rewrite reality." Oliver tells her.

"Same question, how does a book change reality?" Cisco asks.

"We'll find out when we get back to ARGUS." Peter says.

"Good. Then you'll be leaving Gotham." Kate says to them. "You guys caused enough problems for one night."

"Hey, would hitching a ride in the Batmobile be out of the question?" Barry asks.

"Get. Out." Kate says and they leave it at that and mutter how she's basically Batman.

Peter takes a minute and walks up to her.

"So you're the Green Arrow now?" Kate asks him, confused to why he's dressed up as him.

"Long story. I'll explain when this is all over." Peter replies. "Thanks for your help."

"Don't mention it. Guess we can call it even between us." Kate guesses.

"Bruce would be proud of you, you know. Just try to ease up on the dark and gloomy a bit, Bruce knew when to be serious and when to be...nice for lack of better words. Besides, we already have Queen for that...or me for that." Peter guesses and Kate lightly chuckles at that.

"Yeah, you're not Oliver Queen." Kate says and holds her hand out and Peter shakes it before waiting for a hug. "You know I don't do hugs."

"Come on." Peter says and pulls her into a quick hug. "See ya around. Preferably in my city. Your city's too dark for me."

"Just fix reality, you look stupid in green. And your friends are still waiting." Kate tells him and Peter leaves with them.

-

They returned to ARGUS and started working on opening the book when a breach opens and the flash from earlier appears.

"Jay?" Peter asks.

"No." The new Flash answers. "My name is Barry Allen. I come from Earth-90. I've traveled from there to warn you."

"Warn us about what?" Kara asks.

"His name is Mar Novu, but he goes by the Monitor. He's been unleashing the Book of Destiny across the multiverse to test different realities." Flash-90 explains.

"Test them for what?" Barry asks.

"A crisis that he believes is coming. Novu thinks the Elseworlds created by the Book of Destiny approximates the collision of realities that were facing." Flash-90 says when Cisco shows them the Monitor is outside.

-

"Mar Novu, you're gonna stand down!" Peter says as the five of the heroes all walk up to him outside.

"Then you're gonna use that book to set reality right." Oliver adds.

"Well, I certainly wouldn't have placed it in Deegan's hands if that were my intent." Monitor tells them.

"Enough!" Flash-90 yells. "You will not to this earth what you did to mine."

"I admire your persistence, Barry." Monitor tells him, as Barry goes charging at him and the Monitor makes him disappear.

The team looks shocked for a moment and don't know what to do if he could make the fastest man alive vanish.

"He said you were testing us." Peter said.

"Indeed, and thus far, Madame Web's promise of me being impressed with this world has gone unanswered." Monitor says and they're all confused.

Who's Madame Web?

"A crisis is imminent. Someone is coming. Someone far, far more powerful than myself. I mean to prepare." Monitor tells them.

"By giving a nut bar an all powerful reality rewriting book?" Barry asks.

"I'm testing universes to find realities, I hope, are strong enough to stand against him. And thus far only one universe has shown promise. The universe that stood together and defeated a Mad Titan." Monitor tells them, seriously confusing them all.

A Mad Titan?

Does anything this guy say make any sense?

"You're causing chaos! And you're blaming everyone else!" Oliver tells him.

"In the hope of finding the campions that would save the multiverse in time." Monitor defends. "You are the first of those I've placed under fire to have managed to retrieve the Book of Destiny...for all the good it did you."

"_Guys, the Book is gone. It just vanished_." Caitlin says to Peter.

"Enough of this. Kara." Oliver asks.

"Yeah. I'd love to." Kara says and speeds to punch the man but ends up back where she started.

"You have shown potential, Peter Parker. Madame Web has hope in you, let us see if it's anything more." Monitor says.

"Peter, what's he talking about?" Barry asks.

"I don't know." Peter says when the Monitor vanishes.

-

The world is consumed in a bright light and the three heroes look around and realize the Monitor gave Deegan the book back.

"What the hell are we wearing?" Peter asks as they look like they just came from a '80s movie.

They look at a newspaper and sees the three of them are now criminals.

"He did it again, he rewrote reality." Barry says.

"How far do the changes go now?" Peter questions.

"Why did that guy talk like he knew you is a bigger question." Barry asks Peter.

"I don't know. I'm sure I'd remember someone looking like that. And I don't know any Madame Web either." Peter tells them when a police car starts approaching and they try using their powers, only to learn none of them have their powers.

They then decide to take off and run for it, not knowing what else to do.

While they were running, they run into...Superman?

A Superman wearing a dark all black version of his suit.

"There's no place you can run where I can't find you. It's over."


	101. Elseworlds lll

"What are you talking about?" Oliver asks Clark.

"Clark, it's us. Barry, Peter and Oliver." Barry says.

"Oh, I know who you are. Your confusion lies with me." Superman tells them.

"Deegan." Peter guesses. "The Monitor did give you the Book back."

"And then he showed me how to really use it." Deegan confirms.

"You can't just write yourself as a hero. It doesn't work that way." Barry tells him.

"Doesn't it, though? You were struck by lightning. He was bit by a spider. I was given the Book by a higher power." Deegan says. "All random acts of chance. But this, this is my destiny. So much more than being the Flash or Spider-Man was ever yours."

"People don't become heroes because of circumstances. They become them in spite of circumstances." Peter corrects him. The spider bite didn't make him a hero, honoring his uncle and everyone else he lost is what does that.

"You're just a cheap knockoff." Oliver adds.

"Oh, I'm anything but cheap." Deegan says and uses his heat vision and blows up around a crane. "Just wait till you see what other fun changes I've made. To your family, friends. There is no safe harbor for you. This is no longe your world. It's mine!"

He thunder slams and sends them flying backwards.

"Got any bright ideas?" Oliver asks them.

Peter looks up at the crane and gets an idea he's gonna regret later.

"Hand me that gun." Peter tells him and Oliver hands it to him and they stand up to face Deegan.

"Idiot, I'm bulletproof." Deegan reminds him.

"Oh, I know." Peter says with no emotion. He turns the gun to the crane and sends it tumbling. "You wanna be a hero?! Then you have to make a choice."

"Save the children, or stop us." Barry tells him.

"Your choice..._Superman_." Oliver says and Deegan flies off to stop it and they take off running.

-

"Being bad makes me feel bad, man." Barry says as they all run.

"How do you think I feel?" Peter asks. "Besides, the crane would've just landed in that empty parking lot. Physics, momentum, mass. Everything a psycho doctor fake-hero doesn't account for."

They take a minute to breath and come up with a plan.

"We need to find out how extensive this reality change is, and we need to get off the streets." Oliver says.

"Wait. Other people from different realities aren't affected the same. Maybe if we find Harry, he can help us. We can have him make a device to breach us to Earth-38, get the real Superman and my doppelgänger." Peter tells them his plan.

"How do we find Harry?" Barry asks.

"That's another problem." Peter says as they run off.

Kara is as of this moment trapped inside the pipeline at Star labs now Superman's headquarters and the heroes head to where they supposedly live.

"Okay, we find Harry, get him to build a breach device, get to Earth-38, and get the super friends." Barry agrees and they head to their apartment and head inside.

-

The three of them suddenly appear in space on what looks like some _Super Smash Bros._ _platform_.

"Gentlemen." They year the Monitor and turn to face him. "It's time we talked about your destiny. I must confess, my interest has been piqued. You possess neither power nor abilities, and yet still managed to outwit an opponent with the powers of a super man."

"It's just one word. Superman." Peter tells him.

"What is this?" Oliver asks him. "If you're testing us, then let us get back to it."

"Oliver Queen, a man who channels his hubris and anger and calls it strength. Are you truly that eager to die?" Monitor asks him and it's like he's reading him. "Not eager. Willing. There might be how for this universe yet."

"If that's supposed to be a pep talk. I've had better." Barry tells him.

"Self sacrifice alone will not see you through this trial. Survival will only be found by knowing your true self, or this world will be doomed like all the others." Monitor says and suddenly they find themselves back in the hallway.

"I'm starting to not like this guy." Peter states.

"Okay, where would we find Harry?" Barry wonders.

"Where's the nearest coffee place?" Peter asks.

Harry was at Jitters when Peter came in with a baseball cap and glasses.

"Deegan rewrote reality again?" Harry guessed.

"How do you do that?" Peter asks him.

"Let's just be glad that I did." Harry says and shows he already built the breach device. "Worked on this when I woke up in this new reality. Get Allen and Queen. Time to fix reality."

-

Earth-38

Peter, Morg'Ann, Clark and Lois were at the Fortress of Solitude when a breach opened and the team exit.

"Oh, thank goodness." Barry says seeing the others.

"You're welcome." Harry says while taking a drink from his coffee.

"Still Barry?" Clark asks.

"No. We got that stored." Oliver tells him.

"Oh, so it's fixed. That's great." Clark says and Peter notices their faces.

"Where's Skirt?" Peter-38 asks.

"Everything's back to normal, but we have a new problem." Peter-1 tells them.

"Also, who's she?" Barry asks, looking to Morg'Ann.

"Oh, I'm Morg'Ann. Peter's sister." Morg'Ann introduces herself to them.

"You have a sister?" Oliver asks Peter-38.

"It was a...recent discovery." Peter-38 explains. "A lot of things have changed."

They filled the others in on everything that's happened and about the evil Superman.

"You wearing all black. I'd love to see that." Peter-38 comments while chuckling.

"He changed all of Central City, possibly the whole world. They all think he's you and we're bad." Barry says.

"Bottom line, Kara's nowhere to be found." Oliver adds.

"Not entirely true." Harry tells them. "I survived the rewrite this time, so Danvers must just be somewhere Deegan can keep an eye on her and keep her powers off."

"She's in Star labs." Peter-1 puts together.

"Or as its known as now, Superman's fortress." Harry tells him. "If I had to guess, that's where the book is also."

"Okay, so we get in there, we should be able to rewrite reality back to normal." Oliver says.

"How do we do that?" Barry asks.

"I've encountered books similar to this before." Clark tells them. "The author writes things into existence through sheer force of will. But changing the story comes at a cost."

Peter-38 looks to Morg'Ann. "What do ya say, sis? Wanna visit an alternative reality?"

"Like you have to ask twice." Morg'Ann says and picks up her shield. "When do we go?"

-

Earth-1

Kara was able to escape the pipeline by convincing Alex to help her and runs into Deegan, Killer Frost and Diggle by the elevator.

Deegan was getting ready to kill them when a breach opens and a shield comes through, slams Frost and Diggle before the others arrive through and Morg'Ann catches the shield.

"What's up, doc?" Peter-38 greets the evil Superman.

"Nice suit." Clark comments.

Peter-38, Clark, and Deegan take off into the sky and start fighting.

Morg'Ann uses her shield and slams Diggle and Killer Frost into the elevator and keeps them inside as the doors close.

"My alternative reality sister is awesome." Peter-1 comments and they all look to see Alex and Kara.

"See you brought your doppelgänger." Kara points to the air.

"Yeah, well, told him you were in danger and he started seeing red." Barry says.

"Where would Superman keep something valuable?" Kara asks Alex.

"Anything important to him, he keeps in the fortress of Solitude." Alex tells them and leads the way.

"Come on, I just came from the fortress." Barry complains as he runs with them.

-

Outside, Deegan shoots a laser at Peter-38 who activated his holo-shield and Clark punches him while he was distracted.

"Just like old times, huh?" Clark asks Peter-38.

"Just like old times." Peter-38 agrees when Deegan throws a Helicopter and Clark races to save it as Peter-38 grabs Deegan and starts wrapping him up in several layers of webbing.

"You can't stop me!" Deegan promises.

"Watch me." Peter-38 dares and when he was webbed enough, he webbed Deegan in the back and flies him into the ground and uses his mechanical arms to drag him through the streets.

-

The team finds the time vault and Deegan left the book unlocked.

Kara tried to read the book and set things right, but failed because she's too weak to do it and needs to get it to Clark.

-

Deegan got free of the webbing and slams Peter-38 into the ground by grabbing and flinging him by his mechanical arms.

"Okay...that hurt." Peter-38 says as Clark comes up and punches Deegan away.

"Clark!" Kara calls and they see her come out with the Book. "We need you to open this. Fix things." She asks and they back away as Clark opens the book and begins to fix reality.

First thing that occurred was they all get their suits and abilities back and Star labs became Star labs again.

Barry sped out and they watched Clark fixing everything.

Deegan came flying in and Peter-38 sensed him before he could do anything and Deegan clapped, sending everyone flying and causing Clark to drop the Book.

While everyone was regaining their strength, Deegan stole it and flew off.

-

They threw Killer Frost and Diggle into the pipeline and closed it up.

The team all came back together when Deegan started rewriting the world, causing it to shake and Star labs returned to Superman's fortress.

"What's happening?" Kara asks.

"He's rewriting reality again." Peter guesses.

"Or destroying it." Peter-38 corrects.

"There might be a way to slow him down. We literally slow down time. That's got to be the fourth craziest thing today." Barry tells them.

"How do we do that?" Morg'Ann asks.

"If Supergirl and I travel around the globe in opposite directions at just over Mach 7, we should be able to create enough force to slow the earth rotation." Barry explains.

"And everything else." Kara adds.

"Then rip the book out of Deegan's hands, and everything goes back to normal," Oliver finishes.

"Sounds like a plan." Peter-38 agrees and they start heading out when Clark stops them.

"You both die." Clark interupts them and they all stop. "When I opened the book, I watched both of you die, doing exactly what you're talking about. If it's in the book..."

"It's destiny," Peter-38 finishes.

"We have to do something." Kara says and they leave.

Oliver gets an idea and starts leaving. "You guys, get the Book."

"What about them?" Peter asks.

"We need to hope destiny can be rewritten." Oliver says and leaves.

-

Deegan is still wreaking havoc with the Book when Peter, Peter-38, Clark and Morg'Ann come flying in.

"Stop this right now, Deegan!" Peter-38 tells him and raises his repulsers.

"You can't just wear that symbol on your chest and call yourself a hero." Clark adds. "Our powers amplify who we are."

"And the way you've been using your powers, tells us you don't have the mettle for this." Morg'Ann adds.

"No, no. You're wrong! I didn't think big enough. I won't make that mistake again." Deegan says as Amazo reappears and shoots Clark away as Peter and Morg'Ann use their shields to protect themselves. "You see? There is no defeating me! I am the master of this world!" He shouts.

A breach opens and Lois, Brainy, Spider-Ghost and J'onn appears.

"A bit much, don't ya think?" Gwenyth asks.

"An enormous robot with the powers of Superman and the Iron-Spider." Brainy says, commenting on Amazo who reveals his extra arms. "This is exciting. Thank you for including me." He tells Lois and he, Peter-1, and Spider-Ghost go to fight the robot.

"I'll protect the civilians. Finish this." J'onn tells them.

"Guess that leaves us." Peter-38 tells Clark and Lois who's wielding a giant hammer.

"It's over, Deegan!" Clark tells him.

"I decide when the story ends!" Deegan says.

"I liked you better in blue." Lois comments and slams the hammer, blinding Deegan.

Peter-38 takes the opportunity to shoot him back while he was down.

But it wasn't enough as Deegan holds the book out in Clark's direction and starts erasing him.

Peter-38 pushes him out of the light and it hits Lois, sending her flying.

That's when the world begins slowing down thanks to Barry and Kara.

Oliver comes in and Deegan tries using the book to stop him, but Oliver pulls out a glowing arrow and uses it on the Book, destroying it.

Peter-38 webbed Deegan, Clark catches Lois, Barry and Kara are shocked that they didn't die.

The punishment for rewriting reality takes its toll on Deegan as it messes up his appearance.

"Yikes." Peter-1 comments as Brainy drops the Amazo robot.

"Looks like they did it." Peter-38 says when the two return.

"Does the Book say anything about what I should do with this?" Brainy asks as he's holding Amazo's motherboard.

"Whoo. That was a workout." Gwenyth says.

-

Star labs

"Please tell me this isn't going to be a constant thing for us." Peter-38 pleads to everyone.

"I hope not." Peter-1 says.

"You look just like her." Cisco tells Gwenyth, shocked the woman is alive after being told she died.

"I get that a lot." Gwenyth promises.

"Well, it's been fun." Everyone says as they head back but Peter-38 and Peter-1 wanna catch up.

"You know someplace fun?" Peter-1 asks.

Peter-38 smiles, knowing exactly the place.

-

Earth-38

Peter brought Peter-1 to Al's bar and he finally sees why he loves this place.

"Just hear me out on this one." Peter-1 says as he finishes another drink. "We both have Spider-Man like copycats. Me with the younger kid, you with the zombie ex-fiancé. And we know there's a whole multiverse out there of spider people because of that younger version of us. Here's my thought; we gather all of the Spider-Men and Women of the multiverse. Create a...Spiderverse if you will. And we start fighting crimes all across the multiverse together like a team. We can call ourselves...the Web Warriors."

Peter-38 chuckles and pats his back. "Start finding some recruits when this wears off." He says sarcastically.

Later, Peter is dragging Peter-1 out of the bar as he's now ready to pass out in any second.

"Come on. Let's get you home." Peter tells him.

"I can taste sound." Peter-1 says.

"Yeah, Yeah." Peter-38 replies, remembering he said something similar when he first drank and opens a breach that leads right back to his place and lets him go through.

-

Earth-1

When Peter landed back at his place, he crashed on his couch and knocked out cold.

-

Nowhere

Robbie Reyes, the Ghost Rider of Earth-616, appears and sees the Monitor while holding the Darkhold.

"I believe this is yours." Robbie says and tosses the book as it just slides over and stops at the Monitor's feet.

"Robbie Reyes. The man who made a deal with the devil and uses his power to spill the blood of those who spilled the blood of the innocent." Monitor greets him before turning towards Robbie.

"Wanna explain what that was about? Sending a book of unknown knowledges and origins to my world?" Robbie asks.

"The universe is a complex piece of machinery, and balance must be maintained. I am trying to prepare your universes warriors for the war that has yet to come." Monitor explains his actions.

"That doesn't answer my question. What are you doing?" Robbie asks.

"Whatever the universe requires in order to survive the crisis that is looming." Monitor says and starts to approach the man. "You can feel it, can't you? The cries of the universes who have died."

Robbie can in fact, especially here, hear the screams and cries of those who have died and knows there is more to come before the dying stops.

"What can I do to help?" Robbie offers when they look and see Madame Web approach him.

"we need you to..." Madame Web was saying when she starts to faint and Monitor catches her.

"Madame Web. What's happening?" Monitor asks.

"The Crisis...the timeline...it's...coming..it's changing..." Madame Web says as her mind is wrapping over the colliding realities.

"When is it coming?" Monitor asks.

It's already started.


	102. Call a friend

Cicada is back and has been going in a killing spree, Cisco's hands are healed and the dampening abilities have given an idea for a metahuman cure that Caitlin is trying to help with.

Sadly, Crystal is not a big fan of that as evidenced by Caitlin's arguing with herself when Peter found her.

"Crystal, seriously? I can't take it anymore!" Caitlin yells.

"Cait, everything...oh." Peter says as he sees she's wearing the device to talk to Crystal. "I may be an only child, but I recognize a sibling spat when I see one. What's going on?"

"Well, I'm trying to help Cisco with his metahuman cure but every time I start working on it, Crystal takes over and messes with my equations." Caitlin says and points to a part of the equation. "Like that. She changed all my heterozygotes into asterisks."

Peter takes a close look at the drawing. "Not to demolish Crystal, but I first thought they were just snowflakes. So she's not on board with the cure, I'm guessing."

"No, and I don't exactly know why." Caitlin says and moves to the computers.

"Have you tried asking her?" Peter wonders, questioning why Crystal doesn't want the cure to be made.

"Yes, but every time we start talking about it, she starts singing Barney's _I love you_ song." Caitlin tells him.

"What about Cisco? He having any luck on his end?" Peter asks.

"Not yet. He went to the Tannhauser off-site some could concentrate. He says it's quieter there." Caitlin says.

"Yeah. Quiet and cold. Not my best strong places." Peter comments even though technically he's dating someone who's kinda quiet and cold.

"So I think if I can isolate the genetic marker that bonds human DNA to Dark matter I can reverse engineer the process and unravel it to create a cure. Except I need meta-DNA that hasn't fully bonded with dark matter yet." Caitlin tells him.

"Because that would be the only time when you would be able to identify the marker in the genome." Peter understands. "So a recently created metahuman."

"In the last eight months or so, ideally. But everyone I can think of has been killed by Cicada." Caitlin says.

"So where would we find someone?" Peter wonders.

-

Harry is with Gideon in the time vault and is still trying to figure out how to translate what Nora's journal is saying, but all he's got is the _timeline is malleable_ line. He gives up for now and heads to the cortex to see how they are at finding Cicada.

"Three metas were killed by Cicada last night." Barry tells them.

"So Cicada's killed almost as many people in the last 12 hours as he has in the last eight months?" Caitlin asks.

"And it doesn't look like he plans on slowing down." Barry adds. "We need to stop him before he hurts anyone else."

"Harry, you have an idea?" Peter asks.

"Not right now." Harry says when the alerts go off. "Dark matter flare has been spotted. It's him."

"Suit up." Barry tells them all and they get to their suits.

-

Cicada is chasing a metahuman who he already drained and was getting ready to kill after cutting her.

"Incoming!" Peter shouts and cicada turns to see Peter coming in swinging and kicking Cicada at the wall.

Crystal came in and froze his hands over so he can't take their powers.

Nora sees the injured metahuman and looks to the others.

"We need Caitlin." Barry tells Crystal who immediately changes to help her.

Cicada starts breaking free of the ice and Peter starts to hold him back when he slams his dagger and sends them all flying.

Cicada walks up to Nora and grabs her.

"No!" Barry yells as cicada stabs her in the back with his dagger.

Crystal and Peter try to stop him, but he gets away.

-

Nora's healing abilities have been slown down because of the Dark Matter and it's affecting her powers.

Luckily, Harry found a connection to all the metahumans.

All the victims have been in prison and Barry pulls up a metahuman arrest log and shows all the people he's killed.

"He's killing in the order of this list." Ralph says.

"The list has addresses, employment information. This is everything a psychopath killer needs to find and kill anyone." Peter says. "But how could he get it?"

"There's only one place." Harry says and they look to Cecile. "CCPD."

Cecile and Barry go to CCPD to tell him about their discovery.

Peter was walking down the halls of Star labs when he heads something shatter and runs to the speed labs and sees Crystal destroying Caitlin's work.

"Okay, Crystal, I respect your right to protest the cure, but this is a bit extreme." Peter tells her gesturing to the broken board and ice around the room.

"Well, maybe Caitlin will get the hint now." Crystal responds.

"What hint?" Peter asks her. "You don't like the cure? We got that, but the reason is unclear." He says when Barry comes in.

"What...?"

"Crystal and Caitlin are having differences." Peter explains while rubbing his head and laying his head on his hand.

"I'll get Caitlin." Crystal says.

"No, actually. I need the two of you." Barry tells them and shows Crystal the list. "We need to get these metahumans somewhere safe before Cicada finds them."

"Oh, and you think they'll listen to me?" Crystal asks. "Well, I do know where to start."

"Okay, if we're going to do this, we're gonna need backup." Peter tells them and has an idea who to bring in. "Barry, I need you to pick up some friends of mine in New York."

-

Peter and Crystal went to find Norvock at Amunett's old hideout.

"Hello, Norvock." Crystal greets him.

"Frost, thank god its you." Norvock says, happy for once to see the heroes.

They explain their situation to him and he looks at the list.

"Some of these guys are bad news, you sure they're worth saving?" Norvock asks.

"Are you?" Peter asks back, getting a bit of a side from Crystal. "Cicada's not going to stop until every meta in this city is dead."

"Damn. You guys are a hot pair." Norvock tells them. "What do you need me to do?"

"We've arranged for everyone to get to witness protection. Federal agents will lead you out of the city, somewhere safe." Crystal explains.

"All right. I'm in, but only if I'm the first one on that transport." Norvock warms.

"Nice of you to look out for your fellow metas." Crystal snarks.

"Then let's hope Flash has our backup," Peter says.

Barry later returns and has their backup.

"Spider-Man. Been a while." Jessica Jones greets him.

"Missed you too, Jessica." Peter says. "Luke, Daredevil."

"Been a while." Matt says with a smile.

"Where's Danny?" Peter asks.

"He and Colline are in China. Looking for Kun Lung." Luke tells him.

"Kun What?" Crystal asks.

"I'll explain later." Peter promises.

They started bringing all the metas together and they're getting restless after a while, especially since they have a criminal past and are surrounded by crime stoppers.

"I'm tired of waiting." One says and walks up to them. "This Cicada, he wants to kill us? I say we kill him first."

"You can't." Barry tells her. "We're your only chance."

"So you keep saying,"

"Look, if you're too dumb to recognize the truth, then you can go, but you're on your own." Barry tells her.

"Enough!" Matt yells at them both. "We're working on getting you out of here as fast and safe as we can. But if you don't want our help, you're free to go. But we're not going to be able to help you."

"He's telling the truth," Norvock says. "I saw Cicada kill Carl Bork. His dagger took away our powers. I ran, Bork fought. That's why I'm here and he's not. So leave if you want, but I'm gonna listen to these guys and stay alive."

With that, everything calmed down and Crystal left to talk to Norvok.

Peter overheard their talk and sees this is probably the only time he'll be able to talk to Crystal without her trying to block him out.

He finds her and pulls off his mask, knowing nobody can see them now.

"Your friends are strange." Crystal comments on Jessica, Luke and Matt.

"Like I tell Frankie, strange is our normal." Peter says. "Norvok seems terrified. Never seen him like that. Even when he had to run from Deadpool. I know how it feels."

"You?" Crystal asks. "You have been afraid?"

"Yeah, constantly." Peter tells her. "You're telling me that you've never felt fear like that?"

"No, why?" Crystal asks.

"Really? Then why are you so worried about Caitlin and the cure?" Peter asks.

While they're talking, Barry returns with the last metahuman.

"Is that everyone?" Ralph asks.

"Everyone except Shawna Baez." Barry says. "Meta that calls herself Peek-A-Boo? Anyone know where to find her?"

"Try the Sundollar on Eighth." A metahuman says and Barry speeds off to find her.

Barry had a run in with Cicada while he was there and had to escape through a breach.

-

At Star labs, Harry tries to ask Nora things about the future, how she knows everything and he ended up being basically threatened by Iris to not continue investigating her.

But he's not going to stop.

Iris might be her mother, but if there's someone hiding something, Harry wants to know what and why she's hiding it. And if it's bad enough for Peter's senses, it's big.

-

Back at the hideout, Peter goes back to Crystal to continue their talk.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" Peter asks Crystal.

"And?" Crystal asks.

"That's all. I thought I need to remind you that I'm always here to talk if you need to. I understand you're afraid of the cure, weather you care to admit it or not. But some people out there might just want it." Peter tells her.

"I see that, I don't understand why." Crystal says.

"It can save their lives." Peter replies.

"It's not that simple. Because, just like Norvok didn't ask for the snake, Caity didn't ask for me." Crystal tells him. "So if one day she wakes up scared of being a metahuman and decides to take the cure, her powers don't just disappear...I do too. That's what I'm afraid of. 'Cause if I'm gone, and the future comes true and you end up dying, who's going to protect her?"

Matt comes up and knocks on the door using his stick. "Sorry for interrupting, but we're moving out." He tells them and leaves.

"I get why you're scared of that." Peter tells Crystal. "But there's something you don't know. We're not metahumans. We're mutants. Meaning that cure won't work the same on us like it will with everyone else. And when you disappeared, all Cait talked about was how to get you back. So as much as you want to protect her, she wants to protect you just as much. Same goes for me." He says before leaving.

-

They move everyone and hear their transport is here.

"Looks like you had nothing to worry about." Jessica says, seeing no sign of Cicada.

Matt then hears something flying in the air. "You jinxed us, Jessica."

They see Cicada's dagger fly through the air and hits the helicopter and then drains everyone but the few of their powers.

"That's Cicada?" Jessica asks, unimpressed.

"That chopper's not gonna be able to land. Take them out the back and get them on it." Matt tells Barry and Ralph as they leave.

"Let's end this." Jessica says and goes to take a swing at Cicada which he takes and as he tumbles backwards, Luke punches him.

Peter webs his back and sends him flying into some boxes.

"Giving up yet?" Peter asks.

Cicada gets up and throws his dagger at Luke.

Matt tosses his stick that bounces off the ground and smacks the dagger, stopping it from impaling anyone.

Crystal comes over and comes face to face with Cicada.

"We haven't been properly introduced. They used to call me Killer Frost. Let me show you why." Crystal says and creates ice daggers and begins to fight Cicada off as the others stand back as she actually cuts him and gets some blood.

While he's distracted with her, Jessica grabs the heaviest thing she could find and throws it at Cicada who falls in response.

"You can't fight us all off." Luke tells Cicada, waiting for him to surrender.

Cicada slams the ground, sending everyone flying.

As everyone was getting back up, Cicada throws the dagger at Crystal.

"_Crystal, duck!_" Caitlin tells Crystal and she does jus in time for the dagger to fly past.

On its way back, Crystal freezes it as everyone gets back up.

"Give him hell, guys!" Crystal tells them

Cicada goes to punch Jessica, but she grabbed his hand and flips him into Luke who punches him away.

Peter webs him and pulls him back where Matt is waiting and punches him with his sticks.

"It's over. This. Ends. Now!" Peter says as Cicada gets up, Peter plunges himself forward using a web, punches Cicada, shoots another web behind Cicada, pulls himself and punches Cicada again before doing a flip and sends Cicada flying.

Cicada holds his hand out harder and Crystal drops from exhaustion and before they could finish the job, Cicada escaped.

-

They return to Star labs and Nora has now completely healed.

"Alright, the Feds have processed the metas and they'll be safe." Barry tells them.

"We haven't seen a peak of Cicada's signature anywhere, so he's not using it." Harry informs them.

Crystal scoffs at that. "After the beating Spidey and his amazing friends gave him, ain't no way he's using that dagger anytime soon." She snarks.

Everyone looks to her with that knowledge.

"What?" Crystal asks seeing their looks. "He got what he deserved for messing with my man."

"And I think we all appreciate your help out there, ms. Crystal." Matt tells her. "And I have a feeling that the Spider-Man and Crystal Frost combination is going to be enough to keep this city safe."

"And if you need help, you can always call us again." Luke says.

"Meh, hesitate first." Jessica tells them.

"I like her." Crystal says.

"I thought you two would get along." Peter replies.

"Also, how did Cicada even know where we were going to be?" Jessica asks.

"Only the police knew about it." Harry says when Barry gets a message from Cecile saying she found Cicada's inside man already and he's been put into custody.

"Thanks for your guys' help. Barry can speed you guys back to New York whenever you're ready." Peter tells his friends.

"Happy to help, man." Luke says and they shake hands.

"Well, with that said and done. I need to fix a mistake." Crystal says and turns to Peter and pulls him into a kiss. "That's for your help and talk earlier. By the way...there's a surprise for you if you drop the kid off with your aunt." She says and then strolls out of the cortex.

"Did she just...?" Luke tries figuring out what she just implied.

"Oh, she did." Matt confirms.

Peter spins and faces the others. "Gentlemen, I bid you adu." He says before leaving the labs.

"What just happened?" Ralph asks, confused.

"I think the S.S. Spider-Man is about to hit a iceberg." Cisco jokes.

-

Crystal fixed everything she ruined on Caitlin and kept Cicada's blood on ice so she can help make the cure.

Harry finally found something wrong with the journal and sees someone else has been someone else writing inside her journal, meaning there is someone else behind this.

And now he just needs to figure out who.


	103. Oh god, he's back

"So you really think this might be it?" Peter asks Caitlin as she thinks she finished the cure.

"Cisco sent me this sample to corroborate his findings, and it all checks out. I'm sending it back to him for final processing, but I think we might've found a way to suppress the meta genome." Caitlin replies.

"Then we could use it on Cicada, de-power him, stop him for good." Barry says.

"So what's the plan? Put this thing in a tranq gun and go all _American Sniper_ on him?" Ralph asks.

"It's not that simple." Caitlin says and leads them to the computers. "So Cisco's breakthrough came from analyzing identical twins who were hit by the particle accelerator Dark matter, cases where one developed powers and the other didn't. The key difference in both cases..."

"The pituitary gland?" Barry asks.

"In some cases, the gland metabolizes Dark matter, thus manifesting in meta powers." Caitlin continues.

"So to turn metas back into humans is to neutralize the Dark matter in the pituitary gland." Peter finishes.

"There's one problem. The cure isn't instant. We would have to immobilize Cicada for long enough for the cure to take effect." Caitlin tells them.

"How long is that?" Barry questions.

"A minute at best." Caitlin answers.

"Yeah, getting him down to stand down isn't gonna be easy." Peter warns.

"Okay, but we're so close. There's got to be something we can do, even outside the box." Barry tells them.

"I do have one idea." Caitlin says and goes back on the computers. "Van Horn Industries creates a peaceful anti-riot device called a Neuro Stasis Field Generator. A bio-EMP that can immobilize any living organism within a confined radius. The devices were stolen however."

"I have an idea where to find them." Ralph says. "If it's stolen tech, I know where to find it."

Miles came into the labs with news. "Guys, someone's outside."

They pull up the security footage only to see it's...him.

Peter smacks his face against the computer seeing him.

"Deadpool?" Caitlin asks.

"You guys know this guy?" Barry questions.

"Yeah, we know him." Peter muffles from the desk.

Frankie opens the door and finally meets the Merc with a Mouth.

"Elle, from the _Kissing Booth_." Wade says, seeing her.

"What?" Frankie asks.

"Forget it. You can't break the forth wall." Wade tells her. "Go get your spider-daddy."

"You guys going for a bite? Early bird special?" Frankie mocks.

"Like there's something wrong with eating before sundown or saving money. No, your papa and mama helped me with something last year, and now the bad guy's got my girl, and now I need their help with finishing the job. Because the writer wanted to skip over this episode, and wanted to write me in again." Wade tells her.

"Wade, that you?" Peter calls from down the halls.

"Yeah, it's me, Deadpool, and I got an offer you can't refuse!" Wade yells inside Star labs. "Imma wait out here, okay? It's a big facility, kinda strange how easily you guys communicate with each other." He tells Frankie while walking away.

-

Ralph and Barry go to find the device, Caitlin, Peter, Frankie and Miles decide to help Wade with his situation and take down Francis to save his fiancé Vanessa.

"And that is why, in my opinion the movie _Cocoon_ is pure pornography." Wade tells the driver of the taxi, Dopender, while getting his guns ready.

"Who brought this super family?" Dopender asks referring to the packed cab he's driving.

"Super, and deadly. My spider buddy and knockoff Incredibles family back there has agreed to do me this solid. In exchange, I would consider joining his boy band." Wade explains to Dopender.

"It's not a boy band." Peter informs him.

"Sure it's not." Wade replies. "So, any luck winning Gita back?" He asks Dopender.

"I tried to hold on tight, mr. Pool...but Bandhu is more craftier and handsome than me." Dopender tells him.

"Well, I think you're pretty darn cute." Wade tells him.

They then hit a pothole and hear someone scream in pain.

"Dopender? What was that?" Wade asks him.

"Uh...that was Bandhu...in the trunk." Dopender tells him.

"Ban who?" Crystal asks.

"My romantic rival Bandhu." Dopender repeats to her. "He's tied up in the trunk. I'm doing as you said, DP. I plan to gut him like a tandoori fishl and drop his carcass on Gita's doorstep."

Wade turns round to face the entire angry group of faces at him. "I did not tell him to do that! Absolutely not! It got lost in translation. Dopender, this is no way to win Gita's heart back!" He tells him. "I'm so proud of you." He whispers.

"Drop Bandhu off, safe and gentle like!" Wade tells him. "Kill him." He whispers. "And then, win Gita back, the old fashioned way; with your boyish charm. Kidnap her."

"He's super dead." Frankie says as they come to a stop.

"I presume a crisp high five?" Dopender asks Wade.

"Doe you? Ten." Wade says and gives him a high ten. "Okay, guys, lets get out there and make a difference." He tells the team. "You know what to do." He whispers to Dopender.

"Knock them dead, Pool Boy." Dopender says as they get out and he drives off.

"Time to make the chimi-fuckin'-changas." Wade says as they start heading to the junk yard.

The five start walking when Crystal looks towards Deadpool and notices something.

"Hey, where's your duffel bag?" Crystal asks him.

Wade looks back where the cab was and realized he left it inside the car. He tries to call him back, but in the process Dopender crashed his cab.

"Goddammit! I'm gonna do this the old fashioned way...two swords, and maximum effort." Wade says and they keep walking when dozens of men come out with their guns raised to them.

"Wade Wilson!" They hear Francis yell from above and look he, a girl named Angel and Vanessa. "What's my name?"

"Ooh, I'mma fuckin' spell it out for ya." Wade promises him.

"Go get some." Francis tells Angel.

"Superhero landing." Wade says as he starts tapping Crystal's shoulder. "She's gonna do a superhero landing. Wait for it!"

Angel drops from high up and lands with her knees bent and a fist in the ground.

"Whoo! Superhero landing!" Wade cheers and claps. "You know, that's really hard on your knees. Totally impractical, They all do it." He tells the group. "You're a lovely lady, but I'm saving myself for Francis. That's why I brought him." He gestures to Peter.

Peter takes a few steps forward. "Listen, before we start, maybe we can-" he tried negotiating when he gets punched and sent flying.

"I mean...that's why I brought her?" Wade says and looks to Crystal who quickly sends a ice blast that sends Angel flying backwards into a cargo container.

"All right then...fire." Angel tells the men and they open fire on them.

Crystal ducks for cover while Frankie moves a giant piece of metal and shields her and Miles.

"I'll take the girl, Miles and Frankie, thin the heard." Crystal tells them and separates with Peter to take Angel down.

"Look away, Children." Wade warns the two. "Look away!" They do so and Wade rips his underwear through the suit and uses it as a flag. "Wait! Wait!"

"Cease fire!" Their leader says and Wade stands up.

"Fellas! Hey! You only work for that shit-spackled muppet fart. So, I'm gonna give you a chance for y'all to lay down your firearms in exchange for preferential, bordering on gentle possibly even lover-like treatment." Wade offers to them and they open fire again. "Fine. Commando."

He leaps from the barricade and pulls out his swords and starts slicing their limbs and heads.

Crystal and Peter are fighting off Angel as Peter goes in to punch her and she kicks his leg, slams him into the ground as Crystal freezes the ground, causing her to slip and Peter does a round kick to send her flying.

Wade stabs another man and runs around, slicing and dicing more of them.

Frankie sees a group sneaking behind a truck and uses her powers to crush them with it.

Wade gets ready to kill another man when he suddenly stops. "Bob?"

The man in question removes his mask. "Wade?"

"Oh, my god, I haven't seen you since.."

"Jacksonville." Bob remembers.

"At TGI Friday's." They both say as Wade places his swords away.

"Well, what the hell!" Wade says and helps him up. "God, come here you." He headbutts Bob, knocking him out. "How are the kids? Good? And Gail? She's still fixing that tuna casserole? So good! But bad for the waistline, if you know what I'm talking about." He says as he drags Bob off.

Wade calls Francis and he looks down to see that Wade used the bodies of the dead men to spell _Francis._

"Does he write you notes, too?" Francis asks Vanessa. "He's such a romantic."

"Don't worry, baby, I'm coming." Wade tells Vanessa and everyone starts shooting him again.

Wade takes cover and tries to find a way up there.

"Hey!" Frankie calls him out and he spots her and Miles underneath the wreckage. "Climb on!" She says, referring to a large piece of metal they're hiding under.

Wade races over and lands on top and Frankie forces him up and he screams.

Wade gets up and looks around to see the metal knocked all the henchmen leaving Francis who has Vanessa inside the same machine that turned him into this.

"Motherfucker should've worn his brown pants." Wade says as he approaches them. "You were right, beautiful. Red really is my color."

"Wade?" Vanessa asks.

"Don't worry, baby, I'm gonna get you out of that shit-box." Wade promises her.

"What better way to crawl back inside that head of yours?" Francis tells him.

"Oh, you never left." Wade replies.

"But you did, asshole!" Vanessa tells him.

"Deep breath, darling." Francis says as he activates the device and starts sucking the air out.

"I hoped they blocked pain to your every last nerve. 'Cause Imma go looking!" Wade tells Francis.

"I hear you brow back body parts now, Wade. When I'm finished, parts will have to grow back you." Francis says as he picks up two axes.

"Good one." Wade says and turns to the reader. "Yeah, that was a good one. Let's dance. And by dance, I mean let's try to kill each other."

The two then begin to fight as Wade tosses one of his swords at the container and allows air to come back in for Vanessa.

The two of them continue their fight across the roof. Francis throws an axe, Wade caught it, there it back and did a kick while he wasn't looking.

Wade lost his second sword when Francis broke it and Wade gets his second axe out of his hands.

"Fine. Fists." Francis says.

"Sounds like your last Saturday night." Wade quips and then starts giving him an beat down when Francis pulled out a small knife and stabbed him in the head and started beating him.

Behind him, Vanessa got free and used the second sword to stab Francis, taking him down.

On the ground, Crystal and Peter are still fighting Angel when Miles and Frankie get an idea and charges up a pieces of metal and Frankie uses it to throw at Angel, sending her flying into the giant propellor causing it to explode, sending everything flying.

Back up top, Francis is not down yet as he gets back up and the two still continue their fight when a container comes and sends Francis down.

Wade then sees he's gone and pays attention to Vanessa and gets an idea to use the canister device to keep her safe during the fall.

"I got a plan. You're not gonna like it." Wade tells her and helps her get inside of it when they get caught on a cable. Wade uses his maximum strength to pull her down.

Ground level, the four heroes run to escape the toppling base as it crashes on its side.

-

A few hours later, they found Vanessa inside the canister as it held up and they help her get out.

"Yoohoo!" They hear Wade and look to see him on top of the wreckage. "Aw man, that was so..."

Francis tackles him and the two fall to ground level.

Francis and Wade then begin fight as Wade just dislocated his arms so he can't fight anymore.

"There are no words!" Wade yells, exhausted out of his mind. "Me and you are headed to fix this butterface."

"What?" Francis asks, confused. "You stupid idiot. Did you really think there was a cure...for that?" He asks Wade.

"No. No!" Wade yells, understanding Francis lied this entire time. "So you're saying that after all this...you can't fix me?"

"It sounds even stupider when you say it." Francis tells him.

"What, like the kind of stupid who admits he can't do the one thing I'm keeping him alive for?" Wade asks and pulls out his last gun. "Any last words?"

"What's my name?"

"Who fucking cares?" Wade asks and goes to kill him.

"Wade!" Peter calls out. "Four or five moments."

"I'm sorry?" Wade asks.

"Four or five moments, that's all it takes." Peter continues.

"To...?"

"Be a hero." Peter explains and approaches him and Francis. "Everyone thinks it's a full time, around the clock job. Brunch your teeth a hero, wake up a hero, go to work a hero. But over our lifetimes, there are only four or five moments that truly matter. Moments where were offered a choice. To make a sacrifice, conquer a flaw, save a friend...even sparing an enemy. At times like this, everything falls away. The way-"

Wade shoots Francis and Peter turns around, disgusted.

"Why?!" Peter asks.

"You were droning on." Wade tells him. "Sure, I may be stuck looking like pepperoni flatbread. But at least fuckface won't heal from that. If wearing superhero tights means sparing psychopaths, then maybe I wasn't meant to wear them. Not everyone's as noble as you."

"Just promise..."

"Yeah, Yeah, I'll be on the lookout for the next four to three moments." Wade promises when the others catch up with them. "Now if you excuse me, I'm just a boy, about to stand in front of a girl and tell her...what the fuck am I gonna her?" He asks.

"Well, you'll figure it out." Peter says as Vanessa walks up and beats up Wade.

The two of them talk and explains as Wade shows her what happened to him.

"Well, after a brief adjustment period...and a bunch of drinks, it's a face...I'd be happy to sit on." Vanessa tells him.

"I'm not the same underneath the suit, either." Wade warns her. "Super penis."

"Come on, Wade. Watch the language. We got children present." Peter warns him.

Wade then turns to see they're all still there. "What are yo...what are you all doing? Get out of here. Go make yourselves useful. You, go be a big brother to somebody. And tell Blade he still owes me fifty bucks. And you, Female Frozone, you're pretty cool. Pun completely intentional. And you two, lady Magneto and Spider-Baby, nothing compares to you. Sinéad O'Connor, 1990."

"Thanks." Frankie guesses and starts leaving.

"You're pretty cool, man." Miles tells him.

Wade gasps at the compliment as they all start leaving. "That was not mean! I'm proud of you."

"We will make a hero of you yet, I promise you that." Peter says.

"You know, for a second there, it felt like we were five mini-lion robots coming together to form a super robot." Wade says.

"There's a stupid." Crystal comments as they leave the wreckage.

"And now for the moment I've all been waiting for." Wade says as he and Vanessa kiss and the others leave.

"How are we getting home?" Miles finally asks.

-

Back at the labs, Cisco perfected the cure and even met someone new named Kamilla.

With the cure now ready, all they need to do now is find Cicada.


	104. I'm a father

"Okay, people, think!" Nora tells everyone in the cortex. "We haven't seen Cicada since the fight at the warehouse, which means the only way to track him down is to figure out who his next metahuman target's gonna be."

Inside the cortex, everyone is exhausted after spending the entire night looking for Cicada or his next victim.

"Have we double checked every bank robbery, every lab break in?" Nora asks.

"Yes. Yes!" Harry tells her. "We have double, even tripled, all the criminals in custody and they are human beings!"

"What about the ones on the street?" Nora asks.

"No new metas have shown up since we sent everyone into witnesses protection." Peter tells her.

"Hey, where's Caitlin?" Cisco asks.

"She wasn't feeling well, so I had Crystal bring her home to rest. Frankie is looking after her and keeping her company." Peter explains.

"Are the satellite's tracking for Dark matter or meta-gene bursts or Element X?" Nora asks.

"Yes!" They all yell at her.

"They're searching for Cicada in every corner, in any direction." Harry states.

"Congratulations, you raised a menace." Cisco tells Barry and Iris as they join them.

"Look, we'll find Cicada and talk him into using the cure." Peter promises. "I mean, I talked a guy down from using a machine that could've destroyed the city. I talked down a heard of vampires...and then they were gunned down."

"Wait, vampires? As in plural?" Cisco asks.

"Yeah, I even met a vampire hunter." Peter tells him. "The point is...I got this."

"Which is why we need to try EVERYTHING to try and find him. Okay?" Nora tells them. "Maybe we should go on patrol?"

"What is this World War Two?" Harry asks.

Iris makes up a lie about something going on in Jitters and Nora raced to see what it is.

"You two are responsible for this." Harry states pointing to where Nora once stood.

"You made her." Cisco agrees.

"Your faults." Peter states and goes to check on Caitlin.

-

Peter makes it back to his place and sees Caitlin on the couch with a blanket covering her legs.

"Hey, how you feeling?" Peter asks her.

"Well, I've been better. Been a bit lightheaded today." Caitlin tells him. "But I promise you, I will be out there before you know it."

Peter smiles and pecks her head. "Just remember to take care of yourself. Where's Frankie?"

"She went out to get us lunch." Caitlin says when his phone goes off.

"Metahuman, I gotta go." Peter tells her.

"Then get going." Caitlin says sarcastically as Peter runs and leaps out the window while changing. "It's amazing how nobody's spotted him doing that yet."

"_I was thinking the same thing._" Crystal agrees.

-

They find a metahuman drinking acid in a classroom.

"It's been a while since I've been in a school lab, creating my first web fluid. Oh, the memories, but that doesn't look like proper lab safety." Peter tells him when his hands start glowing.

"I need this! Leave me alone!" He tells them and blasts acid at the wall.

Barry speeds and cools his hands down with sodium bicarbonate.

Peter's senses go off and they dodge an attack from him and he drops through the floor.

Nora tells them they doesn't need to chase him, because today is the day they need to stop Cicada or he's never seen again.

-

Nora explained the last time Cicada was shown, there was a acid trail there, meaning that he's the last metahuman Cicada kills before vanishing.

"Why are you just telling us this now?" Harry asks her.

"Because a lot of the stuff from my timeline is unreliable. Different victims, metas, circumstances." Nora defends.

"But this time, everything's exactly the same." Peter guesses.

"If he goes after this meta, that means that today's the last day we're gonna confront him." Nora says.

"And our last chance to stop him." Barry says.

"And I'll start working facial recognition for this Acid Master." Cisco tells them. "Yep, that's what I'm going with. Always trust your gut, kids."

-

Later that night, Cicada does in fact go after Acid Master.

But when he turned a corner, they switched him out with Crystal who freezes him and the dagger.

"What's the matter?" Crystal asks and shows she has a breach device she used to send Acid Master to the pipeline. "You don't have one of these?"

"Cicada!" Peter calls out.

"Bye, bye!" Crystal says as she escaped through a breach.

Cicada turns to face Peter.

"Listen, I don't want to fight. I just want to talk." Peter promises and circles around him as Cicada does the same. "Listen, we have a cure."

"What are you talking about?" Cicada asks.

"We have a way to turn metahumans back into regular people. We want you to take it." Peter expains.

"And why would I agree to do that?" Cicada asks.

"Because...you care about Grace, right? You care about her, wanna protect her. But you won't be helping her by constantly killing people, some who did nothing wrong. You'll be nothing but a monster to Grace. Is that what you want? You can choose for her." Peter says, but Cicada tries to hit him and dodges the hit.

"Okay, fight it is." Peter says and goes to punch him as he gets his dagger back and Crystal comes back to help save him.

-

Peter is getting checked up on and has a bandage on his head after Cicada's attack and now he's gone.

"That was our last shot at confronting Cicada." Barry says.

"I know. I'm sorry." Peter apologizes as he rubs his head.

"Peter, it's not your fault." Caitlin tells him.

"Except it totally is." Harry says.

"You're not helping." Cisco tells him.

"Didn't expect it to." Harry replies.

"Cicada doesn't seem to care about anything except killing for Grace." Peter says. "'There's no changing his mind."

Caitlin sits and rubs his back. "We will find another way to find and you can talk to him."

Joe and Cecile talked to Cicada's Doctor Ambres and learned something that could help.

Grace is a metahuman.

"Her powers must've been activated in the past few weeks or so." May says.

"Ambres told Joe that the wound in Grace's head recently started mutating." Barry adds.

Peter then thinks while listening to this new information. "I can get through to him now." He promises them. "If Grace is a metahuman, Spider-Man can't convince Cicada. But I know how Peter Parker can convince Dwyer."

-

Peter went to the location they set up for him and Cicada to meet up at.

"Dr. Ambres told us where to find you." Peter says and Cicada gets ready to strike. "Just listen to me, please."

"There's no more listening, no more talking." Cicada replies. "Every time one of you metas come near the rest of us, good people get hurt."

"I'm not a metahuman. I'm a mutant. But there is one metahuman you're forgetting." Peter says and Cicada is confused. "Grace...Ambres didn't tell you something. Grace is a metahuman. The night of the Enlightenment, the same thing that happened to you happened to her. She's in a coma because she's becoming like them."

"That's a lie." Cicada states.

"It's why Ambres told us where to find you. She's afraid you're going to do the one thing that you can't come back from." Peter says and Cicada throws him against the wall and stabs the wall. "I know how much you care about her. I know the feeling. You're trying to make the world safer for her. Trying to make it so you can care for her. She didn't choose to be a meta, but she is. Does that mean she deserves to die?"

"I would never hurt Grace." Dwyer tells him.

"But you'd let her grow up in a world of fear. If there's someone out there murdering them for being different. The cure, it can save you and Grace." Peter promises and Cicada draws his dagger back.

"And why should I believe you, Spider-Man?" Cicada asks.

Peter then removes his mask to appear human to him. "Because I'm also a father. My daughter, she's a metahuman and I would stop at nothing to keep her safe. I am doing everything I can to make this world the safest it can possibly be for her. And I think you want the same. So...do you trust me?"

-

They bring in Cicada and made an agreement.

They cure Cicada and then Grace.

Cicada also requested Ambres to be present.

They injected him with the cure and started treated his wound when the power goes off to the place.

"What happened to the lights?" Fox asks.

"We've got a bigger problem!" Cisco yells as he runs through the labs and shows them all the footage of the halls and they see...Cicada?

"How is he there and there?" Miles asks.

"I don't know, but he's coming here and he looks pissed." Cisco tells them.

"We have to move now." Barry says and Crystal freezes Dwyer's wound for later.

Ambres takes Dwyer and everyone gets ready to fight off Cicada's lookalike.

The second Cicada enters the cortex and Peter senses something...off.

This Cicada pulls two boomerang like things and everyone starts using their powers, gadgets and abilities.

Cicada dodged them all and started using powers to attack everyone.

Peter goes in to kick Cicada, but seeing that coming, he gets knocked out and Cicada destroys what's left of the cortex and finishes everyone off.

-

They wake up to see Dwyer is missing, Ambres is dead, and they can't fix anything in the cortex.

Barry and Peter raced around using Velocity-Spider and can't findd them.

"Who could this be? Without his powers, who could be this new Cicada?" Miles asks.

"I felt something." Peter tells them. "When we were fighting off this Cicada...I sensed something off with him. I don't think he's a guy. I...I think that was Grace."

"How could that be?" Caitlin asks.

Everyone looks to Nora and sees there's only one explanation.

This Grace-Cicada came from the future.


	105. The truth

The team is searching for the new Grace Cicada and how she could've come to this timeline, but Harry was able to actually decode Nora's journal using Gideon.

The cortex is fixed using the old desks and tables and they don't know if they can find this Grace Cicada.

"Let's hope Caitlin can figure out how to find him at the Tannhauser site." Cisco says when they get an alert of something being taken from the Flash warehouse.

-

Peter and Harry go to check out something in the middle of the woods and find the Time Sphere.

But Ralph and Cisco found it in the Flash warehouse.

"This is how the new Cicada got here." Peter says. "This is the Time Sphere from the future. So the Cicada from the future just might be Grace, more confirmation."

"But...how?" Barry questions.

"Bigger question; why?" Harry asks. "Dwyer must've told Grace on how much he hates metahumans, and now she's here to finish the job."

-

Barry learned Grace Cicada attacked the CCPD to get a case file from 2017.

It was about a metahuman, so they went to the source of the crime and Cisco vibes a metahuman who stole money from the ATM, that caused it to explode and killing two people.

But the cherry on top...they were Grace's parents.

"Peter was right. This is Grace from the future." Cisco confirms. "Time travel sucks." He states before leaving.

-

Barry tracked down the metahuman and found and found mr and mrs Boland.

It was an accident she says and warns her a killer is coming after her because of her powers and she never told her family about it.

While they did that, Harry goes to the archives and believes he has this puzzle of who works with Nora solved as he checks out from Thawne's old wheelchair and finds he has archives of his own hidden for Gideon.

Cicada attacked Boland and ended up hurting her daughter in the process of Barry and Nora getting them out of the place.

Peter met up with them at the hospital just in case Grace Cicada showed up to finish the job.

Harry met up with Gideon and saw what he found was a video log from Eobard Thawne as he's discovering how he can keep his memories of the timeline, even if it's been changed or altered.

Harry ran his handwriting through the handwriting in Nora's journal and found it's a match.

Eobard Thawne is the person that Nora is working with.

-

Peter's senses started sensing something while Cecile's mind started warning them.

Grace Cicada is here.

The dagger comes in flying through a window and Peter stoped it with a Web blanket that caught it.

Peter goes down to confront this new Cicada as she throws more daggers to chas her.

Nora Nd Barry get her out of the way.

"Grace. stop." Peter begs her. "I know you want revenge for your parents, I know how that feels, but-"

"But it wasn't that woman's fault." Grace finishes his thought. "That doesn't change that they're dead. Or that I became this."

"You can stop, now. We can help you." Peter tells her.

"With your cure? There is only one cure for this. Death." Grace states.

"Then I'm gonna stop you." Peter says as she goes to blast him, Peter dodged it.

Grace goes to hit him again with a beam and slams Peter against the pillar.

"I always wanted to go up gains the spectral Spider-Man and his legendary team." Grade says as Peter is stuck against the ground. "I guess I wasn't missing out on anything after all." She says and goes to kill him.

"Grace!" They hear Dwyer yell. "Don't do this. Please. This isn't the way to make the world a better place." He tells her and she gets up and turns to face him.

"You hated them. I heard you." Grace says.

"I was wrong. And that hate turned into something even worse. It was wrong to make you feel that way, Gracie. But you don't have to go down the same path I did. You don't have to hold onto this anger. Let it go." Dwyer says and Grace lets Peter go.

"But my parents."

"It was an accident." Dwyer says. "Let it go. Before it's too late, like it is for me."

"You're right, uncle Orlin." Grace says as the dagger comes back and stabs him in the back and she takes off.

Peter runs up and catches Dwyer.

"Save my Gracie." Dwyer asks of him before dying on the spot.

There was nothing Peter could've done.

-

Peter was sitting in the halls of Star labs, no idea what to think when Caitlin came and she seemed...different?

"I heard what happened, you doing okay?" Caitlin asks as she joins him on the floor.

"I don't know. It's...strange. I don't know how to stop her." Peter says and looks up to her.

"We will stop her. We always do." Caitlin promises and Peter doesn't know how they're gonna do that.

"You seem different. You're...glowing, what's up with you?" Peter asks her.

"Well...Remember when you, your friends and Crystal fought Cicada in the warehouse?" Caitlin asks.

"Yeah, what about it?" Peter asks.

"Remember...afterwards?" Caitlin continues and Peter does in fact. "And when I was feeling sick?"

Peter now starts to feel his heart pounding, a bit worried to what she's saying.

"Peter...I'm pregnant." Caitlin says with a huge smile on her face.

Peter breaks into tears and a smile appears on his face and gets up before pulling her into a hug.

"Oh my god!" Peter says, as happy as could be...but also afraid of what could happen with Cicada out there. "Sh...should we tell the team?"

"Yes, we're telling them. But maybe a bit later. I need to tell you guys what else I discovered." Caitlin says and they head to the cortex where everyone is waiting for her.

"Grace's powers are incredibly dangerous. I ran some tests while I was at the Tannhauser offsite. Her dark matter has some sort of binding quality. It allows her to telekinetically manipulate Dark matter within a certain proximity." Caitlin tells them.

"Including the Dark matter in us?" Ralph asks.

"I think what makes her powers different from Dwyer's is they came from a wound in her head." Caitlin continues as she takes a seat.

"That's why she's so much stronger." Peter adds.

"Is there any sign of her?" Cecile asks.

"No. She definitely ghosted." Cisco says.

"What about Vickie and her family?" Nora asks.

"Federal protection." Cecile answers.

"I don't know about anyone else, but I could use a drink." Ralph says.

"Not a bad idea." Cisco agrees.

"We won't be joining you." Peter says, knowing Caitlin can't drink and they should be getting Frankie home.

Everyone starts leaving and Nora stands there.

"Nora, you coming?" Barry asks.

"Nora, you want to tell us something, don't you?" Cecile asks, reading her mind.

"She wants to tell her your secret." Harry says and they turn to see him in the doorway of the cortex. "Right? She doesn't know how exactly to begin when your secret threatens everything, everyone around you. Maybe start at the beginning." He says as he strolls inside the cortex.

"Harry, stop it!" Nora tells him.

"When you first time traveled, you were so careful to leave the lightest footprint. Until you suddenly decided to interfere with the Enlightenment satellites as it crashed to earth. Now I wonder...why would you suddenly wanna get involved? No, sombody told you to do it. Someone who's handwriting is in your journal. _The timeline is malleable_. The same person who's been directing you all this time, giving you ideas, like the power dagger dampener, making puppets out of all of us, as he seeks to alter the timeline for his personal gain. Someone who has already done it before...Eobard Thawne."

The team looks to Nora in complete shock to this news.

"The Reverse Flash. Your teacher and partner. Your secret you've been hiding." Harry says and even Peter is shocked that was her secret.

"Nora...please tell us this isn't true." Iris pleads.

Barry looks and sees it's true. "She can't. Because it is true."

"I'm...I wanted to tell you. I-I tried to tell you." Nora tried saying when Barry sped her off and into the pipeline.

"Dad! I'm sorry I lied to you." Nora says.

"So am I." Barry says and leaves.


	106. Legacies

"It's Nora. Our daughter." Iris states to Barry angry to what he just did.

"She lied to us, Iris. Since the first day she got here, about Thawne! She knows what he did to me. To my mother." Barry tells her. "We can't believe a word she says."

"We don't know that." Iris tried defending.

"Yes, we do!" Barry argues back.

"We don't even know why she's working with him." Iris says.

"The question is why she's working with him." Harry says. "Maybe I should talk to her, shed some light."

"I think you shed enough light," Iris states and looks to him in anger.

"Whoa. You're mad at me?" Harry asks.

"How long has it been since you suspected her?" Joe asks.

Peter now decided to step in and defend Harry since he had a role in this. "Ever since we met her."

"You too?" Barry asks Peter.

"Spidey sense, man." Peter says and taps his head. "First time I ignored them, Eddie died, Ronnie died, and a singularly almosted destroyed the city. I wasn't going to ignore it again. I don't care who they are, if they go off, they can't be trusted."

"You've both been following this trail all this time and didn't think to tell us until now?" Iris asks.

"I'm sorry, Iris, do you not know what it means to be an scientist? Oh, right, you don't...because you're not a scientist." Peter snaps at her. "You experiment, learn all the facts before publishing your discovery and come to a conclusion. Also, we did try telling you and you basically said _back off_. So, yeah, we couldn't tell you."

"Not to mention that half of the things that happened is absolutely her fault for messing with the timeline." Harry states.

"She did admit that herself." Miles agrees.

"If she didn't mess with the timeline, none of this would be happening." Frankie also agrees.

"Cecile has been around Nora for months, she never felt anything off before." Joe says.

"Reverse Flash must've taught her a thing. He was a master of deception, Peter's senses never caught up to him until it was too late." Cisco agreed.

"There's got to be some way to figure it out." Caitlin says.

"There is." Ralph says and picks up Nora's journal. "This must have everything from before she arrived."

"Read it from the beginning." Barry tells him.

-

2049 Central City

Nora was running late to a crime scene and found a chemical transport was attacked, making it two labs and two transports.

The attacker stole Benzene Methanol and Halothane.

Nora discovered there was a Affinity 4,000 security camera that could hold some clues, but she believes it was a speedster.

She goes back to CCPD and meets with her friend, Lia, who also doesn't believe her.

"You know I'm equally a fan of our fleet footed super friends." Lia tells Nora. "I mean, honestly, if I could have ever met Jesse Quick, it's like, hello, new best friend. No offense."

"Some taken." Nora replies.

"Okay, but there hasn't been a speedster in Central City since that Crisis piece that your mom wrote about decades ago. Flash, Kid Flash, Jay Garrick, that worked purple speedster that showed up. They're all gone. I mean, the only superheroes around nowadays is...Metalla, Ultimate Spider-Man, and the Winter-Spider."

-

2019

Peter spits out its drink after almost choking on it to that and everyone looks to the two of them.

"Did she just say...?" Cisco asks.

"Winter-Spider." Harry confirms and looks to the two of them and Caitlin holding her stomach. "You're pregnant?"

"You two are what?" Barry asks them.

"We were gonna tell you guys." Peter says. "We just discovered it ourselves."

"Keep reading." Joe says.

-

2049

"They're all gone." Lia finishes. "So what you're suggesting, it's highly unlikely."

"Then we need to start believing in the highly unlikely." Nora says.

"Alternatively, you could...dial back your obsessiveness." Lia replies.

"I'm not obsessive." Nora defends.

Lia drags a board with all the sightings of both Cicada and the Winter-Spider. "You keep investigating the supernatural."

"You call that obsessive, I call that a hobby." Nora defends.

"Right, your everyday psycho murderer and classic trying to unmask a local hero every day hobby." Lia says sarcastically. "I mean, I kinda wanna know who the Winter-Spider is also. I mean, he leave notes to the people he stops that end with _your friendly neighborhood Winter-Spider__._ I wonder how he looks under that mask." She was saying while staring off into the sky.

"Why are you so obsessed with the Winter-Spider?" Nora wonders.

"He wears a blue and black skintight costume, quips while fighting crime, has more muscle than a seashore. I just wanna know what he looks like under that suit." Lia states.

"Please stop talking." Nora begs her friend.

-

2019

"Does this conversation feel familiar to anyone else?" Barry asks.

-

2049

"I wish CCPD would spring for these Affinity cameras. I mean, trillion FPS, captures light in motion." Lia says when they watch the footage and see white lightning enter the truck and stealing chemicals.

-

They visit Ollins Laboratories for help by a friend of theirs.

"Appreciate the help, Dr. Bonwit." Lia tells him. "Especially at this hour."

"Not a problem. Ollins never lets me leave this place anyway." Bonwit says. "It took me a bit of time to see it, but the chemicals can only work together when they're built on a structure. Like an extracellular matrix."

"But there are thousands of extracellular matrices." Nora says.

"So until we know all the chemicals, we won't know the end results." Lia sees.

"Sorry I can't help more." Bonwit says and they leave.

"Now what?" Lia asks.

"We can't wait for another lab to get hit." Nora says when a flash of lightning passes them.

They run back in and see Bonwit is on the floor and someone flashes in and is wearing an all white and gold suit.

"Oh my god!" Nora says.

"I am a god. The god of speed." The speedster says when suddenly everyone can see their breaths.

The window smashes open as someone rolls inside, lands in front of Nora and Lia before sending a blast of ice mist at the speedster, sending him flying.

The figure is wearing an all dark blue suit similar to Spider-Man's suits, a snowflake symbol embedded to the back of his suit while the front has a spider symbol and a webbing pattern throughout his suit.

"Winter-Spider?!" Nora and Lia cry.

The masked man turns to face the two. "Go! Get out of here!" He warns them when the speedster charges up a lightning strike and he dodges it, Lia runs while Nora gets hit by the lightning.

Winter-Spider turns and webs the speedster and leaps into the air and does a kick to the face.

"I know what you're after, Godspeed, and you're not getting it." Winter-Spider promises him.

"You couldn't begin to imagine what I have planned." Godspeed tells him.

"You sure? I've got a big imagination. And something tells me you're not using those chemicals to treat lice." Winter-Spider quips.

-

2019

They all look to Peter and Caitlin.

"What?" Peter asks. "I'm proud of him."

"Your son picks up your trait of quipping. God, there's gonna be another one of you." Cisco complains and rubbing his head at the idea of three Spider-Men.

Even Crystal looked to Peter and rolled her eyes.

-

2049

In the end, Godspeed escaped with the chemicals and Winter-Spider couldn't chase him.

"Nora!" Lia yells and runs to her friend. "Help! Please!"

Winter-Spider looks to where Godspeed ran to and runs over to Nora and feels for a pulse, only to get shocked from electricity. He feels a pulse, but also his senses sense something.

"You're like me." Winter-Spider whispers before picking her up.

-

Nora later wakes up and sees she's in the hospital with _Poker Face_ playing and she turns to see Lia there.

"Oh, I knew an oldie would wake you up." Lia cheers. "Okay, don't freak. We're in a hospital. The Winter-Spider dropped us off here. His ice slide was amazing, but terrifying."

"Dr. Bonwit?" Nora asks.

"In the ICU. But he's gonna pull through." Lia promises. "But the speedster did get away with a crazy amount of Carbon Disulfide. Don't worry about that right now. How you feeling?"

"I feel fine, actually." Nora says as she sits up. "My fingers are a little tingly, but other than that, I feel really good."

"The Winter-Spider did say something else before bringing us here." Lia says while she picks something off the table.

"What did he say?" Nora asks.

"He said and I quote, _you're like me_." Lia says as she sits next to her. "I'm just glad you're okay. Doctor said you hit hit with five billion joules of electricity. Which means...I kinda called your mom. She freaked more than normal."

Nora looks to her upset by that news. "Is she here?"

"She's on her way from Coast City. And she is wearing her aggro pants. She has called me like 47 times."

"You shouldn't have called her. I don't want her to worry." Nora says.

"I did. Which is why she doesn't know about the Winter-Spider saving you since she hates him, or this." Lia says and hands a shard of something. "The paramedics said that you went into cardiac arrest when Winter-Spider dropped us off and they had to use the defib nods to restart your heart, and when they did, they found this. It was buried underneath the scar of your left shoulder."

"Okay. What is it?" Nora asks.

"They say it's a metal scrap from the shelf but I don't know. It looks old and fried." Lia tells Nora. "Okay, now you're okay, can we please talk about the fact that you got struck by lightning from a speedster during a battle with Winter-Spider??" She asks and stands up and squeals.

"So schway, Right?" Nora agrees. "The only thing is no one's gonna believe us."

"We both saw it. They're gonna have to." Lia says and tries putting down the shrapnel when Nora accidentally speeds off and speeds out of the hospital and into a truck.

-

Nora is using her new speed in the labs of the CCPD to get used to it.

"This is what the Winter-Spider meant by you're like him!" Lia says.

"It must be. All of my nerves are tingling and my synapses must be going crazy because my reaction times are way off the charts." Nora says. "What am I gonna do about my mom? She freaks out any time someone even says the word meta."

"That's understandable, her non-meta husband was killed because of metas." Lia says.

"Yeah, but writing about the Flash, the metahuman, made her career." Nora says.

"So we can't tell her?" Lia guesses.

"We can't tell anybody. Not until we figure out how I got these powers." Nora states. "And I don't think it's a coincidence that this happened after our run in with...what did Winter-Spider call him?"

"I think he said Godspeed." Lia says.

Their alerts go off saying a bank heist is in progress.

"Huh." Nora says.

"No, no, you can't do that. That is a bad idea. Metalla, Ultimate Spider-Man or Winter-Spider will be there." Lia tells her.

"I'm just gonna do a little run-by." Nora promises.

"You're a CSI. Not a superhero." Lia says.

"Our jobs are the same as the cops." Nora says. "We get the bad guys." She then speeds off to the heist.

-

At the heist, the guard already took care of it when Nora accidentally pushes him around and they start getting away.

The other cops try to stop but Nora accidentally distracts them as they try to get away.

As they're running, the sidewalk freezes over and webs reach down to stop them from falling.

Winter-Spider leaps down and faces them. "I'd hold onto those webs if I were you. You ever slip and fall while walking on ice? Don't worry, the police will be here any second to arrest you." He promises and even notices Nora before leaving.

-

"Today didn't go so great." Lia says as Nora drops on a chair.

"Both robbers almost got away of it weren't for the Winter-Spider because of me." Nora says.

"Cut yourself a slice of slack pie." Lia says. "It was your first day, and the Winter-Spider has been doing this for five years."

"But I still feel so bad." Nora says and wraps herself up.

"You're looking at this all wrong." Lia says and gets up. "This was the Femme-Flash's big debut. Naming superheroes is not easy."

"Tell that to my uncle." Someone says and they turn to see the Winter-Spider in the corner of the room.

"How long have you been there?" Lia asks.

"Long enough." Winter-Spider says and approaches them. "Saw your work out there. Gotta say, not the best, but honestly not the worst. You should've seen my uncle when he first started."

"What do you want?" Nora asks.

"To help you." Winter-Spider tells her. "You wanna learn to use your powers to help people. I need a partner to catch up with people like Godspeed."

"Okay. But...who are you?" Nora asks.

"You first." Winter-Spider tells her.

"Nora West-Allen."

Winter-Spider looks shocked and removes his mask.

He has light blue and green mixed eyes, light brown hair with a streak of white across the front of his hair. "Like Barry Allen?"

"You knew my father?" Nora asks.

"No, but my father knew him." Winter-Spider says.

"Okay, but who are you?" Lia asks.

-

Winter-Spider POV;

All righty, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, lets go through this one last time.

My name is Tommy 'Ron' Snow-Parker. And for the last five years, I have been the one and only...Winter-Spider.

My father died saving the world from a crisis a few decades ago, saving me, my mother, and my sisters.

Before he died, me and my sister were born and they discovered that we had powers, my father and mother came to an agreement that they wouldn't take away our powers. But they couldn't have us using powers we didn't understand.

So the agreement was that all their other children would be allowed to choose to be normal, or keep their powers. But for fifteen years, they would be a secret, they used power dampening bracelets, necklaces, even sometimes it was embedded into our clothes.

But when our fifteen birthdays hit, we were told about our father, Spider-Man, and how we have powers like him and our mother and aunt is Crystal Frost.

My sister and I chose to keep her powers and we became the Rogue Squadron. It was a nickname our father gave us when we were young based off of the _Star Wars_ X-Wing team. Me and my sister would always find a way to get into trouble.

Later, she was contacted by the Time Beuru to become an agent to protect the timeline.

Me on the other hand, I decided to keep my powers to keep my city safe.

My mother even had a message from our father he left for me and another for my sister that were for us alone.

"_Daredevil, watch your back! These things are everywhere_!" Peter yells as he's out of breath and sounds like he's been running a marathon and his face is covered in sweat and blood. "_Tommy...my son...I don't know if you will get this message, but I hope you do. If you're watching this, it means I didn't survive the Crisis. And that's okay...because this means you're okay. And this also means like me and your mother. You have powers...and I won't be there to see you use them. When I watched you take your first steps, I was over the moon...I imagined what it would be like to watch you start learning about your skills. Blade, on your left_!" He interupts the message to send a warning to a friend when a explosion goes off and sends Peter flying and toppling.

Peter starts gasping and struggles to get up. "_This means I'm gonna miss a lot of things. Now listen if you chose to keep your powers, because this is important. You're gonna struggle. I know, because I struggled, even now I'm struggling. This city doesn't like what's different, it took them time to accept me and not a lot of people still don't like me. You will always struggle...it's the choice to keep fighting through the struggle...that makes us who we are. And I know...given time, you will become a better Spider-Man than I could ever be. A hero is someone who never gives up. Now go be a hero, my boy. Always remember...I love you 3000. And may the force be with you. And Caitlin...if you're hearing this...I'm sorry I couldn't be there._" He apologizes and the video glitches out as it ends.

The I love you 3000 line was something in our family that caught on. Tina said it one night and it became a constant thing in our home.

May the force be with you is because everyone in my family are _Star Wars _nerds. We loved it so much our father and uncle Lucius created a life sized B.B.-8 replica that could do everything the droid could do in the movies and even was sentient. The difference being he talked in Morris code.

I was trained by the Devil of Hell's Kitchen in martial arts, my aunt Crystal and uncle Miles in how to use my powers, weapons training by my uncle Wade and a detective mindset from uncle Ralphie and aunt Jessica.

I can't change the past...but I'm done hiding who I am.

So no matter how many times I get hit, I always find a way to get back up.

Because the only thing standing in between my city and chaos is me.

The Winter-Spider.

-

Normal POV

"Your parents are Crystal Frost and Spider-Man?" Lia asks.

"Yeah." Tommy tells them.

"Look, The only way we could catch him before anyone else gets hurt is we start thinking like a villainous speedster." Nora says.

"How do you plan to do that?" Lia asks.

"I'm gonna go see one." Nora says.

-

Iron Heights.

Nora and Tommy go to visit him together.

"Okay, there's a reason nobody talks about this guy." Tommy tells Nora. "My family says that when he dies, he is going to scare the Devil off his throne."

"It's going to be fine." Nora promises as they enter his cell and look to see his cell.

"Eobard Thawne?" Nora calls out and the man approaches reveals Harrison Wells Thawne.

"My name is Nora West Allen, and I'm a CSI tech with the CCPD. I wanted to ask you a few questions." Nora tells him.

Thawne gestured them to come closer and he promised he can't escape even if he wanted and the two do as Tommy trembled.

"What are your questions?" Thawne asks.

"How did you end up in here?" Nora asks.

"Was there nobody at CCPD that could answer that question?" Thawne asks.

"All the files pertaining to the Reverse Flash have been cyber locked. And there's almosg nothing about you in the Spider-Flash museum." Nora says. "Except for the date of your imprisonment."

"That's all there is in the museum? That's interesting." Thawne says. "Then how about you ask the man who was raised with stories about me." He states looking to Tommy who is shocked. "Don't think I don't know who you are. Long sleeved button up shirts, I can even see the ice crystals form at the tip of your fingers, the streak of white in your hair, that wasn't added for fun, that's a birth defect for having a mother with a split personality. I know who you are. You're the son of Parker and Snow. And where there's a spider...there's always a speedster." He says and turns to Nora.

The guard comes in and says their time is up and they leave.

-

Tommy left to find Godspeed on his own while Nora went back to the CCPD to see if Lia discovered anything.

"Thawne figured out I had powers and who Winter-Spider was instantly, but he wouldn't tell us anything." Nora says and sees Lia's face. "What?"

"This metal fragment they found in your shoulder, something was bugging me about it so I did some digging. It turns out it's nitfrom the shelf. It's tech. A chip made by Star labs 25 years ago."

"Like a chip you would use to find a lost animal?" Nora asks and Lia found the truth.

"It's to dampen your speed." Lia says and shows her it was a power dampening chip. "You didn't get your powers when Godspeed hit you with his lightning. You always had them."

"I always had powers?" Nora asks. "But who would put a power dampening..."

-

The two went to Jitters after peices came that it was Iris to put it in her.

"Your Mom lied to you your whole life. I mean, that's next level aggro." Lia says.

"How could she keep something like that from me? I mean, what else has she lied to me about?" Nora asks.

"You're gonna have to ask her." Lia says.

"The idea of that makes my blood boil." Nora states.

"That could be the macchiato. Is possible I made that a triple." Lia jokes.

"At least I have one person in my life I can still trust." Nora says and starts to think of something. "A triple. The chemicals that Godspeed stole. Methanol is unstable, and if you add Carbon disulfide that he stole.."

"Kaboom. I remember that from 9th grade Analytical Chem." Lia says.

"And the only way to combine all those chemicals together is to add some kind of binding property." Nora replies.

"A plus one oxidation state, like dioxygen diflouride." Lia says.

"And somewhere that's able to store that and the only place that can is Stagg Industries."

-

Stagg Industries, they broke in and found the container and it's extremely heavy and can't mobe it when Winter-Spider comes in sliding after being thrown by Godspeed who's next to show up.

"Oh, hey partners." Tommy greets them.

"That's mine!" Godspeed tells them.

"Great, now we're all dead." Tommy complains and gets back up. "You get that out of here, and I'll take care of him."

Nora doesn't listen and speeds in front of Godspeed. "If you want it, you're gonna have to come through me to get it."

"Ah, you're a speedster like me." Godspeed says. "So you need it too. Sorry."

The two speed around the labs and Tommy watches them and sees a pattern.

Nora gets thrown around and beaten and Tommy quickly gets Lia out of the way before freezing the container so Godspeed can't move it.

Godspeed goes to hit him, Tommy dodges it and creates an icicle to stab Godspeed, but he only ended up cutting him.

Tommy looks at the blood and sees it's glowing blue. "That's a new one."

While he was distracted, his senses came on too late as Godspeed sped around and gave him the beating of a lifetime, sending him flying across the room and back before he throws him against a pillar.

Tommy tries to fight back as his powers aren't working as his head is barely focusing and Godspeed starts vibrating his hand.

"No!" Nora yells as Tommy gets stabbed and drops to the ground and he speeds off after destroying the ice protecting the container.

"Oh my god!" Lia yells as Nora gets up and they run over to him.

-

2019

"Oh god." Cisco whispers as they all read the death of the Winter-Spider.

Iris went to te pipeline, against everyone's wishes and let Nora out of her cell.

-

2049

Nora and Lia try to help save Tommy and look at his wound when they see ice cover over the wound.

"What?" Lia asks when Tommy lets out a giant gasp.

"God, I hate when they do that." Tommy complains as he gets up.

"You're alive?!" Nora asks as Tommy gets up.

"Yep. Benefits of having parents who have super healing. One spider healing plus one ice queen healing equals super fast, incredible healing." Tommy says while standing up. "I gotta go check myself out back at my base. I think I know where his next stop is, if I get anything, I'll tell you." He promises and makes his way out.

-

Nora had a talk with Iris about her lying about her powers and lying about everything.

There she learned everyone in her life has known about it because she told them to lie about it.

The CCPD found the identity of Godspeed, August Hart, Bio-hacker. An ex employee of Parker Industries before he was fired for doing tachyon experimnets on patients.

-

Tommy was in the Spider-Cave that was moved over the years and was now underneath his family's home as he looks over the footage of Godspeed.

"Wait, Karen, freeze the image." Tommy asks the computer A.I. as Godspeed got to the point where he's about to kill him. "His lighting is turning blue."

"_What are you thinking, Tommy?_" Karen asks.

"Pull up everything we have about blue lightning." Tommy asks and Karen shows him Zoom, Trajectory, and Savitar. "Velocity-9. That's it. My mom destroyed any trace of the formula, but that must be what he's crating."

"_Or at least his own version of it._" Karen says. "_Those chemicals could make a version of Velocity-9 that will never run out._"

"Velocity-10." Tommy understands. "He just needs a stabilizing agent to finish the job."

"_Then you better get to CCU._"

-

Tommy gets there and is met by Nora who is also there.

"Howd you get here?" Tommy asks her wen his senses go off and Godspeed is back.

"You don't learn, do you?" Godspeed asks Nora and looks to Tommy. "I thought I killed you."

"If I had a nickel..." Tommy says.

"You could join me you know, Spider." Godspeed offers him. "Think about it. You and me together. Imagine all we could do.

Tommy smirks at what he's trying to do. "Sorry, buddy, but I am a hero. Like my father before me..and I will never turn to the dark side." He says and goes to blast him which he dodged it.

"That's mine!" Godspeed tells Nora as she's holding the stabilizing agent.

"Come and get it." Nora dares and as Godspeed runs at her, Tommy uses a power dampening bracelet and wraps it around his hand, sending him flying into the wall.

Godspeed gets up and reveals he has more V-9 that destroyed the bracelet.

"Time to run." Tommy says and Nora grabs him and starts speeding off.

Tommy starts freezing up the streets as Godspeed keeps slipping on it.

They were able to escape him and they need to come up with another plan.

"Okay, we wed to use those satellites to crate a sonic blast to break the V-9 bonds." Tommy tells Nora.

"Neutralizing The V-9 instantly." Nora agrees and they come up with a plan.

Nora sees Godspeed coming back and she speeds off to get his attention.

Tommy hacked into the satellites and gets ready to sends a blast.

"Almost there." Tommy says as he watches the speedsters run up and at the last second, he sends a sonic blast that sends Godspeed into the building, knocking him unconscious.

"We did it!" Nora cheers.

Nora went back to visit Thawne and he revealed about the vault in Star labs and she goes to visit it and learns about Barry Allen is the Flash.

-

After this information, Barry knew they can't trust Nora and sent her back to the future and told her she can't come back without him knowing.

They have enough problems, they can't handle her and Thawne with Cicada on the loose.


	107. Snow pack

The team are left in the cortex, or at least Peter, Harry, Ralph, Caitlin, and Joe are.

"So...Tommy and Tina Snow-Parker." Peter starts off after the news.

"We named our daughter after your old boss." Caitlin comments.

"Well, if it weren't for her, I don't think I would've come this far. Or survived this long." Peter admits.

"And our son after Tommy Merlin and Ronnie." Caitlin adds.

"I wouldn't have it any other way." Peter replies.

"Three kids. We're gonna need a bigger house." Caitlin informs him.

"We better start house hunting sooner or later." Peter agrees as Barry strolls into the cortex after dropping off Nora back in the future.

"Hey, where is Cecile and Cisco?" Barry asks.

"Cecile's relieving the nanny." Joe answers.

"And Cisco went to talk to Breacher about how to track Grace-Cicada." Caitlin answers.

"Where's Iris?" Ralph asks.

"I honestly don't know. We're not really seeing eye to eye right now." Barry tells them.

"Because...?" Joe asks.

"Because I took Nora home for good." Barry answers.

"Nora's gone?" Joe asks.

"Just like that?" Caitlin questions.

"Well, it's the only thing to do since she can't be trusted." Harry says.

Then Joe's phone goes off and he leaves to take the call and Ralph goes to track down Grace-Cicada to see if they can find where they're hiding.

"Guys, it's CCPD. We've got a big problem." Joe tells them.

-

They go to the hospital and learn that the present Grace is missing, and everyone spotted Cicada taking her.

"Future Grace steals past Grace. I don't even know if there's a police code for kidnapping yourself." Joe says when Caitlin comes with news on Grace's condition.

"Grace's coma is stable. As long Future Grace is taking care of younger Grace, her life's not in any danger." Caitlin promises.

"We still need to find them." Peter says.

"Can things get any worse?" Barry wonders.

"Barry...that is the one sentence you never say." Peter states, knowing now he just jinxed them.

-

He did jinx them as during the night at the Tannhauser labs, Icicle stopped by Caitlin's mother's labs and stole something.

"I'm guessing Icicle didn't leave any frozen fingerprints behind." Joe guesses as they're looking over the crime scene.

"No, but this docking station is lined with a carbon filled kapton polymide. NASA uses it to build probes meant for the coldest reaches of space." Fox says as Barry looks over it.

"There's a lot of fresh puddles in here." Joe comments looking at the defrosting ice. "You think he stole whatever kept this place cold?"

"Beyond cold." Fox replies. "If it were on right now, we would have frostbite as of now."

"Okay, but why would he want it?" Joe wonders

"You're gonna have to ask Carla when she's done filing the theft report or Caitlin and Peter when they gets here, I'm not sure." Barry says.

"The right choice?" They hear Caitlin question as she, Carla and Peter show up. "What the hell are you talking about? You lied to me for 20 years and told me my father was dead. How the hell is that the right choice?!"

"Your father is trapped inside an ice monster, Caitlin. What was I supposed to do? Split custody with him on the weekends?" Carla asks.

"You could try telling me the truth. But why tell your daughter anything?" Caitlin asks.

"Funny, I don't recall you telling me that you let the monster out of the prison." Carla replies.

"Because you never told me he was in a prison!" Caitlin yells. "And now all these years that I could've been working on a cure for dad are gone! We may never get him back."

"Well, at least you have someone to blame. Mom's always here for that." Carla says and leaves.

"Hey, you doing okay?" Peter asks her.

Caitlin turns to him and calms down. "I will be as soon as we find Icicle. My mom said he stole a prototype Cryo-Atomizer."

"What can he do with that?" Joe asks.

"Nothing good." Caitlin answers.

-

Iris and Ralph thought she could just steal a Time Sphere and nobody would notice.

But Fox and Harry thankfully noticed.

"What do we do?" Harry asks, getting sick of these Allen's wanting to mess with the timeline.

"We know she's probably going back to 2049. So unless you wanna wait 20 years to stop her..." Fox tells him.

"Wait, we don't have to wait. We do our own time hack." Harry says. "Does your Spider computer set reminders?"

"Yeah." Fox confirms.

"Just set a reminder to stop them when they appear. But we're not going to do it." Harry says and Fox is starting to smell what he's cooking.

-

2049

Tommy was in the Spider cave eating a bag of Funyuns, waiting for something to happen.

"Hey, Karen, when do Frankie and mom get back from New York?" Tommy asks and gets worried when the A.I. doesn't respond. "Karen?"

Suddenly, a message appears on the monitors.

_Message from team Spider-Flash, 2019._

_Track Time Sphere, it's been stolen and the people plan to mess up the timeline with it._

_-Harry Wells/Lucius Fox _

Tommy looks at the message and quickly grabs his mask. "Karen, locate the Star labs Time Sphere signature."

-

2019

"So the cryo-atomizer has the ability to disperse particles into the atmosphere. Particles that slow down atoms to a grinding halt." Caitlin tells the team. "And the slower they get..."

"The colder they get." Peter finishes.

"How cold are we talking?" Joe wonders.

"Absolute zero." Caitlin answers. "And if we combine them with Icicle's powers..."

"He could plunge Central City into a new ice age." Peter finishes.

"There is some good news. I think we can track the nano-cryoparticles inside the atomizer. We just have to reprogram an oscillating inversion scanner." Caitlin tells them. "Do you mind going to the downstairs storage area and grabbing it?" She asks Peter and he starts leaving to get it.

"Wait. You should use a modified field array." Carla tells him. "There's one in the upstairs archives." Peter stops and listens.

"No, no, the inversion scanner would work best." Caitlin tells him.

"No, no. Not since we upgraded our field arrays last year." Carla tells her daughter. "You know you would know that I'd you visited more, not just when you needed something."

"Apparently, only when I need the wrong thing." Caitlin replies and turns to Peter. "The inversion scanner."

"The field array." Carla tells him.

Peter stands and sees he's in a dilemma.

He wants to be on Carla's good side, wanting to get along with Caitlin's mother. But not siding with Caitlin is a mistake on its own. So it's either side with the mother of his girlfriend, or his girlfriend and mother of his child.

And the faces they're making isn't helping.

"I'll get both." Peter decided. "Might take my time."

"Need help?" Barry asks.

"No." Peter answers and leaves them.

As soon as he left, they felt the temperature in the room beginning to drop.

"Is it me or is it getting really cold in here?" Joe asks when they understand why it's gettimg cold.

"Run!" Barry tells them when they see Icicle and he blasts Caitlin and Carla.

Barry speeds Joe out of the way just in time as they get hit.

"Who wants a family reunion?" Icicle asks the unconscious Snow's.

Peter quickly returns to see what caused the noise and sees Caitlin, Carla missing, and Barry on the ground covered in ice.

"I can barely feel his pulse." Joe tells him.

"He's got hypothermia. Stand back." Peter tells Joe as he starts shooting Barry with taser webs. "These should heat up the copper wiring in the suit so his speed healing will kick in.

"Is it safe?" Joe asks.

"I have no clue." Peter confesses when Barry gasps awake and stands up.

-

2049

Iris and Ralph make it to Iron Heights to find Nora.

"You sure you're ready to talk to he who shall not be named?" Ralph asks Iris.

"Well, whether I am or not, Gideon said these were Nora's last know coordinates." Iris states and they go down the hall and sees the guard.

Ralph disguises himself to look like one of the guards and tries sweet talking him when Ralph gets blasted out of the room by a blast of ice.

"Hey, uncle Raplhie. Shouldn't you be in Coast City?" Tommy asks as Ralph gets up to see the Winter-Spider.

"Oh, right. You." Ralph complains as he gets up.

"Yeah, me. And you are out of time. Literally and figuratively." Tommy says as he hits the alarms to lockdown the place.

"Well, looks like I'm gonna have to fight the child of Spider-Man." Ralph says as Iris sneaks around them.

Tommy dodges Ralph as he stretches out to punch him, grabs his hand and begins to freeze it.

While they fought, Iris went into the cell with Nora and Thawne.

"Step away from him, please." Iris tells Nora.

"Mom, it's okay." Nora tells her. "Eobard is helping me. He has a way for me to get back home."

"Nora, step away from him now." Iris commands her.

"Nora, listen to your mother." Thawne tells her and backs away from the glass.

"Where's dad?" Nora asks.

"It's just me." Iris says as they hear the two heroes fighting and the alarms ringing. "It's probably for the best. Come on, we have to hurry."

"What do you mean it's probably for the best?" Nora asks.

"Nora, the last thing your father needs is to see you here with him." Iris states.

"She's right about that." Thawne says.

"No, she's not. And neither is my dad." Nora states.

"Nora, your dad was wrong, but he still cares about you." Iris tells her.

"Why are you here and he isn't?"

"I understand how you feel..."

"Do you? Do you know what it's like to want something more than anything else in your whole life?" Nora asks as the lightning on her becomes red. "To know your father? To do your best to follow in his footsteps? To make him proud? How could he leave me?! How could he stop loving me?!" She then speeds off and was able to tap into the Negative Speedforce and escaped back into the past.

"What...the heck...was that?" Tommy asks as he stands in the doorway and caught Nora speeding off. "What did you just do?!"

"She's gone." Thawne tells him.

"Gone where!?" Tommy asks the psychopath.

"I don't know where, but I know when. 2019." Thawne tells him.

Tommy starts looking afraid as he doesn't know that Nora has already been messing with the timeline.

"She wanted to go home, I tried to help her." Thawne says.

"You?!" Tommy asks. "The psychopath who murdered people, who constantly altered the timeline for his own personal needs? No, you are using her. I know how you think." He states to him.

"Tommy, you need to get to the past, you need to find her." Thawne tells him.

"How can I go back in time without messing up everything?" Tommy asks.

"You have a mission. A time hack." Thawne says and turns to Iris. "You we're contacted by someone, that's how you knew they're here. Use their way to get here to go back."

Tommy looks to Iris and quickly tranq's her to get her out of here easier. "I know you have something bigger planned, and I will figure out why you manipulated Speedy."

"I like your anger. Maybe there's a bit of Killer Frost in you after all." Thawne says.

The door opens and Ralph is defrosting. "Ow. This is painful."

Tommy goes to grab Iris and Thawne looks down to his vest he's wearing when Tommy drags them both out.

-

2019

"There's no hits on Icicle's cryosignature, no reads on facial recognition, nothing." Barry tells them.

"We'll find them. We always do." Joe says.

"How, Joe?" Barry asks. "Caitlin's kidnapped. We need Caitlin to find Caitlin, Cisco's on another earth, there's nothing we can do."

Peter starts to think for a minute and looks to Barry.

"Barry, retask the satellites, search for a radiation signature." Peter tells him.

"Why?" Joe asks.

"During Savitar, when Caitlin was afraid of her powers, we gave her a necklace that dampened her powers, but recently we removed the dampening abilities within it. Now it's just a normal piece of jewelry. Except it gives off an radiation signature."

"You have the mother of your child radioactive jewelry?" Harry asks.

"No, of course not." Peter tells him. "The radiation is harmless to anyone. But it gives off an easily identifiable signature."

"You gave your girlfriend a tracking device?" Miles asks him.

Peter freezes and realizes he...kinda did. "That was not my intention."

They retask the satellite's and find the signature in the middle of the mountains inside a Tannhauser offsite.

"Found you."

-

Peter and Barry raced to the offsite to find Caitlin is already Crystal and Icicle is already gone.

Carla was inside some machine with the device Icicle stole.

"Save her." Crystal says, looking to Carla. "I'm gonna go get him." She then creates an ice slide and chases after her father.

Peter tries to open the door to the machine and ended up instantly moving his hand and vibrating it to warm it back up.

"I can't get her out." Peter tells Barry. "You need to phase Carla out of the chamber."

"It's too cold, I won't be able to." Barry tells him.

"What if you generate lightning?" Peter offers. "Generate lightning, but don't throw it, and phase."

"If half of my molecules are in phase, the electricity would hop from stable molecule to stable molecule." Barry replies.

"Creating an electronic bridge that will generate the heat you need." Peter finishes.

"Okay. Let's do this." Barry says and starts generating the lightning. He begins phasing, goes through and starts to warm up Carla.

-

Outside, Crystal blasts Icicle and creates a giant ball of mist.

Believing she finished the job, she stops. But that's when Icicle escapes the mist and appears with a icicle inhand and stabs Caitlin, sending her flying.

Icicle stands above her and gets ready to strike. "What a waste,mi wanted to make you perfect. Now I must end you." But before he could kill her, his hands starts to defrost.

Caitlin scurries backwards as she watches as Icicle gets defeated and vanishes.

"Caity?" The real Thomas Snow asks. "Are you okay?"

"Is it really you?" Caitlin asks.

"It's me." Thomas says and the two hug.

-

Carla is going to be okay when she spots Thomas and Caitlin returning and the heroes look shocked.

"How is this possible?" Cecile asks.

"Well, I saw Icicle about to kill Caitlin, and I found the strength to break through." Thomas says.

"Just like Crystal Frost, dad saved me." Caitlin says.

"Well, you saved me too, Caity. I mean, thanks to you, I think I may have finally banished this monster." Thomas says.

The moment gets interrupted when Peter's senses go off and he dodges a attack and sees Grace-Cicada is here.

"That's good. That just leaves one more monster for me to kill." Grace says as she throws Barry across the room.

"Run!" Peter tells the Snow's as Caitlin becomes Crystal again and turns to Cicada who pulls out the dagger.

"You wanna go high or low?" Peter asks Crystal.

"I'll go high, you go low." Crystal tells him and they approach Cicada.

Cicada goes to swing and Peter blocks it with his armor. Crystal takes a swing with her icicles and was able to slice her.

Grace smacks Spider-Man, sending him flying. Crystal goes to punch and gets thrown around the room by Cicada.

Cicada goes to throw the dagger at Crystal when another blast of mist attaches the dagger.

The two turn to where the mist came from and look to see the Winter-Spider.

"Sup, Cicada?" Tommy asks. "Wait, you're a girl? Wow, I did not see that coming."

While they were confused, Cicada stole the atomizer and escaped.

The team looks to the new arrival when the Snow parents return.

"Oh, hey Grandma Cecile. Grandpa Thomas." Tommy greets them. "Wait, you don't know who I am, do you?"

"Tommy?" Peter and Caitlin ask.

-

They went back to Star labs to run some tests on Thomas and Carla to see if they are clear of their ice counterparts as tommy dragged an unconscious Ralph and Iris into the med lab.

"You know, I grew up with tales of time travel and how bad it is. And how speedsters don't understand NOT to do it." Tommy says and turns to Barry. "I just thought maybe after _Back to the Future_, _Terminator_, _Judgement Day_, _X-Men days of future past_, someone would get the hint."

"How are you here?" Cisco asks as he returned from Earth-19.

"I got a message from uncle Fox and Harry about the abduction of the Time Sphere and had Karen track it." Tommy tells them as he looks around the team Spider-Flash base in its prime. "I just hacked into your commlinks and heard Cicada was also here, so I decided to help out."

"Why was Cicada even there?" Barry asks.

"She stole the atomizer while we weren't looking." Peter says.

"Why would she want it?" Fox wonders.

"Nothing good. Which is why I'm here to help." Tommy says.

"So you're staying?" Peter asks.

"Yeah...if that's okay." Tommy tells him.

Peter looks to Tommy and knows that he's going to die, meaning he never got to know his father. Maybe while he's here, he can learn what happens after he dies. "Yeah, of course. You can stay with us, or here if you want."

"I can stay here, don't want to be a burden." Tommy replies.

"You saved Caitlin, and you're my son, you're no burden." Peter promises.

Tommy smiles and looks up to him. "I'll stay here. Get a head start searching for Nora, maybe learn what Thawne's planning."

Caitlin finished her tests with her parents, and they're both clear and they decided to stay behind a little to help Tommy settle in and learn a bit about their future son.


	108. Future messes

Peter and Caitlin got to know a bit about their son, at least what he could tell them. He didn't want to mess with the timeline and to stop whatever Thawne's planning and not make things worse.

"I'm sorry, Blade did what?" Peter asks his son while he, Caitlin and Frankie were all having a family dinner at their place.

"For my fifteenth birthday, before I learned I had powers, I knew everyone else." Tommy starts off. "And everyone knew about your agreement to keep our powers a secret until the fifteenth birthday, so uncle Blade got me a complete set of vampire slaying knives." He explains and laughs at the end. "Mom got so mad. But not as mad from the katanas from uncle Wade."

"Okay, it's official. Wilson is never coming near our kids." Caitlin tells Peter.

"I can live with that." Peter agrees and takes a drink.

"Yeah, it wasn't as strange as afterward it was like having a second version of the Talk when my powers were awakening." Tommy tells them.

"Oh, god." Caitlin replies as she puts her head in her hands at the idea of the first Talk with her kids. Forget a second talk about their powers.

"_That's on you when the day comes._" Crystal promises Caitlin, not wanting to do that herself.

"Yeah, I was seriously confused as to what she was talking about." Tommy admits. "But then that night, it was like my blood was on fire. And at the same time, it felt like my blood was frozen. The next morning, my room was layered over with frost, I could see my breath, and my hair went from brown and white to white and brown." He says while gesturing to his small bit of white in the front of his hair and the rest of his brown.

"So, what do you do in the future, Tom?" Frankie asks.

"Oh, I work with uncle Fox in Parker Industries. He always said I'm a certified child prodigy. I already have a double master degree in physics and chemistry, four differentdoctorates, a Nobel Peace Prize, and a PhD."

Everyone at the table look amazing and shocked at their son's accomplishments.

"_What_?" Crystal asks, just as shocked by her nephew/half son's accomplishments.

"How?" Peter asked, staring at his son amazed that he had managed to accomplished all of those things at such a young age.

"Well, just like my father, I was naturally a fast learner," Tommy replied shrugging his shoulders. "At the age of two, I wanted to be a doctor. So I began learning the Hippocratic oath by heart. Growing up, my I.Q. level and Tina's were already much higher than most of the kids our age, so Mom and uncle Cisco, Harry and Fox decided that it would be best if they were to home school me, by the time I was around ten, I had already graduated high school and was starting university. At thirteen, me and Tina had won a Nobel Peace Prize for our cure in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and I've almost finished completing my double masters. So by the time I was sixteen, I had just graduated from the University of Central City with a: Ph.D., a double master degree in physics and chemistry, and 4 doctorates in; computer science, criminology, medicine, and psychology."

"My life was pretty much set from there," continued Tommy. "After school, I would work part-time at Parker Industries with uncle Lucius to make the world a better place every Mondays and Wednesdays, help mom out with analyzing lab reports every Tuesdays and Thursdays, and help Frankie, Uncle Miles, Harry and Cisco every Fridays tracking down and stopping criminals, I would also volunteer at the local hospital helping out the kids as best as I could. Working by day, and fight crime as a superhero by night," he finished with a smile on his face.

"Damn, my brother's an overachiever" Frankie mumbled under his breath.

"Wait," Caitlin said, raising her finger up in the air in a pausing gesture, "You guys found the cure to ALS?" she asked looking at her son, flabbergasted.

"Yeah we did," replied Tommy, smiling at his mother. "You were actually our inspiration for finding the cure," he confessed sheepishly.

"I was?" breathed out Caitlin looking at her son. She had spent so long searching for the cure for ALS with no luck, and here stood her son who just told her that he had found the cure.

"You were." He nodding his head. "As a kid, you told me and Tina about what had happened to your father," began Tommy, "and what you went through with it," he said pausing to take a breath. "We didn't want anyone else to go through that sort of pain that you had to endure." he replied looking at his mother in the eyes sincerely. "So we set out looking for a cure. Researching and gathering as much information as I could off of ALS. We would often stay back late at Parker Industries, working on trying to find a cure. It was hard at times. Coming home after a long day at work without any progress. It felt like we were missing something. A vital key. Then one day while I was at my lab, Tina called it a night, I had accidentally spilled some of her chemicals and...BAM!" He concluded, throwing his arms up in the air, "we were on every magazine cover across the globe," he said smiling at the family.

"But I guess what they say is true?" Tommy shrugging his shoulders, "Some of the best things in science were accidents," he said with a grin on his face. "Nevertheless, our discover for the cure in ALS helped a lot of people that day, it saved a lot of lives. But, we couldn't have done it without you," he said looking directly at his mother. "Without your constant support in us, pushing me and Tina forward when we felt like giving up, and always being there for me when I needed you the most. I wouldn't be where I am today without you." he smiled at his mother who had tears in her eyes. "So thank you" he told Caitlin gratefully, "for believing in us when no one else would," he said smiling at her as a tear ran down his own face.

"Oh, Tommy," said Caitlin, engulfing her son in a hug which he happily returned.

Peter watched their moment and wishes he could be there for when Tommy grew up.

He wishes he could prevent the Crisis.

-

Tachyon scanners set up at every half-mile interval across the city." Barry tells them the next day at Star labs as everyone returned.

"And the seismometer is searching for sonic booms in the hundred megahertz range." Caitlin says as she enters the cortex.

"As for the satellites, I've got Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha scanning for her yellow-purple lightning signature." Cisco says pointing at the screens. "I am clearly the Samantha of this group, right?"

"Meh, more Miranda." Peter mocks.

"So, meaning if Nora uses the Speedforce..." May starts.

"She will appear." Harry finishes and they watch as nothing happens.

"I kinda thought she'd pop right up." Barry admits.

"If she's even here." Cisco comments. "How can you be sure that she even came back from the future in the first place?"

That's when Tommy came in and sat down in a chair with an Icee in hand. "Because Thawne sent her to do who knows what. He helped her tap into the Negative Speedforce." The team looks over to him, confused what he's talking about.

"The Negative Speedforce?" Barry asks.

"Yeah, the way that the Reverse Flash can travel anywhere and speedsters can't detect him." Tommy explains, wondering how they've never heard of it.

"What sucker named it that?" Cisco laughs.

"You did, uncle Cisco." Tommy breaks as he sips his Icee.

Cisco freezes and they look to Cisco. "Of course I did."

Barry gets an report on a metahuman breakin.

"I'll grab my gear." Cisco says and walks off.

-

It seems Nora now stole blueprints to McCulloch Technologies who has been using the satellite shrapnels to create weapons like the mind controlling phone.

"Were scanning for Negative Tachyons now." Peter promises as they're back at Star labs waiting for anything.

"Is this how it mostly is during this time?" Tommy asks.

"Yeah, why, how is it in the future?" Peter wonders.

"It's...more quiet. Not that many enemies. All of your enemies got old with age and just...quit. A world without Spider-Man, it's...its hard. The world moved on quickly, but not true believers in you." Tommy tells him. "Mom said you died saving people during a crisis. It wasn't until I was older when she told me you died saving the _world_ from _the_ Crisis. When I was taught how to use my powers by Miles, Mom and even trained by uncle Matt, I became the Winter-Spider to life up to your name. I just...for years, I wanted to be like you."

Peter listens and wishes he knew what was coming so he could stop it and he could watch his son and daughter grow up...see them grow into heroes.

"Tommy, you don't have to live up to my name. I don't know much about the future, but I know one thing. You are a better hero than I could be." Peter says proudly and Tommy looks confused. "Because when you go out there, don't try to be someone else. One thing that I know for sure, don't do it like me. Whatever you do out there...do it like you. You're not Spider-Man. You're the Winter-Spider."

"Thanks, dad." Tommy tells him and pulls him into a hug and Peter quickly returned, thinking this might be the only time he holds his son.

Suddenly, an alert goes off and Cisco and Peter go to check it out.

-

"The satellite's spotted our new temporal anomaly around here somewhere." Cisco says when a blinding light comes in and they see someone new come through as if he was running and comes to a stop.

"Greetings, traveler." Cisco greets the new man. "My name is Cisco Ramon." He greets the man who throws him against the wall.

"Hey!" Peter warns.

"Oh, great. Another angry one." Cisco complains.

"Is this Earth-1?" The man asks.

"Who are you?" Peter asks the man.

The man stops as his watch starts beeping and he turns to see Peter.

"Great. Another Spider-Dork." He complains.

Peter looks confused as he seems to know one of his doppelgängers.

"My name is Sarge. And I'm here...to stop the Monitor." Sarge introduces himself.

"Stop the Monitor?" Peter asks.

"That's what you're doing?" Cisco asks as he catches his breath while feeling his neck.

"I'm here to murder that false god." Sarge promises and Peter listens to what he says and apparently he wants to prevent the very Crisis that is coming to claim his life.

-

At Star labs, Tommy was roaming the halls, he sees Harry getting dragged out of the elevator...by Ragdoll, Weather Witch and Bug Eyed Bandit.

"Whoa! The Young Rogues?!" Tommy asks, getting excited when Witch shocked him with lightning.

Tommy leaped to the ceiling to avoid the shock, but the ceiling was also electrocuted, shocking him.

-

"Nora has put together a team of Rag Doll, Weather Witch, and Bug Eyed Bandit. I always wondered what happened to her." Peter recaps as he and Cisco returned after dealing with this Sarge who they let go to see of he could stop the Crisis. Maybe he could live to be there when his children grow up.

"So she plans to break into McCulloch Technologies, a weapons manufacturing company that has created weapons just like the phone." Fox tells them.

"And from what I can see, McCulloch is debuting a new line of products tonight." Caitlin adds.

"Perfect cover for a breakin." Tommy comments.

"Any idea what Nora's motive?" Joe asks.

"Our best guess? She wants to do something bad." Peter just says.

"Or maybe catch Cicada?" Iris offers.

"Why would she do that?" Tommy asks. "Well, I'm sorry, why would Thawne want that?"

"There's no way my daughter would be doing this for a bad reason." Iris tells him.

"This is exactly what I was afraid of." Barry agrees with him. "Thawne's been manipulated her. Now she's actibg like him, talking like him."

"That doesn't mean she's capable of killing." Iris states.

"She's working with Rogues." Barry tells Iris. "She kidnappedHarry, attacked Tommy. We don't know what she's capable of."

"Except everything the Reverse Flash was capable of." Tommy interrupts.

"We need to bring her in." Barry agrees and leaves as Iris chases after him to stop him.

"Something is bothering me. Why does Thawne want all this?" Peter questions. "Why send Nora back, have her keep a secret she's working with him? Why have her mess with the satellite?"

"He wants something out of it." Caitlin agrees.

"Wow." Tommy comments as they turn to look at him. "You two do think like one mind."

Caitlin and Peter smile at their son and back to one another.

"We'll figure out what Thawne's after. But we need to stop Nora." Caitlin tells them. "The place has metahuman dampeners so the Flash, and everyone won't be able to get in. But we will be able to."

"I'll handle Speedy." Tommy offers. "I know how she thinks, acts, and her moves."

-

That night, Nora was betrayed by the other Rogues, Harry was able to escape, and Nora and the workers of the place are being held hostage until the Flash shows to reveal his identity.

Peter showed up and is wearing the Velocity-Spider and the disguiser from Earth-38 to look like the Flash.

"Wait!" Peter says as they were about to kill a hostage.

"All right, Speedy. Mask off." Witch warns.

"Yeah, how about no?" Peter asks when Witch gets shocked and she drops her staff.

A blast of mist attacks Bug Eyed and Winter-Spider comes down.

"Confused?" Tommy asks.

"How the hell is this even possible?" Witch asks as Miles picks up the staff and reveals himself.

Crystal then strolls in after dealing with a now frozen Rag Doll who is inside a cube of ice.

"We bypassed security the same as you, except our powers still work." Crystal explains and gets ready to attack them.

"You're outnumbered, so stand down." Peter tells them as he reveals himself.

the Rogues look and see they can't do anything with all these powered individuals surrounding them.

-

They brought them back to Star labs and they left Nora to her parents.

"So what can we do now?" Peter asks.

"We need to find a way to destroy Cicada's dagger." Caitlin tells him.

"Then why don't you use your secret weapon?" Tommy asks.

"We have a weapon?" Cisco asks.

"Cicada's dagger is metal that can take away powers. Use the one thing that isn't a metahuman power and can destroy anything." Tommy explains. "There's one thing not of this world, powerful enough to destroy anything with a single punch."

Peter starts to put together what he's saying, and knows the one thing powerful enough.

"The Immortal Iron Fist." Peter whispers.

"The immoral what?" Harry asks.

"Danny Rand, he's a friend of mine who couldn't help with Cicada last time being in China. Matt said he recently got back to New York. He was raised in the ancient city of K'un-Lun. He went through some tests, punched a Dragon in the heart and became the Immortal Iron Fist." Peter expains to them. "One punch from his Fist could shatter steel with little strength. He could destroy Cicada's dagger instantly."

"That might be a bit harder than we thought." Ralph says as he strolls into the cortex after getting a message from Caitlin's parents. "Cicada stole the cure prototypes from the offsite."

"Why would she want that?" Peter asks.

"They're failed, broken versions of the cure." Cisco explains. "If a metahuman took that without the proper treatment..."

"They would die." Harry guesses. "She now has a lethal virus on her hands."

"That's why she stole the atomizer. So she can spread the virus." Barry finishes.

"This is what I was afraid of." Cisco says.

"Cicada wants to kill every metahuman in the city." Peter guesses.

"Wait, did you say a dragon?" They realize.

-

With Sarge, he's finally found it. He found where the Monitor is hiding, and it's in the sewers of Central City.

"I'm coming for you, Mar Novu." Sarge promises the man.


	109. I Hate Time travel!

Barry ran to New York after Peter sent a heads up warning to Danny Rand and he was rushed over with his mask in hand.

They filled Danny in on their plan and what they're up against and what he needs to do.

They start distributing the cure to the CCPD so that they can help the metahumans so they don't get killed.

Cicada showed up at CCEU and stole a quantum tunnel converter that can transform dark matter to practical energy. She plans to use her dagger to power the atomizer.

Cisco knows what she would need last for it to work and gets to work finding it.

Peter took a quick run to Jitters to meet up with Thomas Snow who Peter wanted to ask him an important question.

"Peter Parker." Thomas greets Peter as he meets up with him.

"Please, sir, it's just Peter." Peter tells him.

"Then please, call me Thomas." Thomas replied and takes a seat. "You said you wanted to talk?"

"Yeah." Peter says. "I wanted to do it without Caitlin, or everyone else around."

"You wanted to talk to me alone." Thomas recaps. "What is it about?"

"Basically...I know we don't have a lot of history, and with everything going on, Cicada, children coming from the future to help stop him. It's a bit of bad timing with a murderer on the loose, but there doesn't seem to be a better time approaching. After we deal with Cicada for good, and send the kids back to the future...I want to propose to Caitlin, and I'd like your blessing in doing so."

Thomas listens and sees he means it. "Peter, we might not have the best history. Our first meeting, my other half tried killing you. But I saw how you make my Caity feel through his eyes. She loves you. You make her feel happy. And I look forward to getting to know you as a member of the family." He tells him and Peter sees he has his blessing.

-

Peter returned to Star labs and learns Caitlin and May went to CCPD to help distribute the cure to the metahumans and sees that they're trying to learn about Danny's Iron Fist.

"So...you punched a dragon in the heart?" Cisco asks.

"Yeah." Danny confirms. "I went through the trails and earned the right of the Iron Fist."

"You say that like its normal." Cisco states.

"Normal for me." Danny responds with a shrug ].

Peter even sees Ralph is trying to figure out Thawne's plan and Tommy is trying to help.

Cisco found Sebasion Ollins, an old college roommate, has the device Cicada would need as Barry and Peter go with Danny to get rid of the dagger.

When the three arrived, they look to see no Cicada.

-

"So you keep your identity safe with a mask that covers half your face?" Barry asks, looking at Danny who's wearing a yellow cloth over his head and eyes.

"And what does your mask hide?" Danny asks as Barry's mask is the same.

"Guys, lets just grab the conduit and you can bicker on who has the worse mask later." Peter says when his senses go off and he looks to a suitcase. "Get us out of here!"

Barry speeds them at the last second as the place blows, meaning Cicada was already there and now has everything she needs.

-

"Grace now has everything she needs to use the dark matter from the dagger to supercharge the atomizer." Harry tells them.

"If this is supercharged the right way, she could distribute the death cure to the whole country." Fox says.

Ralph comes in with a theory about what Thawne is up to and the _real_ scientists listen in as Barry and Iris want to believe he's trying to be a good guy.

For whatever reason.

"There's an original timeline with an original Cicada, David Hersch. But Nora interfered with the satellite, giving us Orlin Dwyer. That's also the same night Grace goes into a coma. This is where it gets complicated. At some point in the future, Grace wakes up and becomes her own filled fledged Cicada. Goes back in time, kills her uncle with his own dagger. What happens to all the metas that Dwyer killed? And all the metas that Grace killed in the future? What did she kill them with? And most importantly, what happens to the timeline where Grace never killed Dwyer?"

"Actually, she didn't have the dagger." Tommy tells them. "My few encounters with Cicada, as limited as they were, she never used the dagger."

"Look, right now we need to find Grace, then we will put it together." Barry promises them.

-

They learned that Cicada is planning to attack at the CCPD with the metahumans all there so they all go to stop her.

They're going to send the atomizer to Earth-15, so she can't use it to kill the metas and use Danny to destroy her dagger.

"Hey, cricket freak." Crystal calls her out. "You and I have some unfinished buisness." She blasts Cicada and Peter webs her to the ceiling and smacks her into the ground.

"Is that it?" Tommy asks, kinda expecting more.

"Not yet." Peter says. "Danny, summon your chi or whatever you need to do, destroy the dagger."

"On it." Danny says and Cisco stops him.

"If we shatter the dagger while it's still in there, it could detonate the virus." Cisco warns them.

"Okay, we'll keep Cicada down, you and Iron Fist stop it." Peter tells them and Crystal freezes the doorway so they have some time.

Cicada wakes up and blasts the heroes around easily. She took Peter and slammed him against the wall.

Tommy and Crystal then begin to fight her off mother and son.

A time window opens up and another blast of mist exits it and hits Cicada.

"Oh, look who got my message." Tommy complains as he sees his sister.

"Shut up, bro." Tina Snow-Parker tells him as she helps her family fight off Cicada.

Cicada pulls out two boomerangs and throws them, causing the children to move and dodge it as Cicada fight off Crystal.

She uses Crystal to break through the ice by throwing her into the wall.

Cisco was shutting down the device when it was about to go off.

Crystal gets back up, Tommy and Tina use their powers to help keep Cicada frozen in place.

"Iron Fist!" Peter tells Danny who summons enough chi and Cisco watches as his Fist begins to glow and he swings his fist to shatter the dagger.

Ralph then began to put together that stopping Cicada isn't Thawne's plan. It's the dagger.

That's what's stopping Thawne in the future.

The dagger is what's stopping Thawne from escaping the future prison.

But Ralph figured it out too late as they shattered the dagger, erasing this version of Cicada from existence.

-

When they returned to Star labs, Ralph explains to them what exactly happened and what's going on now.

"So now with the dagger destroyed, that means Thawne is able to escape." Tina realizes and sees she made a mistake.

"What do we do now?" Barry asks.

"Is there anything we can do?" Fox questions.

"Well...there is something." Tommy says and looks to Tina.

"Two somethings." Tina agrees with a smile and raises her wrist with the time watch.

-

2049

Thawne murders all the guards the second the dagger vanishes, but Nora used her powers to reverse time to bring them all back as Barry and Nora are the first to arrive and they get the guards out and see Thawne in his suit.

"Well, well. It appears as if someone has figured out how to reverse time." Thawne says.

"We figured out everything." Nora tells him.

"Oh, really? What have you figured out?" Thawne asks.

"You sent Nora back, to destroy the satellite, to create a Cicada we could stop. A dagger we could destroy. It was the dagger keeping you here." Barry answers.

"Fifteen years. The second time I've been stuck somewhere against my will. Boring." Thawne says. "Except for your visits. You're leaving out the most delightful part; you both helped me escape. When you went back in time to the time vault. Remember?"

When they went back in time to get Thawne to fix the dark matter dampener, he got the idea to use that to his use.

Thawne races off and the three then fight throigh the city, but Thawne has more tricks up his sleve and was able to outrun them both. He raced at them when a tie portal opens and the Time Sphere exits and smashes Thawne, the entire team exits.

Ralph, Peter, Crystal, Miles, Frankie, Cisco, Tina, Tommy, and Harry with his speedster cannon.

"Isn't this nice?" Thawne asks them. "Team Spider-Flash, back together again...with a few new guys. Ralph Dibny. Welcome. You should be dead." He tells Ralph. "Miles Morales. The Ultimate Spider-Man. Frankie Parker, Metalla. And the two offsprings of the Snow-Parker pack. The Rogue Squadron."

"What can we say? We've been wanting to beat you up since we were kids." Tina states as she now has her own suit on. Her outfit design is not very different from Tommy's or Peter's, except it's all red with light blue sides and dark blue boots with a snowflake on the front and a spider on the back.

"Cisco. It warms my heart to see you again." Thawne tells him. "Sorry about the..." he does a gesture, referring when he killed Cisco in an alternate timeline. "But if I had not die that, you would never have become extraordinary."

"I don't need powers for that." Cisco says.

Thawne rushes at them, Tina activates a time window, opening up behind them as Crystal and Tommy blast him with ice, Harry shot him into one of Cisco's breaches.

Peter is waiting as the breach opens and Thawne falls. He webs Thawne before punching him far away.

Nora and Barry speed into another breach and punch Thawne as he lands with a lightning punch.

Nora grabs Thawne and takes off his cowl.

"It's not my father's legacy that's gobna disappear, Thawne." Nora promises and begins to phas her hand. "It's yours!"

Suddenly, she stops and Thawne looks sympathetic as her arm starts to vanish.

"It was never going to work, little runner." Thawne breaks as Nora starts getting erased from existence. "A new timeline is setting in. That you created when you destroyed the dagger. I had to be sure I could go free."

Barry goes to stop her when Thawne says he can save Nora if he sends her into the Negative Speedforce.

To make sure he doesn't get away, Frankie crushes him in steel and Tina and Tommy freeze him in the metal so he doesn't escape.

The West-Allen's disappear to get it to work. But in the end, Nora vanished and was erased from existence.

The Time Bureau came in and rearrested Thawne so he won't be able to escape.

"Fifteen year's of patience and planning. Wasted." Tina comments as Thawne is transported back to Iron Heights for his sentence to be carried out properly.

"Does that mean this is it?" Tommy asks his parents.

"Yeah, I guess this is it." Peter guesses and looks to Crystal who turns to Caitlin to say goodbye.

"It's been nice to get to know you guys. For as small time as we got." Caitlin says and gives her kids a hug.

"Hey, we'll see each other again." Tommy promise her.

"Only when you see us again, we'll be babies." Tina shrugs as the family all come in for a group hug.

"It's been nice having siblings." Frankie says.

"Well, we got to get home. We're cooking for when you Mom and Frankie get back from New York." Tina says and the two swing off for home.

"I already miss them." Frankie tells them, kinda upset.

"Don't worry, you'll see them in a year or so." Caitlin says and Frankie is actually only now told Caitlin is pregnant.

-

The team returned to Star labs, Cisco decided to take the cure himself and got rid of his powers to have a normal relationship with Kamila, Caitlin went to bring Frankie home for the night and Peter asked her to meet up with him at the waterfront later, Cisco even says he made Crystal and Barry a new suit.

But Peter has one more thing to finally make clear after calling someone to watch Frankie for a hour or two.

"I have faced a lot of deception these past few years. Been through a roller coaster of emotions, ups and downs, hope and fear. And I'm through with the lies. So it's time for the truth to be out there...are you two dating?" Peter finally asks Harry and May.

"Yes." Harry says "Not really." May says at the same time.

The two then face the other.

"Well..."

"I think..."

"Summer fling." May says.

"Yes, that evolves and grows like anything else." Harry replies.

"I still don't know where it's going to go." May tells Peter, who's now getting confused.

"Open to wherever it might lead." Harry continues.

"Anywhere. On or off."

"To share it with people..."

"We'll always be friends, no matter what."

As they keep overlapping one another, Peter sees they're talkng to each other, not really him.

"I'm gonna go because I've got an important question to ask my girlfriend." Peter says and webs his mask to him. "Bye." He says and leaps out the window, leaving the two arguing in his apartment.

-

Down in the sewers, Sarge has finally found the doorway to find the Monitor.

"For so many years, I've traveled across the worlds, across the multiverse to do one thing. To kill you, and now here I stand...ready to end it." Sarge tells the doorway.

"_Submit and begin your life anew._" A voice says.

"Show me." Sarge tells him.

"_The knowledge is within you._"

Sarge sees numerals appear on the doorway and he begins to activate the doorway.

It opens and he's consumed by a blinding light.


	110. The end is near

Peter and Caitlin are going on a stroll around the city just by themselves with May and Harry still talking at their place.

"I am very much enjoying this stroll." Caitlin tells him. "After everything, this is nice. And it's better since in a few months, it's gonna get difficult to do this." She says and puts an arm on her stomach.

Peter chuckles at that. "Yeah. But mind if we stop here for a minute?"

They both stop and they look out to see the city and the lights.

"This is pretty beautiful." Caitlin says and lays her head on his shoulder. "Why are you so jittery tonight?"

"Because..." Peter pulls the ring box out of his pocket, keeping it hidden from her, and gets ready for the biggest decision of his life. "Caitlin, these last few years with you have been the best of my life. You, Frankie, the children on the way...after everything we've been through, you've always been there for me. And I want you to always be there for you. Caitlin Snow...Crystal Frost."

"Peter Parker?" Caitlin says, seeing where this might be going.

"_Is he gonna ask what I think he's gonna ask?_" Crystal wonders.

Peter gets down on one knee and reveals the ring to her.

"Will you marry me?" Peter asks.

"_Yes!_" Crystal answers.

"Yes!" Caitlin answers and Peter slips on the ring and the two begin to kiss when Peter's senses go off. "Peter...what's wrong?"

Peter looks around when suddenly he looks up to the night sky and sees it begins to turn blood red.

"What's happening?" Peter asks, confused.

-

_Coming soon_

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CRISIS ON INFINITE WHAT IF'S

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	111. Warning

This is What If Universe with an important message for readers.

I regret to report that all the Spiderverse stories are on hold, and with the shadow of a new story rising to take their place.

The Crisis Of Infinite What If's the final chapter of the Spiderverse has come.

Worlds will live.

Worlds will burn.

But one things for sure.

Their universes will never be the same.


	112. Read Crisis

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This is a warning to all readers who don't know about it.

The Crisis is its own separate story, so the next update will have spoilers for what happened _after_ Crisis.

So if you wanna keep up, search for CRISIS ON INFINITE WHAT IF'S - the final chapter of the Spiderverse.

The next chapter of the actual story will be posted soon.

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	113. Thank you, Oliver

Empty hanger

The teams all came together one final time as they look at the manikin holding the Green Arrow suit as they're having their own funeral for their friend.

"Thank you for saving us, Oliver." Kara thanks the man who rebirthed the universe, brought them back, and revived the love of her life. "The world has hope again. I have hope again. I'll never forget you."

"Thanks for believing in me." Barry says. "You have way of bringing out the best of all of us. Imma miss you, man."

Peter-CC then took a few steps forward towards the manakin. "I'm gonna be honest here, man. If any of us were going to die, I assumed I was going to be the first. Which I technically was, but you brought me back." He tries joking, knowing that's the way he deals with grief. "If you told me when I started this mission, I would be friends with someone who had opposite ideals than me, I'd called you crazy. Now I'm happy to say you are...and always shall be my friend. I hope you can finally Rest In Peace. You deserve it. Thank you, Oliver." He thanks his friend for this second chance at life.

Kara and Peter-NC use lasers and light a fire in a arrowhead shaped fire place as a League of Assassins funeral.

"I never knew Oliver, but he seemed to be a good dude." Jefferson says to Barry and then looks around. "Why'd you choose a condemned building?"

"What? No, this is not a condemned building." Barry tells them. "This is an old Star labs research facility that nobody uses. What's even better no one knows it exists."

"Really?" Peter-NC asks. "I can see this place from any satellite."

"I figured we could use this place to gather if anything ever happens again." Barry goes on.

"That's a great idea, Barry." Clark agrees.

"Meh, maybe I can get Fox to pull up some ideas we could do with it." Peter-CC offers and comes up with a few ideas. "Like maybe a few monitor's, a few spare suits, maybe a few vehicles."

"It's a better option than all of you dropping by the DEO." J'onn comments.

"Why do we even need it?" Jefferson wonders. "I mean, how often is the world coming to an end?" He asks and chuckled before seeing all of their faces. "Oh, it's like that?"

"I've been doing this since I was fifteen, you get used to it." Peter-CC promises.

"And I haven't showed you guys the best part yet." Barry says as he walks over to a cloth and removes it to shoe a table with chairs and all of them have the symbols for all the heroes.

"Should've lead with that, man." Peter-NC comments and looks over the dozens of alternative spider symbols on the chairs. One is all white and technical for Peter-CC, one is red and golden for him, an all white with an pink outline for Spider-Ghost, and a all red one for Miles.

Peter-CC looks at them and sees one with a snowflake on it, most likely for Crystal. One with a photo of steel for Metalla. One with Morg'Ann's shield on it.

"Saving the world got a whole lot cooler." Peter-CC comments and everyone takes a seat.

They all just take everything in when they hear something above them crash and something that sounds like cackling or something.

"Sounds like we need to call pest control." Sara says.

"What the hell is that?" Peter-NC asks.

-

Back in Central City, Jitters just reopened and was immediately attacked by terrorists.

"Metalla and Ultimate Spider-Man are on the case." Frankie promises.

"You. Open the register." The same guy who Miles took down for that robbery during Cicada tells the worker while raising a giant gun to her. "Give me everything inside."

"Dude, we just reopened. There's barely anything in there." She informs him.

"Really?" He asks.

"Yeah."

"Oh." He realizes he made a mistake. "Well, I'm gonna start blowing stuff up then." He starts firing at every thing when it begins to slow down and the gun begins to float out of his hands.

"It's you?" Frankie asks, recognizing the man.

"It's you?" He asks her.

"It's you?" Miles asks, recognizing him.

"It's you!" He says in anger when Miles punches him and Frankie bends a pole around him.

"It's all clear, guys." Miles says as the two make their leave and everyone cheers.

-

Back at Star labs, Caitlin did a check out on herself with Patty's help to make sure her using her powers and the Crisis didn't injure the child or anything and he or she is perfectly fine and healthy so she's allowing Crystal to have the rest of the day with Peter and Frankie.

As for Cisco, he's wrapping his head around the whole new world they live in.

"I'm sorry, Crisis is over, we've beaten the bad guy, and you're still worried because...?" Patty asks Cisco.

"Because...an infinite number of earth's experienced a cosmic heat death from which only two seem to have been rebuilt. So now not only do Superman, Supergirl, the Iron-Spider-Man, and Black Lightning live here now," he walks over to a whiteboard with their entire lives on it, "but now our entire timeline has been rewritten so that they've always lived here. And I don't remember owning this shirt!" He says and shows he's wearing a shirt with Superman's symbol on it.

"Great shirt." Crystal comments. "Besides, isn't that a good thing? We're all one big, happy family now?"

"No. No!" Cisco says as he walks over with a book in his hands as Peter returns. "Not when these guys are crashing the reunion."

Crystal takes the book and Peter looks above her and it's filled with small character cards with information on everyone they've gone up against from Cicada to Mysterio.

"Not a single one of our doppelgängers survived to make it to Earth Prime, as far as I can tell, except for the Iron-Spider-Man only because he is half alien, giving him and his sister a pass. But we did manage to pick up a butt-ton of bad guys and aliens and more metas, not to mention VAMPIRES, and you know the best part? The best part is a bunch of our old villains are back, with fresh paint jobs!"

"Question; when'd you find the time to do all this?" Ralph questions him.

"Everyone, the Top, dr. Octopus, Rainbow Raider, the Lizard, Kingpin. Our earth has more threats than ever, and we don't even know where they're doing from." Cisco says.

"Spidey." Crystal calls over and shows him the new dr. Octavius.

"Oh, dear god, he's ripped like Dwayne Johnson." Peter states, annoyed how he predicted that when they first went to Earth-2...which never happened. Or, technically it did happen but now it's been rewritten.

They then hear knocking from somewhere.

"What was that?" Harry asks.

"Pipes...bad pipes. The heating." Cisco says. "Don't worry about it."

The banging continues and they look to where the Flash manikin usually is and see a shadow figure.

"Let me out!" They hear the voice of Sarge call.

"You sure?" Ralph asks. "'Cause it looks like you locked Sarge in the closet."

"No." Cisco says.

"Let me out!" Sarge commands.

"Okay, one of the auxiliary pipes was leaking, so he's patching it up in exchange for a Crypto-circuit." Cisco explains to them.

"Fine, don't let me out. I'll let myself out, thank you very much!" Sarge states. "I'm gonna put an Atlantean shoulder check into the door and break through. In three...two..."

"Okay." Cisco says and lets him out and he comes out flying and droping on the floor.

"Sup?" Crystal greets the man.

"Give me my Crypto-circuit. Or I'm gonna punch you in your throat." Sarge tells Cisco.

"I could give it to you, but, you know, I'm not really sure what you need it for because you're an adventurer, so shouldn't you be off somewhere, adventuring? Preferably not here." Cisco asks him.

"Yeah, Gorilla City's part of Earth Prime now. Why not go myth busting." Patty offers him.

"No. Gorillas are idiots." Sarge says, not knowing anything about the gorillas being telepathic. "No, I'm gonna run tests on my dig site to ensure that nobody ever accidentally reopens the antimatter universe."

Cisco hands him the device, seeing they never want to deal with the Anti-Monitor again. "Run your tests, but I already ran them, and that cave is staying shut so you're not really needed."

"You ran them? Then I'm definitely needed." Sarge says and leaves.

"Great there's two Harry's." Patty whispers.

"I liked his doppelgänger better." Crystal says, remembering Coulson.

-

Crystal later left the labs to go home where she waited for Peter and was starting to feel ill because of the pregnancy when Peter comes in.

"Hey, Crystal." Peter calls for her as he makes it home.

"Hey, sexy." Crystal greets him from the couch.

"I was taking down some crime mob bosses down at this restaurant, when I found him on the way here." Peter says and Diggle comes in.

"Hey, Crystal." John greets her.

"Dig, how's the family?" Crystal asks, not getting up, feeling too light headed.

"Oh, everyone's busy." Diggle says as he walks over to her and hugs her that she easily returns. "Lila just accepted a new position, so next week we'll be taking the kids to Metropolis."

"Which now exists on this Earth." Peter mumbled to himself as he hasn't really fully accepted the two realities in his head.

"So shouldn't you be at home packing boxes?" Crystal asks.

"Yes. But Oliver's will and testament was read yesterday, and he left something for you, Peter." Diggle says and holds a briefcase up and places it down on the coffee table where he shows it's one of Oliver's Green Arrow suits.

Peter looks down at the suit and feels the fabric. "This is the one I made him when I was visiting Star City. Before our worlds changed. When I was the craziest thing known to science." He says, smiling at the memories and a lone tear drops down his face.

An alert goes off and Peter sees he needs to go.

"I.."

"Go." Crystal and John tell him.

Peter quickly gets his suit on and leaps out the window. Some things never change.

"How does he stomach that?" John wonders.

"Please...don't talk about stomaching something around me." Crystal pleads, not wanting to be sick.

-

At a diamond jewelry store, Pied Piper is robbing the place when Peter came in and webbed his gauntlets.

"Hartley Rathaway. Since when did you steal jewels?" Peter wonders, trying to figure out if he is a good guy in post-Crisis.

"It's Pied Piper, Spider-Man. And you're really gonna ask me that after everything you did to me?" Hartley asks him.

"Me?" Peter asks.

"Well, you and Flash. Mostly Flash." Hartley admits. "Apparently, there's something else you don't remember. The gauntlets are my backup singers." He then takes off flying with a Canary Cry.

"He can fly now. Great. At least it's not another Laurel." Peter comments. "I need help."

-

Fox was at the Spider Cave when Peter came in with tech gauntlets. The spider cave was moved from the giant warehouse now to outside Peter's home which Peter owned the building in post-Crisis.

"_Welcome back, Peter. How'd it go?_" Karen, the artificial intelligence that Fox and Stein created (Who is also alive because his death never occured) shortly after they defeated Savitar. In this post-Crisis world anyhow.

"Not really good, thank you, Karen." Peter says as he drops the gauntlets on the table.

"See you had a run in with Pied Piper again." Fox sees.

"Yeah, do you know what the Flash did to tick him off?" Peter asks.

"Let me guess, it was a post-Crisis change?" Fox sees.

"Yeah." Peter says and turns to the computers. "Karen, can you tell me how many changes were made post-Crisis?"

"_I estimate 3.725 trillion changes. Would you like to hear them in order of causality?_" Karen asks and Peter slams his head to the table.

"I should've stopped Sarge when he first arrived." Peter sees, then he wouldn't be dealing with this.

"There's no way you could've prevented this." Fox tells him.

"It's just...everything is different now." Peter says as he drops to a chair. "Before Crisis, I had everything set. I had the girl...girls? I have a kid on the way still, but everything is so different. I was able to save and cure dr. Conners in the before-Crisis, but it turns out in this new post-Crisis, he was never cured and is stuck as a lizard, and more."

"Hey, everything will work out." Fox promises and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Oh, I gotta go." He says as he gets up and grabs his phone.

"Hey, is that the Karen transport?" Peter asks looking at the small earpiece.

"Yeah, I think I worked out the bugs, if you want to give it a go." Fox says as he leaves for a Parker Industries appointment.

Peter picks up the earpiece. "Well, I got some time to kill." He guesses with Barry out with Patty, they'll call him if they need him and he and Crystal are waiting for Frankie to get home from school to go out as a family. "Let's see if this works, Karen." He says and places the earpiece in.

The earpiece shocks him and Peter passes out on the floor.

-

Peter gasps awake and looks to see he's in a giant cage in the middle of Caitlin's labs.

Peter drops to the ground in annoyance. He gets up and tries to pry the bars open and sees his powers aren't working.

He leaps to the ceiling to try and stick only to drop on his back.

"Vacation. Destination; Tahiti. Date; whenever I get the hell out of here. I've been told it's a magical place." Peter tells himself, planning a trip in his head for when he gets out of here because he seriously needs a break from all of this and needs some time away from this city.

The doors open and Caitlin walks inside. "Oh, good, you're awake."

"Oh, thank god, Caitlin." Peter says as he gets up and remembers Caitlin was Crystal when he went unconscious. "What the hell is going on?" He questions, wondering how long he was unconscious. "I was at the Spider Cave, why am I in a cage?"

"Quite the little chatterbox today, aren't we?" Caitlin asks, basically ignoring his questions.

"Why are you talking to me like that?" Peter asks, getting creeped out. "Cait, let me out!" He asks as he shakes the bars to try and get out.

"Easy, killer." Someone says and Peter looks to see Harrison Wells. The original Harrison Wells. Eobard Thawne.

"Thawne." Peter says, seeing this post-Crisis seems to have kept him and somehow Harry at the same time.

"You're quite the specimen, aren't you?" Thawne asks.

"I don't know where I am, or how I got here, but I will stop you. Whatever you have planned." Peter promises.

"Cranky." Thawne says. "What, did you offer him the B-word?" He asks Caitlin.

"Maybe he just needs some privacy." Caitlin guesses. "I'm gonna go check on Ronnie. He's working on a new space, he's very excited about. He's calling it the pipeline." She says and they leave.

Peter is seriously confused about what she's saying and that could only mean he's in the past.

-

Fox and Crystal were just in the elevator going down to the Spider Cave.

"At least Crisis did some easy changes. I don't need to go all the way to the coast to pick up my fiancé when he's too preoccupied in gadgets he looses track of time." Crystal says.

"Sorry. I should have known he would get caught up in the Karen transport." Fox tells her.

"It's not your fault, Fox. I mean, it's not like you killed him." Crystal replies when they enter the Spider Cave and look to see Peter on the floor unconscious.

"Oh my god!" They both yell and run to Peter.

"Spidey, can you hear me?" Crystal asks as she feels for a pulse. "Peter!"

-

Peter looks around the cage, trying to figure out what the hell is happening to him.

"I can't help you if you won't talk to me." Caitlin tells Peter as she returns. "Use your signs."

"What is wrong with you?" Peter finally asks her. He never thought he'd have to ask Caitlin that. He doesn't understand what's happening, he's known Caitlin from the beginning. If Ronnie is naming the pipeline now, that means he's in the early days of Star labs. But Caitlin never acted like she was talking to a child before. Not that he's aware of.

That's when Thawne returns. "Nothing? Well, everyone has good days and bad days. Gorillas are no different."

Peter looks up to them and the pieces come together. He looks to a bucket of water and sees he's Grodd.

"This is the mindscape of..." Peter realizes.

"That's right, Spider-Man." Grodd's voice says through Thawne. "You're in Grodd's mind now."

Peter seriously hates post-Crisis.

"What's the matter, Grodd? Getting lonely at ARGUS, you're willing to talk to your most hated man?" Peter asks, knowing Grodd loathes him.

"Grodd is still in his prison in the mental coma you and your team put him in." Caitlin says in Grodd's voice.

"Before-Crisis me was clever." Peter congratulates himself, never thinking of putting the psycho gorilla to sleep and not kill him. "So the cage is payback? You want revenge?"

"Not revenge. Understanding." Thawne says. "Grodd wants Peter Parker to see what it's like to have nothing. No powers, no freedom. Only captivity."

"Caitlin used a neural inhibitor to shut down Grodd's cerebrum." Caitlin says. "Caitlin...betrayed Grodd. But you gave her the idea. This is your doing, Spider-Man."

"You were hurting people. You're dangerous. You want a Planet of the Apes, to enslave humanity, and I couldn't let you. And Caitlin did what she thought was best. She wouldn't kill you, not even I would kill you. Your mind is a powerful weapon that you use for your own selfish needs."

"You take a weapon from a man, he's still a man." Thawne says. "You took Grodd's mind, Grodd's greatest gift. That is not punishment. That is cruelty, pure cruelty."

Peter gets up and walks to the bars. "Does that great mind of yours remember what you did? You kidnapped me, nearly killed me, kidnapped my fiancé...twice. You marched an army of gorillas through my city. Forced us to try and help you do it. Face it, Grodd. You are where you deserve to be."

"You are right." Thawne says.

"It took Grodd years to find the strength to think intelligently again, and in that time, Grodd has many...primitive thoughts." Caitlin says.

"And without the power of higher thinking...Grodd could no longer lie to himself and was forced to confront the truth of his actions, his wrongdoings, his crimes." Thawne continues.

"Your accident allowed Grodd to enter your mind, not to harm Spider-Man, but to ask for help." Caitlin finishes. "The neural inhibitor put a gatekeeper in Grodd's mind. The portal that the gatekeeper guards is the only way out of this prison. Help Grodd. Grodd is sorry. Grodd has changed."

"The super gorilla wants me to take his word after kidnapping and hijacked my mind. Who won't even show himself to me." Peter says as he turns to see the two have vanished and he hears footsteps as Grodd does walk into the room. "How'd you fit through the doorway?" He asks, pointing to the small doorway.

"Grodd wants Spider-Man to trust him." Grodd says and waves his hand as the cage door opens. "Your powers are returned. Please, help Grodd defeat the gatekeeper."

Peter thinks for about it while he walks out the cage and quickly tests his sticking abilities on the cage door as he opens it and they're working. He walks up to the gorilla and suddenly does a spin and kick, knocking the gorilla down.

"Nice try, Grodd. But I know you better than that." Peter states as he sees he's now back in his Spider-Man outfit with web shooters. "Thanks for this."

-

"Based on Peter's pulse, rapid eye movements, his vitals...and the two brainwaves energy must mean someone hijacked his mind." Caitlin says as Fox is snapping his hands in front of Peter who was placed in the medical bed.

"Who can do this?" Frankie wonders as she arrived recently.

"My guess, Grodd off the top of my head." Caitlin tells her daughter. "If we can sync up these neueal transmitters, we might be able to communicate with Peter to figure out what's happening."

They get to work on it, trying to communicate with him.

-

Peter has just gone through Central City and found the portal on the edge of the city.

"Thank god." Peter says, seeing it looks like a breach. "Time to go home." He says when suddenly someone falls from the sky and he sees Solovar. "For...the love...of god! Can everyone stop trying to kill me for five seconds?!"

Solovar roars at Peter and he sees he's got his work cut out for him.

"Listen, big guy, we don't have to fight." Peter tries reasoning with him. "As far as I'm aware, Grodd can stay here forever."

"I am the warden of this prison, Spider-Man. Non shall escape. Not even you." Solovar tells him.

"Fine." Peter says and Solovar charges at him, Peter goes to punch him and ends up being thrown down the forest. "Ow."

-

Peter starts shaking in the real world in pain.

"Peter's body is reacting to whatever's happening in the mindscape." Caitlin warns as they try to hold him down.

"So if he dies in there, he can die out here like in the _Matrix_?" Frankie asks them.

"Correct." Caitlin says. "And remind me, Cisco isn't allowed to babysit for you anymore." She says, not needing her child to Stark making as many references as her fiancée and friend. "Except we crafted the mind crown to keep Grodd in, and if we don't get Peter out, the mindscape could collapse. If that happens and he's still inside, he will die."

"_I don't understand. How did Grodd get into Peter's mind_?" Crystal asks them.

"Because of my tweaks to the Karen transport." Fox says and picks up the device. "When I finished tweaking this, I was adjusting its hypothalamic connection to a factor of 900. That's more than enough for another brain to piggyback on."

"And Peter was wearing that when he was whammied." Caitlin finishes.

-

Peter gets back up to Solovar who's charging at him.

Peter quickly runs up the building and swings back into the city to come up with a plan. He heads back to Star labs and sees Grodd looks like Harry now.

"Really? You're Harry now?" Peter asks.

"When Spider-Man sees Grodd, he sees anenemy from his past." Harry says with Grodd's voice. "Grodd wants Spider-Man to see a face he can trust."

"And having me fight Solovar was supposed to make me trust you?" Peter questions.

"Grodd thought Spider-Man could beat him." Grodd says.

"You were wrong! I'm not strong enough! But that was your plan, wasn't it?" Peter asks.

"No." Grodd says when the room begins to shake and vibrate.

"What's happening?" Peter asks.

"This world is crumbling. The neural inhibitor can no longer take the strain of two minds." Grodd explains.

"And I have a feeling if it fails, we both die?" Peter guesses.

"Yes." Grodd confirms.

"You wanted revenge on me so badly you were willing to die to get it?" Peter asks.

"No." Grodd says. "Grodd has changed."

"Nothing could have changed you." Peter states.

"Not even the Crisis on Infinite Worlds?" Grodd asks.

Peter looks surprised that he even knows about it and remembers it. "How...?"

"Grodd's mind wasn't affected by the merging of the multiverse, but Grodd can still sense changes in the reality, changes like Gorilla City. City is here now. The gorillas are here now. Grodd knows this." Grodd says. "Grodd wants to return home."

"Why? They kicked you out. So you can send another army into my city, take over the world?" Peter questions.

"That was the old reality and who Grodd used to be." Grodd replies. "That Grodd wanted power. Power didn't bring happiness. It brought pain. New Grodd wants a new path. Grodd wants to live...in peace with his own kind. Gorilla City is the only place Grodd ever...ever felt happy."

"You're telling the truth. You really have changed." Peter can see, and can't believe how much the Crisis changed him. The gorilla that hated him ever since he first went to Star labs, and beyond has changed.

"Spider-Man didn't believe Grodd before, but why does Spider-Man believe Grodd now?" Grodd wonders.

"You let the past go. You actually let the past die." Peter says and walks around. "Crisis changed everything I knew. The city, my work, everything I once thought I knew."

"Those things don't matter. Not to Spider-Man." Grodd tells him. "Spider-Man only cares about the people. But it doesn't matter. If Spider-Man can't beat Solovar, there is no escape. This world collapses. We will both die. Our fate is sealed."

"No. Nothing is set in stone." Peter tells him. "If we want to get out of here, we need to do something new."

"How?" Grodd asks, changing into his normal form.

"We're going to have to do the one thing I never thought I'd say." Peter says and walks up to the gorilla. "Spider-Man and Gorilla Grodd have to fight together."

-

The two of them make it back to the portal and look to one another.

"You ready, buddy?" Peter asks him, using the nickname he used to call Grodd before the accelerator. "We can do this. Together."

"Grodd is ready." Grodd says.

"Then let's do this." Peter says as he and Grodd touch and Peter gets absorbed into Gorilla Grodd.

Separate, they can't escape. But together, as one, they can defeat Solovar.

-

"What's happening?" Fox asks, looking something is happening on the screen.

"Their pathways have just merged. Their brainwaves are literally the same." Caitlin says, completely confused how that's possible.

-

Grodd starts getting used to his new senses, powers, strength, speed, everything that was once Spider-Man's power. One more thing is his fur starts to morph into a Spider-Man like armor.

"_How does it feel?_" Peter asks in Grodd's mind...mind.

"It feels impossible." Grodd says.

"_Good_. _Now get ready. We're on the same team now._" Peter says as Solovar approaches.

"Grodd will never leave!" Solovar peomises.

"_You have my powers, Grodd. And my knowledge on their limitations._" Peter says.

"Grodd understands." Grodd says and raises his hands and uses webs to swing over and lands on top of Solovar.

-

"We've finished the neural connection." Fox says.

"Peter, can you hear me?" Caitlin asks.

"_Cait_?" Peter asks.

"We've been trying to get in contact with you. You're in Grodd's mind. Is he trying to hurt you?" Caitlin asks.

"_No, no. Grodd and I are on the same side. We merged ourselves to fight a gatekeeper we need to beat to escape._" Peter explained.

"And you need to work together to do that." Fox guesses.

-

Grodd uses Peter's senses to dodge Solovar's attacks and counterattacks.

"_You better hurry, buddy. The world is falling apart._" Peter warns him.

"Grodd thinks Spider power can save him." Grodd promises.

Solovar punches Grodd, sending him flying across the forest. Grodd flips around using Peter's acrobatics, but Solovar attacked.

Solovar slams Grodd and Grodd takes the opportunity to use his feet to stick to Solovar and throw him into the air.

Grodd shoots him with a web, pulls Solovar back towards them and punches him, taking him down.

Grodd then runs and leaps through the portal and the two separate at the last second.

-

Peter gasps awake and is back in his reality.

At ARGUS, Grodd also wakes up and is out of his mind prison.

-

"So, is Grodd gonna be a good guy, or is he gonna be some jungle hero?" Patty asks as they return to Star labs.

"Lyla had ARGUS embed a tracking polymer in his cerebellum. So he is out on probation, so if he goes bad again, we can find him." Peter tells them, knowing Grodd is going to be okay now.

It's strange for him. At the beginning, Grodd hatted him to the core. Now, he seems to be friends with him.

"I'm just glad you're okay." Caitlin says and rubs his back. "Ready to head home?"

"Yes, please." Peter says and the two begin leaving. "Hey, you wanna plan a vacation? Just us? Maybe bring Frankie along if you want."

"A nice long break, no villains, no monsters, no metas, only ocean and sand? I would love that." Caitlin agrees as they head home.

"_I'm on board._" Crystal agrees with the idea of a little vacationing.

-

Peter was in bed asleep when a voice rings in his ears, waking him up.

"_To__ anyone who can hear me. This is Ava Ayala. I need your help. If you can hear me, my brother Peter Parker, Spider-Man is in danger. Criminals from your realities have joined forces to create a Sinister Six. And my Peter can't take them by himself. He needs you. He helped you save the multiverse, now he needs you to return the favor. Please...find your fragment of the Siege Perilous, and help him._"

Peter quickly sits up and sees that it seems to only be him who's hearing the voice and follows the echoes through the apartment and sees it's coming from the Spider Cave.

He follows the voice and finds the shard of the Siege Perilous and it begins to glow when Peter suddenly vanishes.


	114. Spider versus Sinister Six

Earth-616

MJ has no idea how she got here, but she knows that it was Mysterio that brought her wherever she is.

Then all she sees is she's surrounded by webbing. Dark webbing.

She also knows she's more than likely being used as leverage for Peter. So she just needs to wait, knowing she can't move much until she gets off this webbing. Even if she survived the webbing, she would have to deal with the criminals.

Everyone on the ground watches and sees as Peter comes racing through the streets and swings towards the structure and up it.

He launches up, landing in the webbing and finds Michelle.

"MJ." Peter sighs and realizes something. "You are MJ, right? Not an illusion?"

"You're an idiot." MJ replies.

"Okay, it's you." Peter sees. "Okay, let's get you out of here."

"Look out!" MJ warns and Peter sees Venom come clashing into him and gets him in the webbing.

The monster removes his mask and Peter has no idea who this guy is.

"Hey, Parker. You're not my Parker. But I'm gonna enjoy killing you, and again, and again. Until we are through with all of you Spider-Men across the multiverse." Eddie says.

"I won't let that happen." Peter states and Venom webs him to the black webbing and their shaking is causing the webbing to break under MJ.

"You don't know what you did to me...but I will take everything from you. We all will." Venom promises.

MJ looks through the webbing and finds a metal bar and quickly slams it into Venom.

Peter breaks out of the webbing and punches Venom before MJ slips through the webbing.

Peter leaps and webs her hands to grab on to another piece of the webbing so she doesn't die.

Venom tackles Peter and the two begin o fall from the structure and start fighting in mid air.

Mysterio comes flying out and grabs Venom and Peter tries to swing away, but he ends up rolling against the floor covered in sand.

MJ crawls her way back up from Peter's web to the safety of the tangled web and it continues to snap on her as she tries to get safe.

"Hold on!" Peter says when he senses something behind him and dodges a sphere at the last second.

"You missed!" Scorpion informs Kraven.

"I never miss." Kraven says.

Peter gets ready to attack them, when the floor begins to move and Peter begins to get pulled as the Sandman forms him to be a gigantic creature, absorbing all the sand.

Peter quickly dodges his punch and sees MJ still holding on. He quickly swings around Sandman, but he gets immediately stopped by a missile sent from Green Goblin. It shoots him backwards into a pedestal of the structure and Kraven takes his sphere back and goes to stab him.

Peter gets back up and dodges the sphere, takes it from the Hunter and smacks him across the face with it. He quickly gets back up in the air and just about to reach MJ when Mysterio comes in and blasts him into the structure.

Venom webs him and throws him towards the edge where Peter sees Sandman waiting and growing even larger.

Before he could do anything else, Scorpion sneaks up behind him and stabs him in the back with poison as Venom wrapped a web around his neck and drops him on the floor.

Sandman goes in and slams his gigantic fist into Peter.

"I told you, Parker. This is how your story ends." Goblin states.

Above, MJ sees him getting crusted and beaten.

"Come on, Peter. Please...get up."

-

On the Zephyr, They're watching the footage and are all getting nervous.

"Come on, Pete. Get up." Natasha pleads.

"Come on, kid." Coulson pleads.

-

"_It's haed to believe what's happening. The brutality of it._" The news says as the Barton family is watching, praying he's going to be okay. "_I...I don't know how he can take any more_."

"Come on. Get up, Pete." Clint pleads.

-

Peter tries his best to rip through the webbing, but the poison did something to him...Kraven must've known what to use to hurt him.

"Come...on...Peter...come on, Spider-Man..." Peter tries encouraging himself to stand, knowing he can't die here.

This isn't how his story ends.

This can't be.

After everything he's been through, this can't be how it ends.

He tries to stand up, only for his face to get crushed by Sandman's fist once again, making him start to feel his body get crusted.

Sandman goes in for the final strike when something pricks him on the neck.

Looking closer it looks like a...decimator missile?

The missile explodes, sending Sandman falling to the ground.

"What?!" Mysterio questions when a blast comes sending him and Venom flying.

A strong energy shock, drops Kraven and someone comes in swinging, kicking Goblin off his glider.

Peter starts breathing normally again when he looks and sees...its them.

All the Spider-People he helped when he first traveled the multiverse.

Petra Parker, Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker; Guardian of the Galaxy, the Peter Parker who helped the Flash, the Iron-Spider who works with Supergirl.

"You guys came?" Peter asks as Super-Peter holds his hand out and Peter stands back up with his help.

"You saved us, we save you." Gwen says.

"And it looks like we got here just in the nick of time." Petra says.

"A couple of minutes ago wouldn't have killed you, would it?" Peter asks.

"We got your sister's message like a minute ago, man." Spider-Flash says.

All of their senses go off as the Sinister Six start reforming and see the squad.

"Well, well, well." Goblin says. "If it isn't, Parker, Parker, Parker, Stacy, Parker, _and_ Parker-Coulson. All the spiders in a row."

"You boys and girls saved us the trouble of coming to you." Scorpion informs them.

"Now you shall all meet your demise." Kraven promises, swinging his sphere.

"Let me guess, you're the Sinister Six?" Guardian-Peter guesses.

"Yeah, well, we are the...Web Warriors." Peter-Flash states.

"Finish them!" Mysterio says.

"Brainy, can you read us?"Peter-Guardian asks.

-

Brainy just made it to the Zephyr where everyone knows him.

"Loud and clear, Spider-Man...Spider-Man's...Spider-people?" Brainy questions with all the different Spider's. "I estimate that the six of you will have a 39% chance of surviving this."

-

"Brainy, we need to talk about your sharing information." Super-Peter says.

"You truly believe that the six of you can beat all I'd us?!" Scorpion questions when he's shot in the back by a taser arrow and they see the Spider-Arrow is here.

"Make that seven!" Peter-Arrow says before joining the others. "Sorry I'm late."

"Well, look at this. Now it's seven little spiders sitting in a row." Goblin mocks. "Kill them!"

"Flyers, grab a hand." Peter-Guardian says and they grab the heroes who can't fly, spin them around and throw them at the villains.

Peter-Arrow and Peter-Guardian go taking on Sandman and starts burning him to turn him into glass.

Peter-Flash goes after Venom after dealing with him dozens of times.

Spider-Gwen goes to take on Kraven.

Super-Peter goes to fight Mysterio and learns quickly they're just drones and blasts them.

"Brainy, hack into these drones' signal, lock onto his real location." He asks Brainy whiile fighting off the illusions.

The original Peter and Petra go after the glider freak together.

Petra goes swinging after the Goblin when he leads her into a trap as Sandman reaches out for her.

Spider-Guardian flies in and gets her out of the way and they all get back to their enemies.

Above, MJ starts slipping as the structure becomes unstable.

"Spider's! We've got trouble uptown!" Gwen warns everyone and they look to see MJ is in trouble.

Petra and Peter destroy the glider and web Goblin to the ground.

"Go get your girl." Petra tells Peter who doesn't need to be told twice. He runs and starts leaping up the structure as fast as he can.

On his way up, the other Spiders pass him around to help him get up faster when Peter-Guardian gets him and flies him up while carrying him on his back and they fly past Sandman's reach.

MJ holds on as long as she can and then slips.

The two spiders quickly turn around and fly to her.

"Can't this thing go any faster?!" Peter asks his doppelgänger.

"Hang on!" Peter-Guardian warns.

"To what!?" Peter asks, he's holding onto his suit's back, there's not much to hold onto.

Peter-Guardian starts flying faster and they almost get stopped by the Sinister Six, but the other Spiders keep them back.

"Go Get her, kid!" Iron-Peter tells him.

"Got her!" Peter says and leaps down, not making the same mistake he made with Gwen and catches MJ and swings her off.

-

"YES!" Deke and Brainy cheer at once inside the Zephyr.

"That was...a little louder than I anticipated." Brainy admittedly.

"I was on the edge of my seat." Deke defends.

-

Peter swings MJ in and stops with her in his arms.

"You okay?!" Peter asks.

"Yeah, yeah. You saved me. That was amazing, Tiger." MJ tells him.

"Thanks." Peter says, happy to have been able to save the girl he loves this time.

"I knew you'd find a way." MJ says and hugs him.

"Hey, lover kids!" Peter-Arrow shouts.

They look over to see Venom leaping at him when he shoots a sonic arrow, sending Venom toppling.

"We could use the assist!" Peter-Arrow yells.

Peter looks to MJ and knows he can't just leave her when Petra comes swinging in.

"I'll get her out of here." She peomises.

"Okay. Go with her, MJ." Peter asks and runs off to help and is almost instantly hit by Sandman.

Spider-Gwen dodges one of Kraven's attacks and was able to catch him off guard when Peter-Arrow sent a arrow to distract him and Gwen used his sphere to knock him out.

Peter was running from Mysterio who was blasting beams at him and Peter doesn't know if they're real or not so he's dodging them, giving them the time they need.

-

Beck himself is inside a warehouse near the fight to keep a strong signal in order to control the drones.

"You took everything from me! Now I am going to finally finish you off!" Beck promises.

"No. You won't." Someone says as a gun is raised to his back.

Nick Fury and Maria Hill were tipped off by Brainy about where he was and they were already on their way to see Peter when the attack happened.

"Shut down the drones." Hill tells him.

Beck tries to fight them off, but Fury shoots his dome helmet, shattering his connection.

-

Mysterio finally vanished leaving a drone which Peter-Arrow immediately destroyed.

Super-Peter flies around Sandman with Guardian-Peter and are both using their lasers on him.

"_Spider-Man, you will loose power before penetrating the crest of this Sandman._" Brainy informs him.

Super-Peter flies further from Sandman before making a U-turn.

"Hey, Brainy, you ever read the tale of Jonah?" Super-Peter asks.

"_Of course. Why?_" Brainy asks.

"Never tell Skirt what I'm about to do." He replies and warms up all of his missiles before diving straight inside of Sandman and blows him up from within, sending him toppling to the ground, defeated.

Arrow-Peter is fighting off Scorpion when he finally runs out of arrows and starts using his bow as a weapon on its own.

Scorpion was able to fight him off and stabs him with his tail in his right shoulder and he grunts in pain.

"At least I get to kill one Spider-Man." Scorpion looks on the plus side when he's suddenly smashed in the head by Peter-Flash.

"Whoo...how many is that?" He asks and drops to the ground next to Arrow. "So I'm Oliver Queen in another life? Called it."

"Who the hell is Oliver Queen?" Arrow-Peter ask.

"I'll explain later." Peter-Flash says out of breath.

They all then run down to Iron-Peter and see he's alive as he removes his mask.

"Thank god that worked. Skirt would've killed me if I died after coming back to life." Super-Peter says.

"Is that it?" Petra asks.

"I think so." Gwen confirms as she's holding the sphere and is out of breath.

"That was a workout." Peter-Guardian says.

"We won." Peter-Arrow confirms.

Super-Peter sighs and lays down. "Okay, great guys. Good work, Web Warriors. Let's not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. You ever been to Tahiti? I hear it's relaxing, a real magical place. I think we could all use a vacation after everything."

"We're not finished yet." Peter says and they all look up to the structure and knows there's one more they need to detain.

Back on top of the structure, Norman pries off his mask as it's so beaten in, he can't see through it and starts crawling away when he feels something off.

He turns and sees all of the Spiders above him.

Arrow-Peter is holding one more arrow he grabbed on the way up and is holding it near his face ready to release if he makes the wrong move.

Gwen is holding the sphere in her hands defensively.

Petra has her hands crossed in anger.

Super-Peter has his gauntlet raised and mask off.

Guardian-Peter is holding his mask in his hands while standing next to Peter who is glad to finally have this over with.

"I have the feeling I can't blame all of this on Goblin again, can I?" Norman guesses seeing he's finaly caught.

The heroes all smile and see the battle against the Sinister Six is done.

And they're the victorious ones.

-

The next day, the news is exploding over the fact of all the villains and are all cheering them for their heroines and saving the girl.

The Sinister Six were all brought to the Raft where they will never see the light of day as long as they live.

All of the Spiders and MJ returned to the Zephyr to say their goodbyes.

"This is too many Peter Parker's in the same room." Hill comments on the seven Spider heroes.

"Well, we gotta get going home anyways. We left a lot of questions that need answering." Peter-Flash tells them.

"Yes, of course." Brainy says and walks up to his Peter. "We must return home at once. There's no telling how many things have gone wrong with our absence."

"It was nice seeing you all." Gwen says.

"Oh! Wait. I think you want these." Guardian-Peter says as he pulls out the shard of the Seige Perilous and everyone does the same.

"You know what? Keep it." Peter tells his doppelgängers. "If you ever need help, you can contact us." He offers.

"Thanks, kid." Super-Peter says and opens a breach back to National City. "See you guys around." He says before he and Brainy leave.

"Remember, you're not alone." Peter-Flash says as he goes into his portal back to Central City.

"See ya around. Gotta say, female Michael Jones. Never gonna get that image out of my mind." Petra says, thinking of her boyfriend as she leaves back to her New York.

"Well, it was nice being back in the old saddle." Arrow-Peter says gesturing to his suit. "But I've got retirement, a wife and a daughter waiting for me." He says and leaves back to his family.

One by one, they say their farewells and leave to their universes.

"Our lives are weird." May says.

"Super weird." Coulson agrees.


	115. Epilogue

Caitlin was fidgeting nervously. Patty, Kara, Morg'Ann, and May were in her room helping her get ready. They all saw the nervousness on her face but only Kara managed to speak.

"You ok?" Kara asked, looking at the fidgeting bride.

"Yeah, I think it's true what they say. You always get cold feet before a wedding...no matter how much you love the person you're tying your life to." Caitlin responded with a nervous smile on her face.

"Everyone gets cold feet. Now just think about your life with Peter yet to happen." Patty told her.

Caitlin allowed her mind to drift off into the distance. The two helping people around the city, the good Parker Industries is doing for the world, them on a porch looking at the sunset while kids ran around and Cisco got swarmed by mosquitos trying to play with them. The shivers suddenly stopped and she smiled brightly.

"I see that helped." the blonde replied. After that small thinking exercise, her eyes lost their doubt and held the conviction she knew Caitlin had in marrying the man of her dreams.

"Yes, thank you. That helped a lot. More than you might imagine." Caitlin replied while the woman was making sure her hair was done. She chose a simple hairdo, but something she knew Peter loved, her long chestnut locks were framing her face, her hair was let down and the veil covered it beautifully. As per request the veil had small light blue snowflakes on it that brought out her complexion more for Crystal.

-

The time for the wedding was nearing.

Harry and May took it upon themselves to direct the guests to their places. All of the people they invited were here, their small group of friends, the heroes from around the world Peter knew, some employees that they knew personally from Parker Industries. They all sat down and the wedding procession started.

Peter even got his doppelgänger to use his singing voice one final time.

"_I won't say forever. So I won't ever say is through. 'Cause maybe if I try to leave it all behind, I'll find a journey back to you._ _We may be out of time together. But I got nothing left to lose. So maybe if I try to leave it all behind, I'll find a journey back to you. Back to you."_ Peter-NC sings as the ceremony starts. _"I won't ever say forever. No, I won't ever say it's trough. 'Cause maybe if I try to leave it all behind, I'll find a journey back to you._"

Then there was Caitlin coming down the aisle with Thomas. Nobody had even seen the dress she was wearing except the bridesmaids.

She was stunning, fact that was obvious considering some of the people at the wedding were simply frozen at the beauty of the bride in front of them. Among them was a certain spider hero who left his mouth to fall while she was walking toward him. Enough to warrant a warning from Cisco who took it upon himself to keep an eye on the man to whisper him.

"Close your mouth, man. You'll have your whole life to gawk at your wife." Cisco told his friend as he did so immediately when he realized what his face looked like.

Thomas dropped Caitlin off near Peter and went to his place.

The two just stared into each other's eyes, ignoring the rest of the world and almost missed their vows.

"My entire life has been marked by one thing. Change. From when I was a kid to when I was an adult, things were always changing. But then, when my life changed the most drastically, I found the one thing my life _became_. And that's you. You were always there. As my friend, and as my partner. As my doctor, my confidant, my strength and...the love of my life. You're my home, Cait. And that's one thing that will never change. I will always come back to you. Nothing will stand in my way from finding my journey back to you." Peter told her, speaking his heart to her.

Caitlin sniffed, blinking a couple of times and glancing at the ground. "That was really nice," she said, voice catching a little. "I really should have learned to not let you go first on these things." Causing everyone to chuckle. "At first, after everything in our world changed, I was alone, and I lost everything. And then suddenly I had you back. Someone I knew I could share my happiness, also my deepest fears with and who meant to me more than life itself. You have always have been beside me. In every area of my life, Peter Parker has somehow affected it. He's managed to make me better, in the way I think and act and love and live my life, and I don't think he's ever going to stop. And I am... so happy, and _excited_," Caitlin's voice wobbled, tears building in her eyes. "And so very, _very_ blessed to become your wife." She then looks around the room and sees everyone in her life with a smile on their faces. "I have everything and everyone that I could ever need right here. And...if the events of the past several years lead us to this moment, it was all worth it." She finished speaking her mind, her voice almost cracking at the end, to the audience which about halfway in through her speech realized that she didn't even have some kind of notes with her. Everything that was said was from her heart.

"_Great speech._" Crystal tells Caitlin.

Peter reached down, taking Caitlin's hands. For one second, her eyes flickered blue, and Crystal sent him a wink which he sent a smirk smile in return.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may miss the bride."

The bride kissed him.

-

In a back room, a familiar red and black suited hero is playing with dolls.

"Ah, I'm the Flash. And I like to rewrite the timeline for my own personal gain!" Deadpool starts acting like Barry shaking a Flash action figure. "'Yeah? Well, I'm Spider-Man. And I'm better than you!' 'Hey, guys, comedic reference!'" He shook a Cisco figure.

As he was playing with them, the door opens and Blade comes in and Wade hides the figures.

"Sorry! I was looking for the bathroom." Blade apologizes.

"Knock next time!" Wade tells him.

"Sorry." Blade apologizes and starts leaving.

"Did you see anything?" Wade asks before he left.

"No, Wade, I didn't see you playing with your dolls again." Blade promises.

"Good!" Wade says as Blade leaves.

-

15 years later

An armed robbery is taking place as they try to get out as fast as possible when someone comes flying in and webs them all and slams into their car.

Anjelica Parker stands tall with a red and yellow suit and a mask that covers her eyes and nose, leaving her lips and her raven black hair flowing.

Her symbol is a mixture of Supergirl and Iron-Spider as it's the shape of an hourglass with an black outline and a yellow filling, yellow gloves and boots made out of nanotechnology.

"Hey there, boys, going somewhere?" Anjelica asks. "Yeah, you are, prison." She mocks and flips onto the ground. "It's great having a morning workout like this."

Her senses suddenly go off and she dodged a bullet from backup and she speeds over to him using her super speed and punches him, knocking him out cold.

"Couldn't have been born with bulletproof skin, could'nt I?" Anjelica asks.

She has all of her dad's abilities; super strength, agility, flexibility, healing, and just about everything except for his Harun-El abilities. From her mom, she has flight, X-Ray vision, super-hearing, but no ice breath, heat vision or even bulletproof skin.

She then hears a breaking and entering and she takes off to stop them.

As she flies over everyone, she hears people cheering her on.

Super-Arachnid.

When she arrived at the crime scene, a red strike of lightning comes in and she spins around to see a familiar face wearing an yellow from above and red from the shoulders down suit with a lightning theme and yellow belt around her waist.

"XS, what did we talk about?" Anjelica asks her friend.

"Oh, leave the city criminals for you." Dawn Allen-Spivot recalls.

Anjelica's wondering what she's doing here when they see an ice slide and see the Rogue Squadron coming in swinging. "What's going on guys?" She asks her friends.

"Can't superheroes travel city's just wanting to hang out?" Tina Snow-Parker asks as she hangs upside down on a light pole.

"Yeah, nothings happening in our city. Came here to hang around. In her case, literally." Tommy says, nodding to his sister.

"You're not so good at the quips, bro." Tina breaks to her brother.

"_Guys, while you're here, how about you take down Juggernaut who seems to have escaped custody._" Alex asks through their comms.

"Oh, I've been wanting to take a crack at that guy for years." Dawn says and speeds off as everyone follows her.


End file.
